What do you think?
Rate this book
Blood On Satan's Claw
Listening Length 2 hours and 24 minutes
Seventeenth-century England, and a plough uncovers a grisly skull in the furrows of a farmer's field. The skull disappears, but its malefic influence begins to work in insidious ways upon the nearby village of Hexbridge. First, the cows stop milking and the fruit turns rotten on the trees. Then, an insolent ungodliness takes hold of the local children, mysterious fur patches appear on limbs and people start disappearing....
Something evil is stirring in the woods. Something that is corrupting the village youth, who retreat to the woodland deeps to play their pernicious games. Hysteria spreads as it becomes clear that the devil has come to Hexbridge, to incarnate himself on earth. Can the villagers, led by the Squire Middleton (Mark Gatiss) and Reverend Fallowfield (Reece Shearsmith), prevent the devil gaining human form?
This adaptation stars Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith, alongside the original film's Angel Blake, Linda Hayden. Gatiss and Shearsmith are both huge fans of the original film, even recording a commentary for the DVD release.
An Audible Original drama adapted from the original screenplay by horror writer Mark Morris, Blood on Satan's Claw stars Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Doctor Who, The League of Gentlemen), Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen), Alice Lowe (Sightseers, Prevenge), John Heffernan (Ripper Street, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Office), Thomas Turgoose (This Is England), Rebecca Ryan (Shameless) and Philip Hill-Pearson (Good Cop).
Seventeenth-century England, and a plough uncovers a grisly skull in the furrows of a farmer's field. The skull disappears, but its malefic influence begins to work in insidious ways upon the nearby village of Hexbridge. First, the cows stop milking and the fruit turns rotten on the trees. Then, an insolent ungodliness takes hold of the local children, mysterious fur patches appear on limbs and people start disappearing....
Something evil is stirring in the woods. Something that is corrupting the village youth, who retreat to the woodland deeps to play their pernicious games. Hysteria spreads as it becomes clear that the devil has come to Hexbridge, to incarnate himself on earth. Can the villagers, led by the Squire Middleton (Mark Gatiss) and Reverend Fallowfield (Reece Shearsmith), prevent the devil gaining human form?
This adaptation stars Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith, alongside the original film's Angel Blake, Linda Hayden. Gatiss and Shearsmith are both huge fans of the original film, even recording a commentary for the DVD release.
An Audible Original drama adapted from the original screenplay by horror writer Mark Morris, Blood on Satan's Claw stars Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Doctor Who, The League of Gentlemen), Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen), Alice Lowe (Sightseers, Prevenge), John Heffernan (Ripper Street, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Office), Thomas Turgoose (This Is England), Rebecca Ryan (Shameless) and Philip Hill-Pearson (Good Cop).
3 pages, Audible Audio
First published January 6, 2018
7 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Mark Morris
133 books239 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Mark Morris became a full-time writer in 1988 on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, and a year later saw the release of his first novel, Toady. He has since published a further sixteen novels, among which are Stitch, The Immaculate, The Secret of Anatomy, Fiddleback, The Deluge and four books in the popular Doctor Who range.
His short stories, novellas, articles and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and magazines, and he is editor of the highly-acclaimed Cinema Macabre, a book of fifty horror movie essays by genre luminaries, for which he won the 2007 British Fantasy Award.
His most recently published or forthcoming work includes a novella entitled It Sustains for Earthling Publications, a Torchwood novel entitled Bay of the Dead, several Doctor Who audios for Big Finish Productions, a follow-up volume to Cinema Macabre entitled Cinema Futura and a new short story collection, Long Shadows, Nightmare Light.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Mark Morris became a full-time writer in 1988 on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, and a year later saw the release of his first novel, Toady. He has since published a further sixteen novels, among which are Stitch, The Immaculate, The Secret of Anatomy, Fiddleback, The Deluge and four books in the popular Doctor Who range.
His short stories, novellas, articles and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and magazines, and he is editor of the highly-acclaimed Cinema Macabre, a book of fifty horror movie essays by genre luminaries, for which he won the 2007 British Fantasy Award.
His most recently published or forthcoming work includes a novella entitled It Sustains for Earthling Publications, a Torchwood novel entitled Bay of the Dead, several Doctor Who audios for Big Finish Productions, a follow-up volume to Cinema Macabre entitled Cinema Futura and a new short story collection, Long Shadows, Nightmare Light.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
July 10, 2023
Trying out some audiobooks because I got an Audible free trial with my new Amazon tablet. Of course I was always going to like this! Had it on in the background whilst I played video games 😅
Today I found out with my ADHD, I can enjoy audio stories more if I put it at a slightly high playback speed and if I’m doing something else at the same time.
Blood On Satan’s Claw is a slow burning folk-horror audio-drama, starring two of my all time favourite actors, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith. Also the great Alice Lowe.
The cast build up the sense of dread excellently. Towards some horrifyingly devilish moments.
Something evil is stirring in the woods…
3.6 Stars 👹
tw:// description of attempted SA
Today I found out with my ADHD, I can enjoy audio stories more if I put it at a slightly high playback speed and if I’m doing something else at the same time.
Blood On Satan’s Claw is a slow burning folk-horror audio-drama, starring two of my all time favourite actors, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith. Also the great Alice Lowe.
The cast build up the sense of dread excellently. Towards some horrifyingly devilish moments.
Something evil is stirring in the woods…
3.6 Stars 👹
tw:// description of attempted SA
October 30, 2020
What a great production!
May 29, 2019
The performances in this audio book were great, but the story was unsatisfying for me. It's mostly just people dying one after the other but without much mystery as to why or how.
July 5, 2024
Anything that involves Mark Gatiss commands my full attention immediately.
Add Reece Shearsmith, and I have to have it!
A wonderfully creepy dramatisation...
Add Reece Shearsmith, and I have to have it!
A wonderfully creepy dramatisation...
October 5, 2024
Good entertainment.
A rather predictable and well-used plot made into something quite special by an oustanding cast; Gatiss, Shearsmith, Ineson, Alice Lowe, and more..
A rather predictable and well-used plot made into something quite special by an oustanding cast; Gatiss, Shearsmith, Ineson, Alice Lowe, and more..
February 22, 2018
This was bloody fantastic, without doubt the best audio drama I’ve listened to and a ridiculous amount of fun! I didn’t know until after I’d finished listening that this was originally a film from the 70s, and it feels like one (in a good way). It’s got a folksy yet Hammer Horror style to it, making it endearingly enjoyable. Without such a strong cast it might not have been so good but every single person involved did a fantastic job.
I decided to check this out as Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith were involved and they did a brilliant job but the rest of the cast such as Alice Lowe, John Heffernan, Ralph Ineson and Philip Hill-Pearson also made this a joy to listen to.
The story could have come across as silly but Mark Morris adapted this really well and a strong cast brought everything together to create an old school horror tale that I’ll undoubtedly return to again in the future.
I decided to check this out as Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith were involved and they did a brilliant job but the rest of the cast such as Alice Lowe, John Heffernan, Ralph Ineson and Philip Hill-Pearson also made this a joy to listen to.
The story could have come across as silly but Mark Morris adapted this really well and a strong cast brought everything together to create an old school horror tale that I’ll undoubtedly return to again in the future.
June 26, 2018
A little Naughtiness and a lot of Cornball to go with your Fully Loaded Nacho's with this one. I believe this is a audio only treatment and Audible does a pretty good job with the production values but Mark Morris evidently knows how to write over his head comedy as far as dialog is concerned. I like comedy but just not when the bloke doing it is oblivious to it.
2 slapstick stars outta 5 Zippo Marx's.
2 slapstick stars outta 5 Zippo Marx's.
September 14, 2018
I'm partial to these rural horror stories about communities collectively engaging with the devil, but not necessarily when they take the premise so straightforwardly as this. This audio drama has a very nice soundscape and better acting than most audiobooks, and on a scene to scene level the writing is good enough. The problem is that overall, despite the witchy trappings, it has the mentality of a very unimaginative slasher movie. The devil possesses practically all of the kids in town almost immediately, and the middle 80% is just a sequence of the same "kid getting murdered" scene playing out over and over again without much escalation or character building or mythology to build a more interesting context for them to fit into. It relies heavily on familiar tropes to get right into its business and get right out of it as soon as it's time to stop, without any particular narrative tissue in between. Moreover, while there are some kind of neat touches, a lot of the specific expression of the devil is either boring, problematic, or just dull. My favorite part about the community aspect of these stories is that the devil gets to be a social lever exploiting internal conflicts and prejudices, and this devil has exactly 0 of that subtlety or charisma.
As a radio drama it's kind of like just listening to a movie without seeing in the images, and while that could be an improvement over some movies with bad visuals, and the soundscape does help suggest imaginations that might be better than a mediocre VFX department would cook up, it really fails to carry the climax. That scene just doesn't work in this format and it makes the ending feel even less satisfying than it might otherwise (although the final epilogue interview is stronger than most of the rest of the play).
As a radio drama it's kind of like just listening to a movie without seeing in the images, and while that could be an improvement over some movies with bad visuals, and the soundscape does help suggest imaginations that might be better than a mediocre VFX department would cook up, it really fails to carry the climax. That scene just doesn't work in this format and it makes the ending feel even less satisfying than it might otherwise (although the final epilogue interview is stronger than most of the rest of the play).
December 10, 2024
Yeah...I don't know. I am definitely intrigued by the full production audible originals but...I don't know. This is a kinda Salem witch trials meets Dracula meets The Exorcist vibe. I think this leaned a bit too heavily on the cinematic side and not enough on the storytelling side. The actors were great, the overall plot was fine, and the story was interesting, so nothing made me want to DNF—BUT, I feel like something was missing that was sacrificed from the story for the production.
This prob don't make no dang sense, but yeah.
This prob don't make no dang sense, but yeah.
February 13, 2024
I first listened a couple of years ago and I decided to re-listen when I got Audible again, for the month as I had a free trial.
'Blood on Satan's Claw' is based on the 1971 horror film. The audio sounds like an old folktale and I loved the use of sound and music to help add to eerie atmosphere. The story very much stays the same set 1700s and the horror is linked to sexually active woman. The adaptation has added a lot more to the human element of the story that the film lacked.
I think the audio is one of my favourite I have listened to from Audibles' Original Dramas.
'Blood on Satan's Claw' is based on the 1971 horror film. The audio sounds like an old folktale and I loved the use of sound and music to help add to eerie atmosphere. The story very much stays the same set 1700s and the horror is linked to sexually active woman. The adaptation has added a lot more to the human element of the story that the film lacked.
I think the audio is one of my favourite I have listened to from Audibles' Original Dramas.
March 24, 2021
Outfreakingstanding.
October 5, 2019
Set in the 17th century, a cult of teenage evil-worshippers attempt to bring a demon back to life. Very intense :)
September 29, 2022
Really enjoyed this .
September 14, 2018
Back in ye times of old a group of teen aged village-folk, referred to as 'the children', find a creepy skull in the fields. Creepy happenings ensue as the devil manifests parts of his skin in the bodies of the children, especially the 'naughty' ones, so that he can be summoned bodily on earth.
As wonderfully chilling as some of this book might have been, I felt that the characters and lore let it down for me. For the most part of the book it seems like only the children can come under the influence of devil possession. If innocence is your criteria for selection, Satan, then why are you choosing the ones who are framed as most wicked? Maybe in this world wickedness is actually measured by your view of yourself and how distant you see yourself from God? Either way, none of the characters start as evil and instigate any reason for being possessed in the first place. While this strengthens the horror of 'nobody is safe', it also means that there is very little nuance in the series of events and the characters are not much more than a bunch of people who want to marry/date each other. The squire was my favorite character. He stubbornly reasoned against the presence of the supernatural and, in the fashion of the horror genre, was left for the worse after his conflict.
Maybe a satisfactory audio-play for a dark Samhain night.
As wonderfully chilling as some of this book might have been, I felt that the characters and lore let it down for me. For the most part of the book it seems like only the children can come under the influence of devil possession. If innocence is your criteria for selection, Satan, then why are you choosing the ones who are framed as most wicked? Maybe in this world wickedness is actually measured by your view of yourself and how distant you see yourself from God? Either way, none of the characters start as evil and instigate any reason for being possessed in the first place. While this strengthens the horror of 'nobody is safe', it also means that there is very little nuance in the series of events and the characters are not much more than a bunch of people who want to marry/date each other. The squire was my favorite character. He stubbornly reasoned against the presence of the supernatural and, in the fashion of the horror genre, was left for the worse after his conflict.
Maybe a satisfactory audio-play for a dark Samhain night.
January 19, 2018
Always a bit of a bleak one, even as a hammer film this is a well executed audio-play with solid horror roots, but for me not enough grisly though throughout it it grim.
Sometimes, and I admit rare, audio manages to instil in the listener pure horror and disgust. This doesn’t, it try’s but just can’t get that magic moment. This for me detracts from what is a solid enough story of a village under the thrall of some kind of evil... people going missing and people running mad... and the children... the children.
A little hard going at first as it is just such a desolate setting (as in the film), that builds into an enjoyable and gripping story, from the middle to the end is the best part. The end I love and it keeps its overall feeling of hopelessness. The devil wins no matter what, you cannot stop the devil. Nicely done. Could do with a little sprinkle of humour there just to offset the dark.
Overall enjoyed.
Sometimes, and I admit rare, audio manages to instil in the listener pure horror and disgust. This doesn’t, it try’s but just can’t get that magic moment. This for me detracts from what is a solid enough story of a village under the thrall of some kind of evil... people going missing and people running mad... and the children... the children.
A little hard going at first as it is just such a desolate setting (as in the film), that builds into an enjoyable and gripping story, from the middle to the end is the best part. The end I love and it keeps its overall feeling of hopelessness. The devil wins no matter what, you cannot stop the devil. Nicely done. Could do with a little sprinkle of humour there just to offset the dark.
Overall enjoyed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2019
I absolutely love Mark Gatiss so when I read he was in this adaption I bought it. As other reviewers have said it really is like a Hammer production (the film scared me no end when I was a child in the 70's). The music, sound effects, drama etc were good but the story itself was rather mediocre. I'm not faulting it exactly just that it didn't grab me or chill me to the bone but it did fill an hour or two while I was doing mundane housework.Lots of screaming...
September 21, 2020
I'm not a fan of period horror. I find the historical aspects/backdrop get in the way of the story. That's true here. There's too many unlikeable and repressed characters that weigh the story down. I should say I wasn't a fan of the movie this audio drama was based upon so I wasn't the best audience for this story.
January 25, 2021
Not a very compelling story. Some things didn't logically lead from one to the other. They missed opportunities to really ratchet up the awfulness of the medieval religious fervor, but I guess you can give them props for not doing what I expected. And overall the story was not the most original. The performances were pretty good though.
January 22, 2018
Nasty. A quality rendering of a grisly English folk tale. A change from limp and formulaic American horror stories. This audio performance takes you into the muck and fear of a village in the middle ages and you feel scared and sticky at the end. A quality performance.
May 25, 2018
I listened to the audiobook and let me tell you it is not one to listen too at night alone. This is a disturbingly well written religious based horror book. If you enjoy horror I think this will be a good quick read, if however you are a scardey cat I don't recommend it.
September 20, 2022
I have to say this audiobook was well done but the story was … pretty weak. It lead nowhere. All that happened was one person dying after another. And all the teenagers just made me mad. I didn’t like this one at all.
May 15, 2018
I absolutely enjoyed this an amazing take on a classic cult horror film. Brilliant thought the voice acting in this was amazing. Would definitely recommend
July 3, 2018
Very scary and sinister. It is a short story/novella/play, so was very fast paced and punchy.
July 4, 2018
Horrifying
I never want to see the film
I never want to see the film
October 14, 2018
I remember the film clean been less Am- dram in particular the characters of angel and her father. It again falls into the category of the original been far better and the remake limping behind.
October 7, 2019
It's ok. Well acted but just ok.
September 28, 2020
This was fine to listen to but it wasn't much different than watching the film but with some extra foley work.
November 17, 2020
Meh. It was ok. It has a full cast so it reads like a production instead of an audiobook. It kinda reminded me of Carmilla so if you liked that then you may like this.
December 8, 2025
peak audio, peak cast, peak storyline, peak ending
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews