Witchfinder General is a 1968 British-American historical horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price. The screenplay by Reeves and Tom Baker was based on Ronald Bassett’s novel of the same name. It is a heavily-fictionalised account of the murderous witch-hunting exploits of Matthew Hopkins during the English Civil War. The movie’s gruesome content was met with disgust by several film critics in the UK, despite having been extensively censored by the British Board of Film Censors.
About Witchfinder General (film) in brief
Witchfinder General is a 1968 British-American historical horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price. The screenplay by Reeves and Tom Baker was based on Ronald Bassett’s novel of the same name. The film is a heavily-fictionalised account of the murderous witch-hunting exploits of Matthew Hopkins during the English Civil War. The movie’s gruesome content was met with disgust by several film critics in the UK, despite having been extensively censored by the British Board of Film Censors. In the US, the film was shown virtually intact and was a box office success, but it was almost completely ignored by reviewers. Witchfinder General eventually developed into a cult film, partially attributable to Reeves’s 1969 death from an alcohol and barbiturate overdose at the age of 25, only nine months after its release. In 2005, the magazine Total Film named Witch Finder General the 15th-greatest horror film of all time. It was retitled The Conqueror Worm by AIP to link it with their earlier series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations directed by Roger Corman and starring Price; because its narrative bears no relation to any of Poe’s stories, American prints book-end the film with the titular poem being read through narration by Price. Its plot follows Roundhead soldier Richard Marshall, who relentlessly pursues Hopkins and his assistant John Stearne after they prey on his fiancée Sara and execute her priestly uncle John Lowes.
After Marshall returns to Brandeston, Suffolk, to visit his lover Sara, he vows to kill both Hopkins and StearNE. After the pair flee to Lavenham, the King learns of Marshall’s desire for revenge and instructs them to locate the King. In a ceremony of his own devising, he rides off to find them and kills them both. In 1645, an opportunist witchhunter, Matthew Hopkins, takes advantage of the breakdown in social order to impose a reign of terror in East Anglia. Hopkins falsely claimed to have been appointed as a \”Witch Finder Generall\” by Parliament during theEnglish Civil War to root out sorcery and witchcraft. He is eventually caught and executed by the King, but after a brutal fight, he is able to escape and return to his native England. He was later killed by his own son, who was killed in a car accident in 1645. The story is based on a novel by Ronald Bassett, which was first published in 1966 and has since been turned into a TV series on Channel 4. It is available on Blu-ray and DVD in the U.S. and Canada. For more information on how to order a copy of the film, visit the official website of American International Pictures, or go to www.americaninternationalpictures.com/witchfindergeneral. For the UK version of this article, go to the website of the British Film and TV Company, or visit the UK Film and Television Association, or contact the UKFilm and TV Association, by phone on 08457 909090.
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