Witchfinder General (1968)

Witchfinder General is a British horror film first released in 1968, directed by Michael Reeves.  The film is based on a novel by Ronald Bassett and stars Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Rupert Davies, Hilary Heath and Robert Russell.  It has also been released under the title: Edgar Allan Poe’s Conqueror Worm.  Our overall rating for this film is: excellent.


1645.  Amid the turmoil of the English Civil War, there are those who turn the breakdown in law and order to their advantage.  One such man is Matthew Hopkins, a lawyer who goes from village to village rooting out witches, helped by his sadistic henchman John Stearne.  Hopkins shows no mercy.  Once he has extracted a confession from his victims, he subjects them to a cruel and horrific death, earning himself a healthy fee as he does so.  Concerned for the safety of his niece Sara, the village priest John Lowes urges her future husband Richard Marshall, a young soldier in Cromwell’s army, to take her to a safer part of the country.  Lowes’ fears are soon borne out when Hopkins shows up and has him arrested for sorcery.  Sara tries to save her uncle by giving herself to Hopkins, but when Stearne rapes her, the witchfinder has Lowes executed.  Once he hears of this, Marshall is outraged and resolves to hunt Hopkins down and kill him.  After Marshall has made an attempt on his life, Hopkins uses his powers to have the vengeful Roundhead and his lover arrested.  By torturing Sara, Hopkins is sure he can compel Marshall to confess to witchcraft.  It seems that nothing will end his obscene reign of terror...

A true landmark in British cinema, Witchfinder General created an uproar when it was first released in the UK in May 1968 (a momentous month as it turned out).  Critics fell over themselves to condemn the film for its gruesome depictions of rape, mutilation and murder, and it has been conjectured that this onslaught may have contributed to the premature death of its director, 24-year-old Michael Reeves.  The film was years ahead of its time and most of the criticism it received was predictable reactionary froth.  The first truly visceral horror film, Witchfinder General was to influence not only the horror genre, but how violence was depicted in films more generally.  

Unimpressed by the theatricality of contemporary horror films, exemplified by Hammer’s Gothic horror series, Michael Reeves wanted to make a film that portrayed violent acts as they should be portrayed, not as titillating entertainment for mass audiences, but as something that is ugly, degrading and unspeakably vicious.  Despite the various cuts that were insisted upon by the British Board of Film Censors, Reeves still managed to include scenes of such explicit violence that he was painted in the popular press as a gratuitous sadist.  Although mild by today’s standards, the film’s unremitting barrage of vicious brutality still makes it a gruelling experience to sit through.  If it were not for the film’s visual poetry and the mesmerising performances from the principal cast, this film would be almost unendurable.

Ironically, given how highly the film is now regarded, few of those involved in the production of Witchfinder General believed it would amount to anything.  American International Pictures contributed £32,000 towards the film’s paltry £100,000 budget as a tax write-off.  Tigon Productions, the small British company that made the film, had yet to release its first film, The Blood Beast Terror (1968), and so was an unknown quantity.  Director Michael Reeves had made just two films, the most recent being the shoestring budget horror flick The Sorcerers (1967).  Rightly, Witchfinder General should have come and gone without anyone noticing.  Reeves was determined to prove otherwise.

The film is based on Ronald Bassett’s 1966 novel of the same title, which was itself inspired by the real-life exploits of the self-appointed 17th Century witch-hunter Matthew Hopkins.  Although the film, like the book, plays fast and loose with historical facts, it provides a powerful and disturbingly convincing account of how power can corrupt an individual, and how easily society can be duped into condoning acts of unspeakable evil.  Witchfinder General is as much a morality play on the dangers of political corruption and mass delusion as it is a horror-oriented historical drama.

The quality of Witchfinder General belies its troubled production.  Although an immensely talented technician, Michael Reeves found it incredibly difficult to work with actors and would often get into disputes with his cast through his inability to communicate what he was looking for.   On this film, Reeves had a particularly bad working relationship with his lead actor, Vincent Price, who had been foisted on him by AIP.  Reeves had originally intended that the part of Hopkins would go to Donald Pleasence, who would have played the part more sympathetically.  Price was known mainly for playing theatrical villains, most prominently in AIP’s own series of horror films, and so could only portray Hopkins as a conventional villain.  Reeves was not happy to see Price in his film and he told the actor as much when they first met on the set.  After that, their relationship went downhill faster than a juggernaut on oil-lubricated skis.   It is reported that Reeves hated the actor so much that he instructed his close friend Ian Ogilvy (playing the heroic lead) to inflict real physical pain on him in the final scene in which Marshall beats Hopkins to death.

Although he grew to loath Reeves as much as he loathed him, Vincent Price was inspired to give what many consider to be his greatest screen performance.  The camp villainy with which the actor is usually associated doesn’t register for a second in this film.  Here, Price is pure, unadulterated menace, and his understated portrayal of Hopkins stands as one of the most credible and chilling depictions of evil to be found in any piece of filmed drama.  Price may have hated working with Michael Reeves but he was later compelled to admit that this was one of the highpoints of his career and he paid tribute to Reeves’ immense skill as a director.

Price’s performance alone would have sold this film, but its real strength lies in its authentic depiction of communities that are riven by conflict and consumed by fear.  In stark contrast to the stylised Grand Guignol approach of most contemporary horror films, Witchfinder General has a bleak realism, a near-documentary feel which makes what it shows us particularly harrowing and sinister.  The English landscape, stunningly photographed by John Coquillon, has an austere beauty which somehow renders the exploits of Hopkins and his henchman even more grotesque and demonic.  It is hard to believe this is the work of a 24-year-old filmmaker.  In only his third film, Reeves exhibits a maturity and an acute awareness of the power of the moving image that few directors attain after a decade of assiduous filmmaking.

AIP had not been expecting much from this film and so were pleasantly surprised when it looked as though it might attract an audience and even show a return.  Hoping to cash in on Vincent Price’s association with its series of Edgar Allan Poe’s films (directed by Roger Corman), AIP released the film in the United States under the title of Poe’s poem Conqueror Worm, even though this had nothing to do with the film other than voiceover narrations, read by Price, which were appended to the start and end of the film. 

The film’s success in America led AIP to commission Michael Reeves to direct its next Poe adaptation, The Oblong Box.  Tragically, Reeves would not complete this film;  he died from a barbiturates overdose during its pre-production phase, aged 25.   His final film, Witchfinder General, bears testament to the fact that Reeves’ untimely death robbed British cinema of one of its most creative talents, at a time when such talent was badly needed.

© Chris Alderton 2010

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