Witchfinder General

Year: 1968 Director: Michael Reeves

The film is very loosely based around the escapades of a real witchfinder Matthew Hopkins who during his three year career from 1644 to 1647 executed up to 400 witches.

The story is set during the English Civil War. Cromwell's rebels are fighting the Kings own soldiers, and thankfully they are winning. The country meanwhile is in turmoil and within its state of religious flux, superstition and suspicion is rife. People are looking for explanations and excuses for the turmoil - none more so than in East Anglia. This is where Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price) plies his specialist trade of witchfinding. Hopkins and his henchman Mr Stearne roam the counties investigating reports of locals who believe they have witches in their midst. Usually there suspicions are made on the flimsiest grounds, but no matter, Hopkins is paid per pro for every execution of a witch, and he will gain an admission of guilt by torture, or if that fails by simply making one up. Then to prove the guilt Hopkins subjects the suspected witches to trial by ordeal - toss the suspect into a river if they float to the surface or swim then they are a witch, if they sink and drown they are innocent. The witches can then be hung or burned alive. Hopkins is informed that John Lowes, a local priest, is suspected of witchcraft and is sent to investigate. Hopkins gets his henchman to try to elicit the confession by the usual methods but Lowes does not confess. Lowes niece Sarah, uses her "feminine charms" on Hopkins in order that the torture is stopped and her uncle can be merely held in prison. This works for a short while, but when rumours reach Hopkins that Sarah has been cavorting with his Henchman Stearne (who has actually assaulted her), Hopkins orders John Lowes to be tried by ordeal, unsurprisingly he floats and he is put to death. When Sarah's fiance Richard Marshall (Ian Ogilvy) who is serving with Cromwell's army, gets to hear of the goings on, he returns with some Army colleagues, with the avowed intent of killing Hopkins and Stearne. But will Matthew Hopkins win the day again?

With the stories Hammeresque overtones this could have been an awful film. With the casting of Vincent Price in the lead role (against the director Michael Reeves wishes) it could similarly have headed towards the cheesy camp that so many british horror veered towards. Luckily Reeves steered the film in the right direction and made this an very honourable attempt at a true if quite unusual horror movie. Under Reeves direction Price disposes of the more camped up elements of his acting, and in playing it straight, managed to skillfully portray the hard and utterly ruthless character of Matthew Hopkins to perfection. Likewise Reeves was not afraid to show some of the most shocking scenes thus far in a British movie (scenes of stabbing, axe murdering, hanging and burning - all of which would be edited or completely cut by the British censor). Reeves hard edge also managed to focus the action towards genuine horror and the furtherance of the plot and away from over the top reactions to the violence taking place that feature so heavily in many a British horror movie. Visually the film looks rather good, it is rather austere in places and the obvious small budget of its independent backing has, in certain places, dictated the minimalist approach to the unfolding of the story. Given the expense of producing historical costume dramas, it is to the films credit that it doesn't impinge unduly on the progress of the story. In fact the only thing about the film that bugs me is the terrible dialogue dubbing of the character of Stearne (apparently the voice of the actor who appeared on screen was deemed unsuitable some weeks into shooting and so had to be re-dubbed by a voice artist during the films post -production). There are a few slightly different versions of the film. The recent DVD releases include the original pre-censored version of the movie, with the added violent bits restored to the cut (albeit the restored cuts are from an inferior print of the film and the differences between the quality is very noticeable - very similar to the restored directors cut of The Wicker Man). This is a minor quibble as the violence actually does add a lot to the overall film.

One other thing, if you like this film then try and get hold of a copy of Michael Reeves previous film The Sorcerers - although its something of a forgotten film in the British horror cannon, it is absolutely superb.

Witchfinder General features in our Interactive Haunted House of Horror guide to horror films and scary movies.

We have also hand selected 50 top horror movies to sell in our Horror Movie store in association with Amazon.com. alt-flix USA Horror store alt-flix UK Horror store