By Nick Mullins BBC Sport rugby union commentator

Following an end-of-season relegation tussle is much like watching a horror film.

How you feel about both depends entirely on your perspective.

They both look pretty unpleasant for members of the cast, but both provide fantastically ghoulish entertainment for everyone not directly involved.

There is an uneasy voyeurism about watching the horror of others, but how else can you account for an unprecedented interest in matches that would otherwise be mere footnotes at the end of the season?

This is what relegation has added to the season.

It is a harsh, uncompromising, uncomfortable concept - and that is precisely why it is making the dying embers of the domestic English season so utterly compelling.

Harlequins and Newcastle are probably heading away from the awful sound of the chainsaw after their magnificent wins against Leicester and Northampton over the weekend.

But for the goofy teenagers who blunder into the derelict house, read Saracens, Bath, London Irish and Bristol.

One of them will now surely get it in the neck at the end of the season.

Kyran Bracken and Saracens have endured a dreadful season

The biggest game Saracens have left will be their next, at home to Bristol.

Win and they should be safe. Lose and a trip to Newcastle and the visit of Sale may be the last Premiership action at Vicarage Road for a season at least.

Bath also have matches against Bristol and Newcastle to contemplate.

Should they lose at the Memorial Stadium, then the visit of Jonny Wilkinson and co on the final day will take on gargantuan proportions.

London Irish look to be the most vulnerable, particularly with a trip to Leicester up next. Although the way the Tigers are playing at the moment, anything remains possible.

It seems their final game of the season at home to Bristol will decide who is for the drop.

So rock bottom Bristol have it in their own hands, with their remaining matches against the three teams directly above them.

If they fail to prise a point or two from Sarries, Bath or the Irish then a traumatic season off the pitch will end traumatically on it.

While only one teenager usually escapes the teeth of the chainsaw, three Premiership teams will skip safely into the sunset whistling a cheery tune.

For the one team left all alone to cop the chop, the last few frames of the season promise to be equally gory.