On the Edge of Reality

Lir Mac Cárthaigh travels to the margins of cinema to talk to cult filmmaker and genre pioneer Robert Wynne-Simmons.

In Robert Wynne-Simmons's films the world of the supernatural lurks beneath the veneer of the ordinary, emerging when the surface of the normal world is disturbed.

His first professional feature, Blood on Satan's Claw, is set in 17th Century rural England. The discovery of some unearthly remains leads to a spate of devil worship by the village children, led by the demonically-eyebrowed Angel Blake (Linda Hayden). The film was made for Tigon who, along with Amicus, were the main revals of Hammer Films in the œuvre of low-budget British horror. Although Blood on Satan's Claw is easy to pigeonhole with other British horror films of the late 1960s and early 1970s, it refuses to conform to the expected trappings of the genre. Traditionally, horror films draw a clear division between good and evil; Blood on Satan's Claw takes a somewhat more equivocal approach. The film has no hero to speak of and, while evil is vanquished, the final victory belongs to Patrick Wymark's unlikeable character The Judge, whose screen-time is so brief that he seems more of a force of nature than an individual.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 97