MovieChat Forums > The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) Discussion > Pretty Controversial when it came out

Pretty Controversial when it came out

posted 12 years ago by android_movie
8 replies | jump to latest

Given that this movie came out in 1970 and involved young girls and kids, it must have been very controversial to include all these explicit scenes of torture, nudity, etc. etc.

Show me the holes!

[–] sillyspaghetti 12 years ago

I reckon you're right. I watched it the other day and I found it very disturbing. The rape scene was particularly harrowing.

"Hey! Ladies! That was fun!"

[–] ElectricWarlock 11 years ago

Yes, some parts are even shocking watching them today. I can only imagine how shocking they must've been during the original release.

I've been waiting for you, Ben.

[–] lazarillo 9 years ago

It probably was somewhat controversial at the time, but it also shows what nincompoops people are these days.

People don't mind violence and will even laugh about it, but rape is regarded almost as if the filmmakers actually DID it. People get upset at children being in a bloody horror movie, even though in reality most of the younger children probably never actually KNEW they were in a bloody horror movie. Then there is 17-year-old Linda Hayden. Oh my god, you'd think nobody AT ANY POINTS IN THEIR LIVES, had ever seen a 17-year-old girl naked! And people (mostly American people) will get all upset about this about an "underage" girl being nude in a 40-year-old movie, but a girl less than a year older doing "ATM" gang-bang in an American-made XXX porno made YESTERDAY--oh, that's perfectly fine.

[–] pan-10 9 years ago

I agree with you, Lazarillo - and this is one terrific atmospheric movie, so what are people bitching about?

[–] PrimeMinisterOfTheSinister 8 years ago

Have you not seen a lot of 70's horror movies? Most of them are really messed up. People weren't whiny, pussies back in those days.

[–] jjk50 8 years ago

I agree, the R rated movies today look like they were made by Disney. They don't have the guts to show anything. Movies like this and The Conqueror Worm and Mark of the Devil are the only type worth watching, not the crap they make today.

[–] alucardvenom 8 years ago

Have you not seen a lot of 70's horror movies? Most of them are really messed up. People weren't whiny, pussies back in those days.

Thank you. People these days are such oversensitive whiners. It's almost like they look for something to be "offended". Yeah, it was kinda uncomfortable scene, but even 70s have seen much much worse, be it gore or sexual content.

I agree, the R rated movies today look like they were made by Disney. They don't have the guts to show anything. Movies like this and The Conqueror Worm and Mark of the Devil are the only type worth watching, not the crap they make today.

Yeah, I agree. I don't know half of the time why some movie got R rating. In most cases because it said word "fu*k" too many times.

Mark of the Devil is still strong meat. It's still quite unpleasant to watch as it was back in the VHS era.

[–] Wuchak (8100) 4 years ago

Pretty Controversial when it came out

It's creepy, realistic, unconventional and artistic, yet also tedious. But, yes, the rape scene remains unsettling.

However, it was preceded by non-horror films that were more unsettling and controversial, like Roger Corman's "The Wild Angels" from five years earlier, which features the bike gang beating up the kindly minister who performs the funeral of their dead comrade, as well as totally trashing his sanctuary (!). Then two of the bikers cruelly rape their dead comrade's girlfriend (!). To top it off, they outrageously abuse his corpse at the funeral party (!!).

"Last Summer" (1969) is another example, a (seemingly) teen beach drama.

So, while the rape scene in "Blood on Satan's Claw" is effectively unsettling to this day, other movies outside the horror genre had already paved the way with scenes just as controversial and arguably more so.