However, it’s important to note that while this book is entertaining, it is not literature and for the most part is best enjoyed a face-value read. However, following low ticket sales, the film was pulled from the theatre after showing for only one week. Tigon executives deemed this ending too bleak, and it was replaced with a finale in which the demon is defeated, and the villagers are spared. We get a chance to know the characters more and what motivated them and it all makes a lot more sense now.

Blood on Satan’s Claw is actually crowdfunded and there’s something very magical about a bunch of readers coming together and making a book happen. There are also some great illustrations by Richard Wells, who’s put a lot of effort into mimicking the style of a medieval woodcut. However within the book the depiction of the devil of the fields in all his glory is reminiscent of the medieval texts and does suit the purpose better. In hindsight the director Piers Haggard says that if he were to have done it now, he would have filmed the scene differently.Meanwhile, Peter Edmonton brings his fiancee, Rosalind Barton, to meet his aunt, Mistress Banham, with whom the judge is staying.

Widely regarded as one of the foundational 'Unholy Trinity' of folk horror film, The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) has been comparatively over-shadowed, if not maligned, when compared to Witchfinder General (1968) and The Wicker Man (1973). It is this utter corruption of innocence that I feel is the heart of Blood on Satan’s Claw and which gives both the film and book power. Outside of his television work, he makes and sells his own darkly folkloric artwork, often lino cut and hand-printed. The hardback is presented brilliantly and the illustrations in the book are beautiful - worth adding a star on for them.

Ce livre est donc la novélisation, par le scénariste original du film, Robert Wynne-Simmons, et magnifiquement illustré par Richard Wells, à la manière de gravures sur bois. Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised the performances in the film, adding that it has "a good deal of the quality of an H.