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ciwifrukt's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
barry_x's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is okay I guess. A fun quick read, but not something I was particularly 'wowed' with.
This book is a novelisation of the classic folk-horror film, 'The Blood on Satan's Claw' written fifty years later by the original screen play writer. If you've seen the film then you're probably the target audience for this and it's fun reading along waiting for all the bits you remember from the film to crop up and the novel does expand on the film in quite a few ways to give the reader a little more context.
The downside, is that I don't think this is a particularly well edited novel. The individual scenes can be quite creepy and scary and the book pushes the right buttons, it's just that as a novel, it expects the reader to fill in a lot of the gaps. That's okay with a movie, but with a book you need to engage a little deeper. The book suffers a little with logical holes in 'time and place' and characters appearing several miles away from what seems possible. Likewise, a lot of important action and activities occurs 'off-screen', which again works in a film to an extent but in the book there are huge leaps where things are obviously happening in between. I'm not sure, but the mystery and uncertainty sometimes feels a little jarring rather than pulling you deeper in. Sometimes I think books are too long, but this is one where I think another fifty or so pages would have made it a great novel.
My other complaint is that paragraphs quickly change focus or seem to be describing totally different events and don't flow together well. For instance the first paragraph may be a character looking in a barn, and the next one describes a meeting in a city between two other characters. Even the word, 'meanwhile' would do a lot of lifting here!
Onto the positives - yes, this book does describe a late 17th century rural village really well. We have the unknown but ever present threat of superstition and pagan practices and good old devil worship. We have witchfinder authority figures, who never really come across as the good guys either. There are quite a few scenes which are creepy without being gratuitous.
(there is a certain infamous scene in the film which is depicted quite differently in the book - violence, and sexual violence particularly is largely implied or depicted as happening off screen)
The depiction of Angel Blake is superb! Anyone familiar with the film will be aware of Linda Hayden's performance in this film. It's quite shocking how she portrayed both virginal innocence and malevolent devil worshipping hate and seduction so well, when she was 17 when this was filmed. Maybe it is the power of Linda Hayden fifty years later but Angel says little, but she is depicted as the sweet little 15 year old model student to evil witch running a village's Satanic rites with ease. It's a testament to the author to hook into this so well.
The hardback is presented brilliantly and the illustrations in the book are beautiful - worth adding a star on for them. They perfectly capture the mood of the book.
The ending felt a little flat to be honest, almost as though there was no easy way out. I wouldn't say I was disappointed but I think giving it five stars would be because I like the film more than the book.
This book is a novelisation of the classic folk-horror film, 'The Blood on Satan's Claw' written fifty years later by the original screen play writer. If you've seen the film then you're probably the target audience for this and it's fun reading along waiting for all the bits you remember from the film to crop up and the novel does expand on the film in quite a few ways to give the reader a little more context.
The downside, is that I don't think this is a particularly well edited novel. The individual scenes can be quite creepy and scary and the book pushes the right buttons, it's just that as a novel, it expects the reader to fill in a lot of the gaps. That's okay with a movie, but with a book you need to engage a little deeper. The book suffers a little with logical holes in 'time and place' and characters appearing several miles away from what seems possible. Likewise, a lot of important action and activities occurs 'off-screen', which again works in a film to an extent but in the book there are huge leaps where things are obviously happening in between. I'm not sure, but the mystery and uncertainty sometimes feels a little jarring rather than pulling you deeper in. Sometimes I think books are too long, but this is one where I think another fifty or so pages would have made it a great novel.
My other complaint is that paragraphs quickly change focus or seem to be describing totally different events and don't flow together well. For instance the first paragraph may be a character looking in a barn, and the next one describes a meeting in a city between two other characters. Even the word, 'meanwhile' would do a lot of lifting here!
Onto the positives - yes, this book does describe a late 17th century rural village really well. We have the unknown but ever present threat of superstition and pagan practices and good old devil worship. We have witchfinder authority figures, who never really come across as the good guys either. There are quite a few scenes which are creepy without being gratuitous.
(there is a certain infamous scene in the film which is depicted quite differently in the book - violence, and sexual violence particularly is largely implied or depicted as happening off screen)
The depiction of Angel Blake is superb! Anyone familiar with the film will be aware of Linda Hayden's performance in this film. It's quite shocking how she portrayed both virginal innocence and malevolent devil worshipping hate and seduction so well, when she was 17 when this was filmed. Maybe it is the power of Linda Hayden fifty years later but Angel says little, but she is depicted as the sweet little 15 year old model student to evil witch running a village's Satanic rites with ease. It's a testament to the author to hook into this so well.
The hardback is presented brilliantly and the illustrations in the book are beautiful - worth adding a star on for them. They perfectly capture the mood of the book.
The ending felt a little flat to be honest, almost as though there was no easy way out. I wouldn't say I was disappointed but I think giving it five stars would be because I like the film more than the book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture, Rape, Violence, and Murder
ratgrrrl's review against another edition
2.0
I Really Wanted To Like This...
I loves me some horror and I'm an absolute sucker for a audio play, so with this, the cast, and how much fun I had with other schlocky (complimentary) Audible Originals, like Impact Winter, I thought this was practically made for me. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get on with it and DNF'd about 2/3-3/4 of the way through. I think the combination of it not feeling like it had much point or depth, which admittedly isn't always necessary for horror, but when a really gross misogynistic portrayal of 'promiscuous young women', including the calculated abusive use of fake sexual assault allegations, not to mention the casual sexual assault of a young man by one of these girls, became prevalent I needed something else. It's hardly surprising this story comes from a cult, but very mixed received movie from the seventies, and I am surprised more wasn't done to address the glaring issues in the original text. My own personal triggers around bullying and aural, but not emotional discomfort of the way screaming and other sound effects are mixed in this (turned up to 11 out of nowhere), also made the listening rather unpleasant.
I understand that Gatiss sees this story as an seminal work of folk horror, and maybe it is, but stories and attitudes have moved on from 'Something sinister happening in a unassuming place', or at least this concept needs to be elevated by the quality of the piece or whatever additional element added to it, as with things like Twin Peaks, The Witch, Apostle, Men, etc. Also, the misogyny should never have been acceptable and absolutely shouldn't be presented without something more in modern adaptations in my opinion.
The cast is great and, besides some issues with sound effects and varying degrees of appropriate cheesyness, is chock full of folx I normally really enjoy. I'm kinda gutted that this was such a miss for me.
I loves me some horror and I'm an absolute sucker for a audio play, so with this, the cast, and how much fun I had with other schlocky (complimentary) Audible Originals, like Impact Winter, I thought this was practically made for me. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get on with it and DNF'd about 2/3-3/4 of the way through. I think the combination of it not feeling like it had much point or depth, which admittedly isn't always necessary for horror, but when a really gross misogynistic portrayal of 'promiscuous young women', including the calculated abusive use of fake sexual assault allegations, not to mention the casual sexual assault of a young man by one of these girls, became prevalent I needed something else. It's hardly surprising this story comes from a cult, but very mixed received movie from the seventies, and I am surprised more wasn't done to address the glaring issues in the original text. My own personal triggers around bullying and aural, but not emotional discomfort of the way screaming and other sound effects are mixed in this (turned up to 11 out of nowhere), also made the listening rather unpleasant.
I understand that Gatiss sees this story as an seminal work of folk horror, and maybe it is, but stories and attitudes have moved on from 'Something sinister happening in a unassuming place', or at least this concept needs to be elevated by the quality of the piece or whatever additional element added to it, as with things like Twin Peaks, The Witch, Apostle, Men, etc. Also, the misogyny should never have been acceptable and absolutely shouldn't be presented without something more in modern adaptations in my opinion.
The cast is great and, besides some issues with sound effects and varying degrees of appropriate cheesyness, is chock full of folx I normally really enjoy. I'm kinda gutted that this was such a miss for me.
gratiamortis's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
tonyf78's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
leebass7's review against another edition
5.0
Really enjoyed this production of a classic horror! You can see the story’s influence on a lot of modern films (especially The Witch (Ralph Ineson also has a small part in this which is fantastic)).
- Full of creepy moments and sickening body horror
- Excellent performances
- Works really well as an audio production as it leaves a lot to your imagination
- Atmospheric music and sound effects
antlerspine's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
hwpw92's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
ripley1992's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I picked this book up because it sounded like it would be spooky and dark. The demonic themes are interesting and there are some genuinely shocking moments of horror. However overall I found the books writing style and characters to not be very engaging, or frightening. I also felt like it took much too long to get to the spooky part, which is over very abruptly. I really don’t feel it’s a worthwhile read if your looking for horror.