![]() In their novelization of The Wicker Man, for instance, Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer explicitly tie the deserted islands with their ruined churches, which Neil Howie sees beneath him as he flies to Summerisle, to the Scottish Clearances. All of these ruined churches, I argue, mark the movement of people they mark migration. Tanya Krzywinska has argued, for instance, that the “abandoned Christian churches” of folk horror signal “moral decay” (79-80). Perhaps most obviously, ruined churches represent Christianity under siege, whether it be from a decline in devotion or a competing belief system. Indeed, the central scene of ritual sacrifice in Satan’s Claw-the rape and murder of Cathy Vespers (Wendy Padbury)-as well as the culminating death of Angel Blake (Linda Hayden) both take place in this church. As Haggard recounts in an interview with David Taylor, he immediately “realised they had found the ideal place for the children to practice their rituals.” Haggard continues, “‘When I saw the old chapel-I don’t think the script said that they were in a ruined chapel or anything like that, they were just in the forest-I thought ‘Wow!’’” (Taylor 91). After the production team found Bix Bottom, a small valley in the Chiltern Hills, which they decided was a perfect location for the film, they scouted the surrounding area and found the ruined church of St James. And the ruined church is absolutely central to Piers Haggard’s The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971). ![]() ![]() The ruined or abandoned church features centrally, for instance, in The Witches (Cyril Frankel, 1966), The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973), Final Prayer (aka The Borderlands, Elliot Goldner, 2013), and The Third Day (Felix Barrett and Dennis Kelly, 2020). Much folk horror takes place amidst ruins. ![]()
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