Witchfinder General (film)
Encyclopedia
Witchfinder General is a 1968
British
horror film
directed by Michael Reeves
and starring Vincent Price
, Ian Ogilvy
, and Hilary Dwyer
. The screenplay was by Reeves and Tom Baker based on Ronald Bassett
's novel of the same name. Made on a low budget
of under £100,000, the movie was coproduced by Tigon British Film Productions
and American International Pictures
. The story details the heavily fiction
alized murderous witch-hunt
ing exploits of Matthew Hopkins
, a 17th century English
lawyer
who claimed to have been appointed as a "Witch-finder Generall" by Parliament during the English Civil War
to root out sorcery
and witchcraft
. The film was retitled The Conqueror Worm in the United States in an attempt to link it with Roger Corman
's earlier series of Edgar Allan Poe
-related films starring Price—although this movie has nothing to do with any of Poe's stories, and only briefly alludes to his poem
.
Director Reeves featured many scenes of intense onscreen torture and violence that were considered unusually sadistic at the time. Upon its theatrical release
throughout the spring and summer of 1968, 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 U.S., the film was shown virtually intact and was a box office
success, but it was almost completely ignored by reviewers.
The film has gradually developed a large cult
following, partially attributable to Reeves’s 1969 death from a drug overdose at the age of 25, only nine months after Witchfinder’s release. Over the years, several prominent critics have championed the film, including J. Hoberman
, Danny Peary
, and Derek Malcolm
. In 2005, the magazine Total Film
named Witchfinder General the 15th greatest horror film of all time.
. Hopkins and his assistant, John Stearne (Robert Russell
), visit village after village, brutally torturing confessions out of suspected witches. They charge the local magistrates for the work they carry out.
Richard Marshall (Ian Ogilvy) is a young Roundhead
. After surviving a brief skirmish and killing his first enemy soldier (and thus saving the life of his Captain), he rides home to Brandeston
, Suffolk
, to visit his lover Sara (Hilary Dwyer). Sara is the niece of the village priest, John Lowes (Rupert Davies
). Lowes gives his permission to Marshall to marry Sara, telling him there is trouble coming to the village and he wants Sara far away before it arrives. Marshall asks Sara why the old man is frightened. She tells him they have been threatened and become outcasts in their own village. Marshall vows to Sara, "rest easy and no-one shall harm you. I put my oath to that." At the end of his army leave, Marshall rides back to join his regiment, and chances upon Hopkins and Stearne on the path. Marshall gives the two men directions to Brandeston then rides on.
In Brandeston, Hopkins and Stearne immediately begin rounding up suspects. Lowes is thrown into a cell and tortured. He has needles stuck into his back (in an attempt to locate the so-called "Devil's Mark
"), and is about to be killed, when Sara stops Hopkins by offering him sexual favours in exchange for her uncle's safety. However, soon Hopkins is called away to another village. Stearne takes advantage of Hopkins' absence by raping Sara. When Hopkins returns and finds out what Stearne has done, Hopkins will have nothing further to do with the young woman. He instructs Stearne to begin torturing Lowes again. Shortly before departing the village, Hopkins and Stearne execute Lowes and two women.
Marshall returns to Brandeston and is horrified by what has happened to Sara. He vows to kill both Hopkins and Stearne. After "marrying" Sara in a ceremony of his own devising and instructing her to flee to Lavenham
, he rides off by himself. In the meantime, Hopkins and Stearne have become separated after a Roundhead patrol attempts to commandeer their horses. Marshall locates Stearne, but after a brutal fight, Stearne is able to escape. He reunites with Hopkins and informs him of Marshall's desire for revenge.
Hopkins and Stearne enter the village of Lavenham. Marshall, on a patrol to locate the King, learns they are there and quickly rides to the village with a group of his soldier friends. Hopkins, however, having earlier learned that Sara was in Lavenham, has set a trap to capture Marshall. Hopkins and Stearne frame Marshall and Sara as witches and take them to the castle to be interrogated. Marshall watches as needles are repeatedly jabbed into Sara's back, but he refuses to confess to witchcraft, instead vowing again to kill Hopkins. He breaks free from his bonds at the same time that his army compatriots approach their place of confinement. Marshall grabs an axe and repeatedly strikes Hopkins. The soldiers enter the room and are horrified to see what their friend has done. One of them puts the mutilated but still living Hopkins out of his misery by shooting him dead. Marshall’s mind snaps and he shouts, "You took him from me! You took him from me!" Sara, also apparently on the brink of insanity, screams uncontrollably over and over again.
, Witchfinder General, which was based very loosely on a historical figure named Matthew Hopkins
, a self-described "witchhunter" who claimed to have been commissioned by Parliament to prosecute and execute witches. Hopkins was in fact never given an official mandate to hunt witches. Tony Tenser
, the founder and chief executive of Tigon, had read Bassett's book while it was still in galley
form and purchased the rights on impulse prior to publication. Despite the novel being "tedious low-brow popular history", Tenser felt it "had some scope, had some breadth to it; there was canvas for a film." Tenser offered the film to Michael Reeves, who had just completed Tigon's The Sorcerers (1967), starring Boris Karloff
.
firmly in mind as the film's star. However, once American International Pictures became involved in the production, they insisted that their contract star, Vincent Price, be given the lead, and Pleasence was dropped from the film. With the abrupt change of star, Reeves and Baker had to rethink their original concept of presenting Hopkins as "ineffective and inadequate...a ridiculous authority figure", which they had believed Pleasence could play to perfection. They knew the tall, imposing Price, with his long history of horror roles, would have to be more of a straightforward villain, and they made changes to their script accordingly.
As was required by law for British film productions of that time, the completed first draft of the screenplay was presented by Tenser to the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) on 4 August to determine if any possible censorship issues could be anticipated. On the same day, a preliminary report was issued by a BBFC examiner, who, noting that Tenser was an "ape", referred to the screenplay as "perfectly beastly" and "ghoulish". The script was returned to Tenser a few days later, with a more detailed report from the same examiner, which described the screenplay as "a study in sadism in which every detail of cruelty and suffering is lovingly dwelt on...a film which followed the script at all closely would run into endless censorship trouble." After a second draft was subsequently written and sent to the BBFC only eleven days after the first draft, the reaction was nearly the same. It was returned to Tenser with an "exhaustive list" of requirements in order to reduce the film's possible offensiveness.
Reeves and Baker completed a third and final draft that was "substantially toned down" in content from the previous attempts. This version of the screenplay, which was filmed with only a few minor revisions during the production, was missing many of the more explicit moments of violence described in the first submitted drafts: the death spasms of the pre-credit
s hanging victim, Lowes getting stabbed fifteen times with a steel spike, and a sniper’s victim somersaulting through the air and slamming into a tree. A sequence depicting the Battle of Naseby
was to be filmed, during which a soldier’s head was to be cut off on screen. Most significantly, the film’s finale was completely altered. In the original ending, Stearne falls in with a group of gypsies and attempts to rape one of their women, who successfully fights off her attacker by plunging her thumbs into his eyes, blinding him. The gypsies then stake him to death. Marshall arrives and convinces the gypsies to assist him in ambushing Hopkins. Hopkins is viciously beaten by Marshall, who forces a “confession” out of the bloodied man. Marshall partially drowns Hopkins (whose thumbs have been tied to his feet), then finally hangs him. Tenser had previously expressed concerns regarding the scope of the Battle of Naseby sequence as well as the gypsy-ending, noting that these would both require the employment of additional groups of extras. He asked Reeves and Baker to remove the battle sequence and simplify the ending for the final draft.
and James H. Nicholson
, and the movie was intended to be nothing more than a tax write-off
.
The interiors were filmed in two specially converted aircraft hangars near Bury St. Edmunds
in Suffolk
, which were leased for £1,500; this cost-measure resulted in much of the dialogue having to be re-recorded later, because the tin roofs of the hangars caused an echo. The exterior shots range from the Dunwich
Coast (for the scene with the fisherman) to Langley Park
outside London
(for the scene where Stearne escapes capture). The tracking shot
of the ambush after the opening credits was filmed at Black Park
, a location frequently used by Hammer Film Productions
. Lavenham
Square, site of the witch-burning scene, was the real Lavenham Market Square; the crew lowered TV antennas and telephone wires and Waddilove hired a cherry picker
from a local utility company for £10, because the unit couldn't afford a camera crane
. The countryside vistas seen in the chase scenes on horseback were shot on the Stanford Battle Area
—the producer, through connections with the government, was able to lease parts of the area. The church used in the film is St John The Evangelist
in Rushford in Norfolk
. The moat
drowning and hanging scenes were filmed at Kentwell Hall
. The climax of the film was shot at Orford Castle
, on the coast of East Anglia, which is an English Heritage
property. Filming wrapped as scheduled on 13 November 1967.
The production went relatively smoothly except for the unrelentingly antagonistic relationship that developed between Reeves and Price. Reeves kept it no secret from everyone associated with the production that the American actor was not his choice for the role, and the director's comments had reached the actor back in the U.S. Reeves refused the courtesy of meeting Price at London Heathrow Airport
when he arrived in England, a "deliberate snub calculated to offend both Price and AIP." "Take me to your goddamn young genius," Price reportedly said to co-producer Philip Waddilove, who greeted the actor at the airport instead of Reeves. When Price went on location and met Reeves for the first time, the young director told the actor, "I didn't want you, and I still don't want you, but I'm stuck with you!"
According to Kim Newman
in his book, Nightmare Movies, when Reeves made a suggestion on the set, Price objected and told the director: "I've made 87 [sic] films. What have you done?" And Reeves responded: "I've made three good ones." “Reeves hated me,” Price later recalled. “He didn’t want me at all for the part. I didn’t like him, either. It was one of the first times in my life that I’ve been in a picture where the director and I just clashed.”
Price felt that all the actors on the set had a difficult time with the director, explaining: "Michael Reeves could not communicate with actors. He would stop me and say, 'Don't move your head like that.' And I would say, 'Like what? What do you mean?' He'd say, 'There — you're doing it again. Don't do that'." Price reportedly became so upset with Reeves that he refused to watch the film's dailies
.
In one scene, Reeves needed Price to shoot his flintlock
between the ears of the horse he was riding. When Price realized that Reeves had ordered that an actual blank charge was to be used so the weapon’s puff of smoke would be visible, he immediately shouted, “What? You want the gun to go bang between the ears of this fucking nag? How do you think he’s going to react?” However, Reeves insisted and, when the gun went off, the horse reared and sent Price tumbling onto the ground. Price was not hurt but he was extremely angered by the incident.
On the final day of shooting, Price showed up on the set visibly drunk. Reeves seethed to Waddilove, “He’s drunk–how dare he be drunk on my set! I’ll kill the bastard.” Waddilove soon discovered that Reeves planned to inflict painful revenge on the actor. During preparations for Price’s violent death scene, the director was overheard instructing Ogilvy to “really lay into Vincent” with the stage axe. Although when the scene was filmed Ogilvy indeed responded with blows that were not faked, Waddilove had earlier found some foam padding and fitted Price’s costume with it, protecting the actor from any injury.
Despite the tension between the two men during the production, when Price saw the movie the following year, he admitted that he finally understood what Reeves had been after and wrote the young director a ten page letter praising the film. Reeves wrote Price back, "I knew you would think so." Years after Reeves's death, Price said, "... I realized what he wanted was a low-key, very laid-back, menacing performance. He did get it, but I was fighting him almost every step of the way. Had I known what he wanted, I would have cooperated."
In addition to his difficult relationship with Price, Reeves had to deal with a few production problems during the shooting. On the first day, Price was thrown from his horse and sent back to his hotel to recover. The actor returned to work the following day. Towards the end of filming, a strike was called when the British technicians union learned the production company was not hiring a large enough crew as required by union rules. After an extra man was hired, the crew resumed working. On two occasions, Reeves was short of actors. Waddilove replaced an absent actor as a Roundhead officer during Wymark's one-day cameo scene. Waddilove's wife, Susi, played one of the women in the animal enclosure during the witch-burning sequence.
The film's violent climax was edited together in its present shape due to a continuity problem. In the screenplay, the soldier played by Nicky Henson was supposed to shoot both Price and Ogilvy to death. However, the actor only had one flintlock pistol, which had been clearly established in previous scenes, and was therefore only able to shoot one person. When the error was discovered, Reeves immediately told the actor: "All right, just shoot Vincent and I'll get Ian to scream and shout and go mad and freeze frame
on Hilary Dwyer screaming."
Several "alternate" nude scenes were filmed during the production. Set in a pub
and involving local "wenches", the sequences were reportedly solely intended for the movie's German release version. Reeves refused to take part in the filming of these sequences and they were completed by the crew after the "regular" versions of the scenes had been shot, with Tigon's Tenser acting as director. According to Waddilove, Louis M. "Deke" Heywood appeared at the location only to ensure those additional scenes were filmed. The credits read, "Additional scenes by Louis M Heywood." According to Ogilvy, this was an in-joke
because for Reeves, "additional scenes" meant "some prick of a producer putting his oar in and messing up what the director had done." None of these scenes were made available in the theatrical versions released in the U.S. or UK, although they were included in the videotape version released in the mid-1980s by HBO Home Video.
was reportedly a distant cousin of Michael Reeves and accepted the director’s good intentions when Reeves explained why he felt it was necessary to include such intense violence in the movie. Trevelyan nonetheless argued, “The film gave the impression that it was exploiting violence, and in particular, sadism for commercial reasons.” Consequently, the film was cut extensively by the British Board of Film Censors
for its UK release. Nearly four complete minutes of what was described as “excesses of sadistic brutality” were removed. Reeves agreed to make some of the initial minor cuts himself, but when additional and more extensive demands were made he adamantly refused to take part in any further editing.
Trevelyan claimed that Reeves later wrote him a letter admitting that the cuts were not as harmful as he had expected. No copy of the letter has ever surfaced, and based on several other comments the director subsequently made about how the edits "ruined the film", Reeves's biographer Benjamin Halligan believes Trevelyan may have somehow "misremembered" the existence of this letter, confusing it with an earlier missive from the director in which he made a plea for the BBFC's leniency.
in The Sunday Times
complained “…17th century hanging, burning, raping, screaming, and Vincent Price as England’s prize torture-overseer. Peculiarly nauseating.” The Guardian
felt the film was filled with “gratuitous sadism.” Margaret Hinxman of The Sunday Telegraph
dismissed it as a “sadistic extravaganza.” Nonetheless, several critics felt the film was worth accolades. John Russell Taylor
in the London Times
Saturday Review said the film “…is quite happily and deliberately a horror film: that is to say, it has no particular pretensions to being anything else…There is much in it which would win Michael Reeves an important reputation if he were dealing with some more pretentious, but fundamentally no more serious subject…Mr. Reeves is no longer merely promising. He already has real achievements behind him: not merely good horror films, but good films, period.” Films and Filming noted, “Witchfinder General has no explicit ‘message’, but it does say something about the springs of despair and it says it forcefully. It is a very frightening film…Matthew Hopkins is the best of Price’s recent performances. Witchfinder General is emphatically not a horror film; it is, however, a very horrifying one…” Monthly Film Bulletin
observed, "Not since Peeping Tom
has a film aroused such an outcry about nastiness and gratuitous violence as this one...the tone of the film is oddly muted, with torture and death in plenty, but viewed matter-of-factly and without stress...Throughout the whole film there is a vivid sense of a time out of joint, which comes as much from the stray groups of soldiers who skirmish against unseen attackers in the woods or hang wearily about by the wayside waiting for battle to commence, as from the bloody crimes committed in the name of religion by Matthew Hopkins."
Playwright Alan Bennett
was particularly repulsed by Witchfinder. In his regular column in The Listener, published eight days after the film's release, Bennett explained how he felt horror films should always be "punctuated by belly laughs" and attacked Reeves's completely humourless movie as "the most persistently sadistic and morally rotten film I have seen. It was a degrading experience by which I mean it made me feel dirty." Although Reeves was infuriated, his response indicated that he believed Bennett's reaction was proof that his decision to include such extreme violence was the correct approach to the material. In his letter published in The Listener, Reeves noted: "Surely the most immoral thing in any form of entertainment is the conditioning of the audience to accept and enjoy violence...Violence is horrible, degrading and sordid. Insofar as one is going to show it on the screen at all, it should be presented as such - and the more people it shocks into sickened recognition of these facts the better. I wish I could have witnessed Mr. Bennett frantically attempting to wash away the `dirty' feeling my film gave him. It would have been proof of the fact that Witchfinder General works as intended."
AIP heads Arkoff and Nicholson had originally contributed their portion of the budget as a tax write-off, but when they were screened the completed film they were astonished by its quality. Nicholson told Louis Heyward, "It is one of the best we have gotten from England. Everybody thinks this is about the best production in the Poe series for the past few years." Arkoff noted that "Michael Reeves brought out some elements in Vincent that hadn't been seen in a long time. Vincent was more savage in the picture. Michael really brought out the balls in him. I was surprised how terrifying Vincent was in that...I hadn't expected it."
In the U.S., the film was not subject to any censorship at all, and was released virtually intact to AIP's usual mix of drive-ins
and grindhouse
s. However, in an attempt to link the film with Roger Corman’s earlier Edgar Allan Poe series of films, it was retitled The Conqueror Worm. Brief prologue
and epilogue
narrations (by Price) taken from Poe’s poem were added to justify the new title. As Danny Peary noted in his Cult Movies
book, the film went nearly unnoticed by critics during its U.S. release: “The few snoozing trade reviewers who saw it treated it as just another entry in AIP’s Edgar Allan Poe series…and gave it such dismal notices that future bookings were scarce." Hollywood Citizen News was appalled by the film: “A disgrace to the producers and scripters, and a sad commentary on the art of filmmaking…a film with such bestial brutality and orgiastic sadism, one wonders how it ever passed customs to be released in this country.” The trade journal Box Office noted that: “Fans of the horror film will be glad to know that Vincent Price is back to add another portrait to his gallery of arch-fiends…bathed in the most stomach-churning gore imaginable…” Variety
opined that "Dwyer gives evidence of acting talent, but she and all principals are hampered by Michael Reeves's mediocre script and ordinary direction." Despite the lack of critical support, the movie was a modest success stateside, earning $1.5 million for AIP according to Cinefantastique
magazine. In his biography of Reeves, Benjamin Halligan claims the film made $10 million in the U.S.
The film's retitling by AIP caused a minor fracas in Hong Kong
. A group of British sailors had seen the movie at the base theater under its original title and one week later unwittingly saw the movie again in a local theater, playing under the American release title. They immediately demanded their money back and, when the manager refused, they tipped over trashcans, threw popcorn at the screen and "almost tore the theatre apart." The manager changed his mind and paid the sailors back for the price of the tickets, and sent a bill to AIP for the damages.
Very soon after its initial release in the spring of 1968, several critics began championing the film in the UK and U.S. David Pirie
, who wrote extensively and enthusiastically about the film in his 1973 book A Heritage of Horror, reviewed the film in 1971 for Time Out, commenting: “…one of the most personal and mature statements in the history of British cinema…The performances are generally excellent, and no film before or since has used the British countryside in quite the same way.” Danny Peary noted, “The Conqueror Worm is a stunning film in many ways, but probably Reeves’s greatest achievement is that he was able to maintain an extraordinary momentum throughout, until the film ends as it began, with a woman (this time Sara) screaming.” In 2000, Derek Malcolm
included Witchfinder General as part of his series The Century of Films, a list of what he considered to be the one hundred most "artistically or culturally important" movies of the 20th Century. Malcolm asserted that the film "is one of the most compulsively watchable ever made in Britain" and "transcends its genre with the sheer panache of its making." In 2005, J. Hoberman
of the Village Voice stated that the film “…has long been a cult item -- in part because its talented 25-year-old director, Michael Reeves, died of a drug overdose before [sic] the film's release, but mainly because it is an extraordinarily bleak story of political evil...Reeves shot on location and the movie has a robust autumnal quality perfectly matched by Price's overripe performance…it remains contemporary, and even frightening, in its evocation of cynical Puritanism and mass deception.”
In his 2007 book, Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’, Lee Fratantuono described Witchfinder General as a modern retelling of the main themes of Virgil
's epic Aeneid
, and its central image of the unrelenting nature of fury and madness and its power to corrupt essentially good heroes. Fratantuono has written that in the film Reeves “has captured exactly the point of Virgil’s great epic of madness and its horrifying conclusion.”
's The Oblong Box starring Price (originally scheduled to be directed by Reeves but handed over to Hessler after Reeves bowed out a week prior to production) and Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971). Hessler's Cry of the Banshee
(1970), which featured Witchfinder co-stars Price and Hilary Dwyer, was also vaguely associated with Poe in advertisements ("Edgar Allan Poe Probes New Depths of Terror!"); it was dismissed by Allmovie as "a rehashing of Witchfinder General." This new Poe "series" was short-lived and effectively over by 1971.
According to AIP's Louis Heyward, Witchfinder General "was very successful in Germany—it was the most successful of the violence pictures—it started a vogue." "Copycat" films financed, or partially financed, by German production companies included Mark of the Devil (1970), with Herbert Lom
and Udo Kier
, Night of the Blood Monster (1970), directed by Jesus Franco
and starring Christopher Lee
, and Hexen geschändet und zu Tode gequält (1973), released in the U.S. years later on video as Mark of the Devil Part II.
Tigon's own Blood on Satan's Claw
(1971) was produced "as a successor, in spirit if not in story" to Witchfinder General, and borrowed Reeves's usage of "the usually tranquil English countryside as a place of terror."
Some critics maintain that Ken Russell
's The Devils
(1971) was influenced by the commercial success of Reeves's film, with one writer calling Russell's movie "the apex of the ‘historical’ witch-persecution films started by Witchfinder General." However, Russell has noted that he hated Reeves's film, describing it as "one of the worst movies I have ever seen and certainly the most nauseous."
Mark Gatiss
has referred to the film as a prime example of a short-lived sub-genre he called "folk horror", grouping it with Blood on Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man.
The film has had a minor influence on heavy metal music
. In 1980, the movie inspired a band to call themselves Witchfinder General
. The group broke up in 1983. Another metal band, Cathedral
, released a 1996 EP
titled Hopkins (The Witchfinder General), featuring a song of the same name. That song also appeared on their album, The Carnival Bizarre and the music video was included as an extra on the UK DVD release of Reeves's film. And Electric Wizard
have a song from their 2000 album Dopethrone
called "I, The Witchfinder", although its lyrics indicate it may also have been inspired by Mark of the Devil.
The film was the inspiration for a BBC Radio 4
play Vincent Price and The Horror of The English Blood Beast by Matthew Broughton, first broadcast in March 2010.
and former Director of Studies in history at Churchill College, Cambridge
, and author of Witchfinders: A 17th-Century English Tragedy, critiqued the film for the Channel 4
History website, calling it “a travesty of historical truth.” While acknowledging that “there is much to be said in favour of Witchfinder General–but as a film, not as history”, based purely on its level of historical accuracy Gaskill gave the film “3 stars” on a scale of 0–10.
Gaskill had several complaints regarding the film’s “distortions and flights of fancy”. While Hopkins and his assistant John Stearne really did torture, try and hang John Lowes, the vicar of Brandeston, Gaskill notes that other than those basic facts the film’s narrative is “almost completely fictitious.” In the movie, the fictional character of Richard Marshall pursues Hopkins relentlessly to death, but in reality the “gentry, magistrates and clergy, who undermined his work in print and at law” were in pursuit of Hopkins throughout his (brief) murderous career, as he was never legally sanctioned to perform his witch hunting duties. And Hopkins wasn’t axed to death, he “withered away from consumption
at his Essex
home in 1647”. Vincent Price was 56 when he played Hopkins, but “the real Hopkins was in his 20s”. According to Gaskill, one of the film’s “most striking errors is its total omission of court cases: witches are simply tortured, then hanged from the nearest tree.”
, laserdisc
or DVD
for many years. Although uncensored theatrical prints have been available for archival showings in the U.S. for several years, video releases of the title were repeatedly compromised.
In 2001, a DVD was released in the UK by Metrodome consisting of two versions, the complete “Director’s Cut” containing the four minutes of previously censored violence, and an “Export Version”, also with the violence intact but including brief shots of nudity added to certain sequences. In both versions, the four minutes of violence have been taken from what has been described as “a grainy VHS source.” Some critics complained that watching the film in this manner was an often “jarring” or “distracting” viewing experience. In addition, the soundtrack of the newly inserted nude shots had “brief snippets of audio repeating itself because of the timing involved in inserting the previously cut footage”.
In the U.S., while censorship of the film has never been a factor, the film nonetheless experienced numerous delays in appearing on home video in its originally intended form. When Orion Pictures
acquired the rights to many of AIP’s titles in the 1980s, they were unable to also purchase rights to the musical soundtracks of some of the films, and added synthesizer
scores by composer
Kendall Schmidt in lieu of the original music. Witchfinder General was one of these “problem” titles. For years, Paul Ferris’s acclaimed full orchestral score was not available in the U.S. on home video releases, although it was included on theatrical and syndicated television prints. The HBO videotape release from the late 1980’s utilized the Orion version, which also included the nude inserts. Tim Lucas
noted that the spoken soundtrack to these newly added “spicy” shots “doesn’t match it correctly."
In 2005, writer Steve Biodrowski reported that a “definitive version” of the film had been restored and would be released in the U.S. on DVD by MGM-UA
in August of that year, as part of their Midnite Movies series. After Sony
purchased the rights to the MGM film library, James Owsley (Director of Restorations at MGM) advised Philip Waddilove (one of Witchfinder Generals producers) that the date of the DVD release was postponed until October 2006. In an interview conducted in August 2005, Waddilove revealed that he had learned Sony had "little interest" in the film and no official announcement of any pending DVD release had ever been made. Waddilove noted that "the principal at Sony doesn't greenlight DVDs of anything older than ten years!!" However, the film was indeed released under the Midnite Movies banner on September 11, 2007 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
. The release includes the complete, uncut version of the film with the Ferris score intact. Price's opening and closing narration tacked on to the AIP Conqueror Worm version, as well as the alternate nude sequences, were not available on this release, but they were included in the UK Blu-ray
release from Odeon Entertainment issued in June 2011. The Blu-ray utilized the same high-definition
transfer as the 2007 MGM DVD and was completely uncut.
1968 in film
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...
British
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Michael Reeves
Michael Reeves
Michael Reeves was an English film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the 1968 American International Pictures/Tigon motion picture Witchfinder General...
and starring Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
, Ian Ogilvy
Ian Ogilvy
Ian Raymond Ogilvy is an English film and television actor.-Early life:He was born in Woking, Surrey, England, the son of advertising executive Francis Ogilvy and actress Aileen Raymond .He was educated at Sunningdale School, Eton College and at the Royal Academy of...
, and Hilary Dwyer
Hilary Dwyer
Hilary Dwyer is a former actress, businessperson and film producer.-Early life:Dwyer is the daughter of an Orthopaedic Surgeon. As a youth, she practiced ballet and became a talented pianist...
. The screenplay was by Reeves and Tom Baker based on Ronald Bassett
Ronald Bassett
Ronald Leslie Bassett is a British writer and novelist. He wrote numerous works of historical fiction, sometimes under the pseudonym of "William Clive". He received many awards for his medical and pharmaceutical writing.-Personal life:...
's novel of the same name. Made on a low budget
Low budget film
A low-budget film is a motion picture shot with little or no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many Independent films are made on low budgets but films made on the mainstream circuit with unexperienced or unknown filmmakers can also have low budgets. Many young or first time...
of under £100,000, the movie was coproduced by Tigon British Film Productions
Tigon British Film Productions
Tigon British Film Productions or Tigon was a film production and distribution company founded by Tony Tenser in 1966. It is most famous for its horror films, particularly Witchfinder General and Blood on Satan's Claw...
and American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
. The story details the heavily fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
alized murderous witch-hunt
Witch-hunt
A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...
ing exploits of Matthew Hopkins
Matthew Hopkins
Matthew Hopkins was an English witchhunter whose career flourished during the time of the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament...
, a 17th century English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who claimed to have been appointed as a "Witch-finder Generall" by Parliament during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
to root out sorcery
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
and witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
. The film was retitled The Conqueror Worm in the United States in an attempt to link it with Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
's earlier series of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
-related films starring Price—although this movie has nothing to do with any of Poe's stories, and only briefly alludes to his poem
The Conqueror Worm
"The Conqueror Worm" is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe about human mortality and the inevitability of death. It was first published separately in Graham's Magazine in 1843, but quickly became associated with Poe's short story "Ligeia" after Poe added the poem to a revised publication of the story in 1845...
.
Director Reeves featured many scenes of intense onscreen torture and violence that were considered unusually sadistic at the time. Upon its theatrical release
Film release
A film release is the stage at which a completed film is legally authorized by its owner for public distribution.The process includes locating a distributor to handle the film...
throughout the spring and summer of 1968, the movie’s gruesome content was met with disgust by several film critics in the UK, despite having been extensively censored
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
by the British Board of Film Censors
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
. In the U.S., the film was shown virtually intact and was a box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
success, but it was almost completely ignored by reviewers.
The film has gradually developed a large cult
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
following, partially attributable to Reeves’s 1969 death from a drug overdose at the age of 25, only nine months after Witchfinder’s release. Over the years, several prominent critics have championed the film, including J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
James Lewis Hoberman , also known as J. Hoberman, is an American film critic. He is currently the senior film critic for The Village Voice, a post he has held since 1988.-Education:...
, Danny Peary
Danny Peary
Danny Peary is an American film critic and sports writer. He has written many books on cinema and sports-related topics.-Biography:...
, and Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm is a British film critic and historian.Malcolm was educated at Eton College and Oxford University. He worked for several decades as a film critic for The Guardian, having previously been an amateur jockey and the paper's first horse racing correspondent. In 1977, he was a member of...
. In 2005, the magazine Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
named Witchfinder General the 15th greatest horror film of all time.
Plot
The year is 1645 - the middle of the English Civil War. Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price), an opportunist and witchhunter, takes advantage of the breakdown in social order to impose a reign of terror on East AngliaEast Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
. Hopkins and his assistant, John Stearne (Robert Russell
Robert Russell (English actor)
Robert Russell was an English actor, perhaps best known for a memorable supporting role as John Stearne alongside Vincent Price in the classic British horror film Witchfinder General....
), visit village after village, brutally torturing confessions out of suspected witches. They charge the local magistrates for the work they carry out.
Richard Marshall (Ian Ogilvy) is a young Roundhead
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
. After surviving a brief skirmish and killing his first enemy soldier (and thus saving the life of his Captain), he rides home to Brandeston
Brandeston
Brandeston is a village in Suffolk, England on the River Deben. 'Brandeston Hall'the largest building in the village, is now the preparatory department of nearby Framlingham College...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, to visit his lover Sara (Hilary Dwyer). Sara is the niece of the village priest, John Lowes (Rupert Davies
Rupert Davies
Rupert Davies was a British actor. He remains best known for playing the title role in the BBC's 1960s television adaptation of Maigret, based on the Maigret novels written by Georges Simenon....
). Lowes gives his permission to Marshall to marry Sara, telling him there is trouble coming to the village and he wants Sara far away before it arrives. Marshall asks Sara why the old man is frightened. She tells him they have been threatened and become outcasts in their own village. Marshall vows to Sara, "rest easy and no-one shall harm you. I put my oath to that." At the end of his army leave, Marshall rides back to join his regiment, and chances upon Hopkins and Stearne on the path. Marshall gives the two men directions to Brandeston then rides on.
In Brandeston, Hopkins and Stearne immediately begin rounding up suspects. Lowes is thrown into a cell and tortured. He has needles stuck into his back (in an attempt to locate the so-called "Devil's Mark
Witches' mark
According to witch-hunters during the height of the witch trials , the witches’ mark indicated that an individual was a witch. The witches' mark and the devil's mark are all terms applied to essentially the same mark. The beliefs about the mark differ depending on the trial location and the...
"), and is about to be killed, when Sara stops Hopkins by offering him sexual favours in exchange for her uncle's safety. However, soon Hopkins is called away to another village. Stearne takes advantage of Hopkins' absence by raping Sara. When Hopkins returns and finds out what Stearne has done, Hopkins will have nothing further to do with the young woman. He instructs Stearne to begin torturing Lowes again. Shortly before departing the village, Hopkins and Stearne execute Lowes and two women.
Marshall returns to Brandeston and is horrified by what has happened to Sara. He vows to kill both Hopkins and Stearne. After "marrying" Sara in a ceremony of his own devising and instructing her to flee to Lavenham
Lavenham
Lavenham is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is noted for its 15th century church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walk. In the medieval period it was among the 20 wealthiest settlements in England...
, he rides off by himself. In the meantime, Hopkins and Stearne have become separated after a Roundhead patrol attempts to commandeer their horses. Marshall locates Stearne, but after a brutal fight, Stearne is able to escape. He reunites with Hopkins and informs him of Marshall's desire for revenge.
Hopkins and Stearne enter the village of Lavenham. Marshall, on a patrol to locate the King, learns they are there and quickly rides to the village with a group of his soldier friends. Hopkins, however, having earlier learned that Sara was in Lavenham, has set a trap to capture Marshall. Hopkins and Stearne frame Marshall and Sara as witches and take them to the castle to be interrogated. Marshall watches as needles are repeatedly jabbed into Sara's back, but he refuses to confess to witchcraft, instead vowing again to kill Hopkins. He breaks free from his bonds at the same time that his army compatriots approach their place of confinement. Marshall grabs an axe and repeatedly strikes Hopkins. The soldiers enter the room and are horrified to see what their friend has done. One of them puts the mutilated but still living Hopkins out of his misery by shooting him dead. Marshall’s mind snaps and he shouts, "You took him from me! You took him from me!" Sara, also apparently on the brink of insanity, screams uncontrollably over and over again.
Production
Tigon Productions owned the rights to Ronald Bassett's 1966 novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, Witchfinder General, which was based very loosely on a historical figure named Matthew Hopkins
Matthew Hopkins
Matthew Hopkins was an English witchhunter whose career flourished during the time of the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament...
, a self-described "witchhunter" who claimed to have been commissioned by Parliament to prosecute and execute witches. Hopkins was in fact never given an official mandate to hunt witches. Tony Tenser
Tony Tenser
Tony Tenser was an English-born film producer of Lithuanian-Jewish descent. He specialised in producing Exploitation film movies and founded his own production company Tigon British Film Productions in 1966, which also made more mainstream films such as Witchfinder General and other horror films...
, the founder and chief executive of Tigon, had read Bassett's book while it was still in galley
Galley proof
In printing and publishing, proofs are the preliminary versions of publications meant for review by authors, editors, and proofreaders, often with extra wide margins. Galley proofs may be uncut and unbound, or in some cases electronic...
form and purchased the rights on impulse prior to publication. Despite the novel being "tedious low-brow popular history", Tenser felt it "had some scope, had some breadth to it; there was canvas for a film." Tenser offered the film to Michael Reeves, who had just completed Tigon's The Sorcerers (1967), starring Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
.
Writing
Reeves provided a story outline which met with Tenser's enthusiastic approval. Tenser immediately began putting together a preliminary budget, and requested that Reeves quickly complete a full film script, stressing to Reeves that the production would need to commence by September of that year to avoid shooting during cold weather. Reeves called in his childhood friend Tom Baker (who had co-written The Sorcerers with Reeves) to assist him with the script. Reeves and Baker began drafting a screenplay with Donald PleasenceDonald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
firmly in mind as the film's star. However, once American International Pictures became involved in the production, they insisted that their contract star, Vincent Price, be given the lead, and Pleasence was dropped from the film. With the abrupt change of star, Reeves and Baker had to rethink their original concept of presenting Hopkins as "ineffective and inadequate...a ridiculous authority figure", which they had believed Pleasence could play to perfection. They knew the tall, imposing Price, with his long history of horror roles, would have to be more of a straightforward villain, and they made changes to their script accordingly.
As was required by law for British film productions of that time, the completed first draft of the screenplay was presented by Tenser to the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) on 4 August to determine if any possible censorship issues could be anticipated. On the same day, a preliminary report was issued by a BBFC examiner, who, noting that Tenser was an "ape", referred to the screenplay as "perfectly beastly" and "ghoulish". The script was returned to Tenser a few days later, with a more detailed report from the same examiner, which described the screenplay as "a study in sadism in which every detail of cruelty and suffering is lovingly dwelt on...a film which followed the script at all closely would run into endless censorship trouble." After a second draft was subsequently written and sent to the BBFC only eleven days after the first draft, the reaction was nearly the same. It was returned to Tenser with an "exhaustive list" of requirements in order to reduce the film's possible offensiveness.
Reeves and Baker completed a third and final draft that was "substantially toned down" in content from the previous attempts. This version of the screenplay, which was filmed with only a few minor revisions during the production, was missing many of the more explicit moments of violence described in the first submitted drafts: the death spasms of the pre-credit
Pre-credit
In film production, the pre-credit is the section of the film which is shown before the opening credits are shown.Many films will by common convention have a short scene before the credits to introduce characters who may, or may not, become crucial to the film's plot...
s hanging victim, Lowes getting stabbed fifteen times with a steel spike, and a sniper’s victim somersaulting through the air and slamming into a tree. A sequence depicting the Battle of Naseby
Battle of Naseby
The Battle of Naseby was the key battle of the first English Civil War. On 14 June 1645, the main army of King Charles I was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.-The Campaign:...
was to be filmed, during which a soldier’s head was to be cut off on screen. Most significantly, the film’s finale was completely altered. In the original ending, Stearne falls in with a group of gypsies and attempts to rape one of their women, who successfully fights off her attacker by plunging her thumbs into his eyes, blinding him. The gypsies then stake him to death. Marshall arrives and convinces the gypsies to assist him in ambushing Hopkins. Hopkins is viciously beaten by Marshall, who forces a “confession” out of the bloodied man. Marshall partially drowns Hopkins (whose thumbs have been tied to his feet), then finally hangs him. Tenser had previously expressed concerns regarding the scope of the Battle of Naseby sequence as well as the gypsy-ending, noting that these would both require the employment of additional groups of extras. He asked Reeves and Baker to remove the battle sequence and simplify the ending for the final draft.
Casting
- Vincent PriceVincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
as Matthew Hopkins. Decidedly not Michael Reeves’s choice for the part, this was the veteran horror star’s 75th film and his 17th for American International Pictures. Some of the performances he provided for his previous AIP movies had certain elements of campyCamp (style)Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
overactingOveractingOveracting is the exaggeration of gestures and speech when acting. It may be unintentional, particularly in the case of a bad actor, or be required for the role. For the latter, it is commonly used in comical situations or to stress the evil characteristics of a villain...
, but in Witchfinder he was subtle and deadly serious. The role was a great challenge for Price, as his frequent clashes with Reeves left him unsure as to what the director wanted (see “Filming” section below). Despite this, Price ultimately felt he delivered “one of the best performances I’ve ever given.” - Ian OgilvyIan OgilvyIan Raymond Ogilvy is an English film and television actor.-Early life:He was born in Woking, Surrey, England, the son of advertising executive Francis Ogilvy and actress Aileen Raymond .He was educated at Sunningdale School, Eton College and at the Royal Academy of...
as Richard Marshall. Ogilvy had been a friend of Reeves since they were teenagers, and the actor had appeared in many of the director’s amateur short films. Ogilvy had also starred in both of Reeves’s two previous feature films, Revenge of the Blood BeastThe She BeastThe She Beast is a 1966 British-Italian horror film written and directed by Michael Reeves. The film stars Barbara Steele and Ian Ogilvy...
and The Sorcerers, and was the natural first choice for the role of Witchfinders heroic lead. Describing his working relationship with Reeves, Ogilvy noted that “his mastery of the technical aspects was absolute”, but added “Mike never directed the actors. He always said he knew nothing about acting, and preferred to leave it up to us.” Ogilvy enjoyed working with Price, finding him to be “very funny, in a “queeny” sort of way.” - Hilary DwyerHilary DwyerHilary Dwyer is a former actress, businessperson and film producer.-Early life:Dwyer is the daughter of an Orthopaedic Surgeon. As a youth, she practiced ballet and became a talented pianist...
as Sara. Witchfinder was Dwyer’s debut feature film. With three years of television work behind her, she had been noticed by Tenser and put under contract with Tigon. She felt Reeves was “just wonderful…He was really inspiring to work with. And because it was my first film I didn’t know how lucky I was.” At 21, she found appearing in the love and rape scenes “stressful”. She would go on to make several more horror movies for AIP, most of them co-starring Price, before retiring from acting in the late 1970s. - Rupert DaviesRupert DaviesRupert Davies was a British actor. He remains best known for playing the title role in the BBC's 1960s television adaptation of Maigret, based on the Maigret novels written by Georges Simenon....
as John Lowes. Appearing as Dwyer’s uncle, Witchfinder was only one of several horror films the British character actorCharacter actorA character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
found himself in during the later stage of his career. Davies was not pleased when he discovered that the filming of his torture scenes was to be augmented with actual live rats placed on his body. The actor recalled Reeves instructing him, “Don’t move, Rupert! Don’t move! Wait until one of them starts nibbling your jaw then you might move your head a little.” - Robert RussellRobert Russell (English actor)Robert Russell was an English actor, perhaps best known for a memorable supporting role as John Stearne alongside Vincent Price in the classic British horror film Witchfinder General....
as John StearneJohn StearneJohn Stearne was an associate of Matthew Hopkins, a witchhunter active during the English Civil War. Stearne was known at various times as the witch–hunter, and "witch pricker". A family man and land owner from Lawshall near Bury St Edmunds, Stearne was 10 years older than Hopkins. He met...
. Playing Hopkins’s thuggish assistant, Russell certainly looked the part. However, as filming progressed, Reeves found the actor’s high pitched voice unsuitable for such a rough character, and after production was completed he had all of his dialogue dubbed by another actor, Jack Lynn (who also appeared in a small role as an innkeeper). - Patrick WymarkPatrick WymarkPatrick Wymark , was a British, stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Born Patrick Carl Cheeseman in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England...
as Oliver CromwellOliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
. Wymark received prominent billing for a “one-day bit partBit partA bit part is a supporting acting role with at least one line of dialogue . In British television, bit parts are referred to as under sixes...
”. - Other cast: Nicky HensonNicky HensonNicholas Victor Leslie "Nicky" Henson is an English actor who has portrayed many roles since 1963. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1977. He was born in London.-Early life:...
as Trooper Swallow, Wilfrid BrambellWilfrid BrambellHenry Wilfrid Brambell was an Irish film and television actor best known for his role in the British television series Steptoe and Son. He also performed alongside The Beatles in their film A Hard Day's Night, playing Paul McCartney's fictional grandfather.- Early life :Brambell was born in Dublin...
as Master Loach, Tony SelbyTony SelbyTony Selby is an English actor.He has appeared in many television programmes including a starring role in RAF National Service comedy Get Some In!, and a recurring role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who as the intergalactic conman Sabalom Glitz...
as Salter, Bernard KayBernard KayBernard Kay is a British actor with an extensive theatre, television and film repertoire.Kay began his working life as a reporter on Bolton Evening News, and a stringer for The Manchester Guardian. He was conscripted in 1946 and started acting in the army...
as Fisherman, Godfrey JamesGodfrey JamesGodfrey James is an English actor.His film appearances include: Witchfinder General, Blood on Satan's Claw, The Oblong Box, The Land That Time Forgot, Séance on a Wet Afternoon and At the Earth's Core....
as Webb, Michael Beint as Captain Gordon, John Treneman as Harcourt, Bill Maxwell as Gifford, "Morris Jarr" (pseudonymPseudonymA pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
for Paul Ferris) as Paul, Maggie Kimberly as Elizabeth, Peter Haigh as Lavenham Magistrate, Hira Talfrey as Hanged Woman, Anne Tirard as Old Woman, Peter Thomas as Farrier, Edward Palmer as Shepherd, David Webb as Jailer, Lee Peters as Sergeant, David Lyell as Footsoldier, Alf JointAlf JointAlf Joint was a British movie and television stunt performer, stunt coordinator and arranger....
as Sentry, Martin Terry as Hoxne Innkeeper, Jack Lynn as Brandeston Innkeeper, Beaufoy Milton as Priest, Dennis Thorne as Villager, Michael Segal as Villager, Toby Lennon as Old Man, Margaret NolanMargaret NolanMargaret Nolan, also known as Vicky Kennedy, is a British artist and a former actress and glamour model.-Career:...
as Girl at Inn, Sally DouglasSally DouglasSally Douglas was a glamorous British supporting actress of the 1960s and 70s.She appeared in over 30 films and television series that were mostly comedies....
as Girl at Inn, Donna Reading as Girl at Inn, Derek WareDerek Ware (actor)Derek Ware is an English actor and stuntman, active from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He is best known as a stuntman and fight arranger for the early seasons of Doctor Who, although he also worked on EastEnders, Z-Cars, and other British productions.-External links:...
as Boy at Hoxne Inn.
Filming
Production began on 18 September 1967 with a budget of £83,000. £32,000 was provided by AIP, with £12,000 for Price's expenditures and fees, and £20,000 for production costs. Philip Waddilove, a former BBC radio and record producer, contributed £5,000 in return for associate producer billing. Although the film would be Tigon's biggest budgeted title in its history, for AIP their part of the budget represented a relatively small expenditure of money. Not much in terms of real quality was expected by AIP heads Samuel Z. ArkoffSamuel Z. Arkoff
Samuel Zachary Arkoff was an American producer of B movies.-Life and career:Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa to a Russian Jewish family, Arkoff first studied to be a lawyer. Along with business partner James H. Nicholson and producer-director Roger Corman, he produced eighteen films...
and James H. Nicholson
James H. Nicholson
James Harvey Nicholson was an American film producer. He is best known as the co-founder, with Samuel Z. Arkoff, of American International Pictures.-Biography:...
, and the movie was intended to be nothing more than a tax write-off
Write-off
The term write-off describes a reduction in recognized value. In accounting terminology, it refers to recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, it refers to a reduction of taxable income as recognition of certain expenses required to produce the income...
.
The interiors were filmed in two specially converted aircraft hangars near Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds is a market town in the county of Suffolk, England, and formerly the county town of West Suffolk. It is the main town in the borough of St Edmundsbury and known for the ruined abbey near the town centre...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, which were leased for £1,500; this cost-measure resulted in much of the dialogue having to be re-recorded later, because the tin roofs of the hangars caused an echo. The exterior shots range from the Dunwich
Dunwich
Dunwich is a small town in Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.Dunwich was the capital of East Anglia 1500 years ago but the harbour and most of the town have since disappeared due to coastal erosion. Its decline began in 1286 when a sea surge hit the East Anglian coast, and...
Coast (for the scene with the fisherman) to Langley Park
Langley Park
Langley Park can refer to as:LANGLEY* Langley Park, County Durham, England* Langley Park, Maryland, United States** Langley Park , an estate listed on the National Register of Historic Places...
outside London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(for the scene where Stearne escapes capture). The tracking shot
Tracking shot
In motion picture terminology, a tracking shot is a segment in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly, a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken...
of the ambush after the opening credits was filmed at Black Park
Black Park
Black Park is a Country Park in Wexham, Buckinghamshire, England to the north of the A412 road between Slough and Iver Heath. It is managed by Buckinghamshire County Council...
, a location frequently used by Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
. Lavenham
Lavenham
Lavenham is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is noted for its 15th century church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walk. In the medieval period it was among the 20 wealthiest settlements in England...
Square, site of the witch-burning scene, was the real Lavenham Market Square; the crew lowered TV antennas and telephone wires and Waddilove hired a cherry picker
Cherry picker
A cherry picker , is a type of aerial work platform that consists of a platform or bucket at the end of a hydraulic lifting system.- Design :...
from a local utility company for £10, because the unit couldn't afford a camera crane
Crane shot
In filmmaking and video production a crane shot is a shot taken by a camera on a crane. The most obvious uses are to view the actors from above or to move up and away from them, a common way of ending a movie. Some filmmakers like to have the camera on a boom arm just to make it easier to move...
. The countryside vistas seen in the chase scenes on horseback were shot on the Stanford Battle Area
Stanford Battle Area
Stanford Battle Area, better known as the Stanford Training Area , is a British Army training area situated in the English county of Norfolk. The area is approximately in size; it is some north of the town of Thetford and south-west of the city of Norwich...
—the producer, through connections with the government, was able to lease parts of the area. The church used in the film is St John The Evangelist
John the Evangelist
Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...
in Rushford in Norfolk
Rushford, Norfolk
Rushford is a small village in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the north bank of the River Little Ouse, east of the town of Thetford and south of the main A1066 road. The river forms the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk and, until 1894, Rushford was in both counties...
. The moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
drowning and hanging scenes were filmed at Kentwell Hall
Kentwell Hall
Kentwell Hall is a stately home in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It includes the hall, outbuildings, and a rare breeds farm and gardens. Most of the current building facade dates from the mid 16th century, but the origins of Kentwell are much earlier, with references in the Domesday Book of...
. The climax of the film was shot at Orford Castle
Orford Castle
Orford Castle is a castle in the village of Orford, Suffolk, England, located 12 miles northeast of Ipswich, with views over the Orford Ness. It was built between 1165 and 1173 by Henry II of England to consolidate royal power in the region. The well-preserved keep, described by historian R...
, on the coast of East Anglia, which is an English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
property. Filming wrapped as scheduled on 13 November 1967.
The production went relatively smoothly except for the unrelentingly antagonistic relationship that developed between Reeves and Price. Reeves kept it no secret from everyone associated with the production that the American actor was not his choice for the role, and the director's comments had reached the actor back in the U.S. Reeves refused the courtesy of meeting Price at London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
when he arrived in England, a "deliberate snub calculated to offend both Price and AIP." "Take me to your goddamn young genius," Price reportedly said to co-producer Philip Waddilove, who greeted the actor at the airport instead of Reeves. When Price went on location and met Reeves for the first time, the young director told the actor, "I didn't want you, and I still don't want you, but I'm stuck with you!"
According to Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
in his book, Nightmare Movies, when Reeves made a suggestion on the set, Price objected and told the director: "I've made 87 [sic] films. What have you done?" And Reeves responded: "I've made three good ones." “Reeves hated me,” Price later recalled. “He didn’t want me at all for the part. I didn’t like him, either. It was one of the first times in my life that I’ve been in a picture where the director and I just clashed.”
Price felt that all the actors on the set had a difficult time with the director, explaining: "Michael Reeves could not communicate with actors. He would stop me and say, 'Don't move your head like that.' And I would say, 'Like what? What do you mean?' He'd say, 'There — you're doing it again. Don't do that'." Price reportedly became so upset with Reeves that he refused to watch the film's dailies
Dailies
Dailies, in filmmaking, are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. They are so called because usually at the end of each day, that day's footage is developed, synched to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director and some members...
.
In one scene, Reeves needed Price to shoot his flintlock
Flintlock
Flintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. The term may also apply to the mechanism itself. Introduced at the beginning of the 17th century, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the doglock, matchlock and wheellock...
between the ears of the horse he was riding. When Price realized that Reeves had ordered that an actual blank charge was to be used so the weapon’s puff of smoke would be visible, he immediately shouted, “What? You want the gun to go bang between the ears of this fucking nag? How do you think he’s going to react?” However, Reeves insisted and, when the gun went off, the horse reared and sent Price tumbling onto the ground. Price was not hurt but he was extremely angered by the incident.
On the final day of shooting, Price showed up on the set visibly drunk. Reeves seethed to Waddilove, “He’s drunk–how dare he be drunk on my set! I’ll kill the bastard.” Waddilove soon discovered that Reeves planned to inflict painful revenge on the actor. During preparations for Price’s violent death scene, the director was overheard instructing Ogilvy to “really lay into Vincent” with the stage axe. Although when the scene was filmed Ogilvy indeed responded with blows that were not faked, Waddilove had earlier found some foam padding and fitted Price’s costume with it, protecting the actor from any injury.
Despite the tension between the two men during the production, when Price saw the movie the following year, he admitted that he finally understood what Reeves had been after and wrote the young director a ten page letter praising the film. Reeves wrote Price back, "I knew you would think so." Years after Reeves's death, Price said, "... I realized what he wanted was a low-key, very laid-back, menacing performance. He did get it, but I was fighting him almost every step of the way. Had I known what he wanted, I would have cooperated."
In addition to his difficult relationship with Price, Reeves had to deal with a few production problems during the shooting. On the first day, Price was thrown from his horse and sent back to his hotel to recover. The actor returned to work the following day. Towards the end of filming, a strike was called when the British technicians union learned the production company was not hiring a large enough crew as required by union rules. After an extra man was hired, the crew resumed working. On two occasions, Reeves was short of actors. Waddilove replaced an absent actor as a Roundhead officer during Wymark's one-day cameo scene. Waddilove's wife, Susi, played one of the women in the animal enclosure during the witch-burning sequence.
The film's violent climax was edited together in its present shape due to a continuity problem. In the screenplay, the soldier played by Nicky Henson was supposed to shoot both Price and Ogilvy to death. However, the actor only had one flintlock pistol, which had been clearly established in previous scenes, and was therefore only able to shoot one person. When the error was discovered, Reeves immediately told the actor: "All right, just shoot Vincent and I'll get Ian to scream and shout and go mad and freeze frame
Freeze frame shot
A freeze frame shot is used when one shot is printed in a single frame several times, in order to make an interesting illusion of a still photograph....
on Hilary Dwyer screaming."
Several "alternate" nude scenes were filmed during the production. Set in a pub
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
and involving local "wenches", the sequences were reportedly solely intended for the movie's German release version. Reeves refused to take part in the filming of these sequences and they were completed by the crew after the "regular" versions of the scenes had been shot, with Tigon's Tenser acting as director. According to Waddilove, Louis M. "Deke" Heywood appeared at the location only to ensure those additional scenes were filmed. The credits read, "Additional scenes by Louis M Heywood." According to Ogilvy, this was an in-joke
In-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
because for Reeves, "additional scenes" meant "some prick of a producer putting his oar in and messing up what the director had done." None of these scenes were made available in the theatrical versions released in the U.S. or UK, although they were included in the videotape version released in the mid-1980s by HBO Home Video.
Censorship
For its time, Witchfinder General was considered an unusually sadistic film experience. British film censor John TrevelyanJohn Trevelyan
John Trevelyan was Secretary of the Board of the British Board of Film Censors from 1958–1971.Trevelyan was born in Bromley, England. He brought a more liberal approach to the role of Chief Censor than his predecessors claiming: "We are paid to have dirty minds". However his approach was harshly...
was reportedly a distant cousin of Michael Reeves and accepted the director’s good intentions when Reeves explained why he felt it was necessary to include such intense violence in the movie. Trevelyan nonetheless argued, “The film gave the impression that it was exploiting violence, and in particular, sadism for commercial reasons.” Consequently, the film was cut extensively by the British Board of Film Censors
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
for its UK release. Nearly four complete minutes of what was described as “excesses of sadistic brutality” were removed. Reeves agreed to make some of the initial minor cuts himself, but when additional and more extensive demands were made he adamantly refused to take part in any further editing.
Trevelyan claimed that Reeves later wrote him a letter admitting that the cuts were not as harmful as he had expected. No copy of the letter has ever surfaced, and based on several other comments the director subsequently made about how the edits "ruined the film", Reeves's biographer Benjamin Halligan believes Trevelyan may have somehow "misremembered" the existence of this letter, confusing it with an earlier missive from the director in which he made a plea for the BBFC's leniency.
Response
Even the truncated version was met with considerable controversy by UK film critics. Dilys PowellDilys Powell
Elizabeth Dilys Powell was a British journalist, author and film critic.She was born into a middle class family in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. Her mother was Mary Jane Lloyd; her father, Thomas Powell, a bank manager...
in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
complained “…17th century hanging, burning, raping, screaming, and Vincent Price as England’s prize torture-overseer. Peculiarly nauseating.” The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
felt the film was filled with “gratuitous sadism.” Margaret Hinxman of The Sunday Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
dismissed it as a “sadistic extravaganza.” Nonetheless, several critics felt the film was worth accolades. John Russell Taylor
John Russell Taylor
John Russell Taylor is an English critic and author. He is the author of critical studies of British theatre; of critical biographies of such important figures in Anglo-American film as Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, Vivien Leigh, and Ingrid Bergman; of Strangers in Paradise: The...
in the London Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
Saturday Review said the film “…is quite happily and deliberately a horror film: that is to say, it has no particular pretensions to being anything else…There is much in it which would win Michael Reeves an important reputation if he were dealing with some more pretentious, but fundamentally no more serious subject…Mr. Reeves is no longer merely promising. He already has real achievements behind him: not merely good horror films, but good films, period.” Films and Filming noted, “Witchfinder General has no explicit ‘message’, but it does say something about the springs of despair and it says it forcefully. It is a very frightening film…Matthew Hopkins is the best of Price’s recent performances. Witchfinder General is emphatically not a horror film; it is, however, a very horrifying one…” Monthly Film Bulletin
Monthly Film Bulletin
The Monthly Film Bulletin was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a narrow arthouse release. The MFB was edited in the mid-1950s by David Robinson, in the late...
observed, "Not since Peeping Tom
Peeping Tom (film)
Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological thriller directed by Michael Powell and written by the World War II cryptographer and polymath Leo Marks. The title derives from the slang expression 'peeping Tom' describing a voyeur...
has a film aroused such an outcry about nastiness and gratuitous violence as this one...the tone of the film is oddly muted, with torture and death in plenty, but viewed matter-of-factly and without stress...Throughout the whole film there is a vivid sense of a time out of joint, which comes as much from the stray groups of soldiers who skirmish against unseen attackers in the woods or hang wearily about by the wayside waiting for battle to commence, as from the bloody crimes committed in the name of religion by Matthew Hopkins."
Playwright Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
was particularly repulsed by Witchfinder. In his regular column in The Listener, published eight days after the film's release, Bennett explained how he felt horror films should always be "punctuated by belly laughs" and attacked Reeves's completely humourless movie as "the most persistently sadistic and morally rotten film I have seen. It was a degrading experience by which I mean it made me feel dirty." Although Reeves was infuriated, his response indicated that he believed Bennett's reaction was proof that his decision to include such extreme violence was the correct approach to the material. In his letter published in The Listener, Reeves noted: "Surely the most immoral thing in any form of entertainment is the conditioning of the audience to accept and enjoy violence...Violence is horrible, degrading and sordid. Insofar as one is going to show it on the screen at all, it should be presented as such - and the more people it shocks into sickened recognition of these facts the better. I wish I could have witnessed Mr. Bennett frantically attempting to wash away the `dirty' feeling my film gave him. It would have been proof of the fact that Witchfinder General works as intended."
AIP heads Arkoff and Nicholson had originally contributed their portion of the budget as a tax write-off, but when they were screened the completed film they were astonished by its quality. Nicholson told Louis Heyward, "It is one of the best we have gotten from England. Everybody thinks this is about the best production in the Poe series for the past few years." Arkoff noted that "Michael Reeves brought out some elements in Vincent that hadn't been seen in a long time. Vincent was more savage in the picture. Michael really brought out the balls in him. I was surprised how terrifying Vincent was in that...I hadn't expected it."
In the U.S., the film was not subject to any censorship at all, and was released virtually intact to AIP's usual mix of drive-ins
Drive-in theater
A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars.The screen can be as simple as a...
and grindhouse
Grindhouse
A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. It is named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on 42nd Street in New York City, where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease were featured.- History :...
s. However, in an attempt to link the film with Roger Corman’s earlier Edgar Allan Poe series of films, it was retitled The Conqueror Worm. Brief prologue
Prologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
and epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
narrations (by Price) taken from Poe’s poem were added to justify the new title. As Danny Peary noted in his Cult Movies
Cult Movies (book)
Cult Movies is a 1981 book by Danny Peary, consisting of a series of essays regarding what Peary described as the 100 most representative examples of the cult film phenomenon...
book, the film went nearly unnoticed by critics during its U.S. release: “The few snoozing trade reviewers who saw it treated it as just another entry in AIP’s Edgar Allan Poe series…and gave it such dismal notices that future bookings were scarce." Hollywood Citizen News was appalled by the film: “A disgrace to the producers and scripters, and a sad commentary on the art of filmmaking…a film with such bestial brutality and orgiastic sadism, one wonders how it ever passed customs to be released in this country.” The trade journal Box Office noted that: “Fans of the horror film will be glad to know that Vincent Price is back to add another portrait to his gallery of arch-fiends…bathed in the most stomach-churning gore imaginable…” Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
opined that "Dwyer gives evidence of acting talent, but she and all principals are hampered by Michael Reeves's mediocre script and ordinary direction." Despite the lack of critical support, the movie was a modest success stateside, earning $1.5 million for AIP according to Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...
magazine. In his biography of Reeves, Benjamin Halligan claims the film made $10 million in the U.S.
The film's retitling by AIP caused a minor fracas in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. A group of British sailors had seen the movie at the base theater under its original title and one week later unwittingly saw the movie again in a local theater, playing under the American release title. They immediately demanded their money back and, when the manager refused, they tipped over trashcans, threw popcorn at the screen and "almost tore the theatre apart." The manager changed his mind and paid the sailors back for the price of the tickets, and sent a bill to AIP for the damages.
Very soon after its initial release in the spring of 1968, several critics began championing the film in the UK and U.S. David Pirie
David Pirie
David Pirie is a screenwriter, film producer, film critic, and novelist.As a screenwriter, Pirie has written numerous mysteries and horror-themed works, mostly for television, including recently the hit ITV series Murderland starring Robbie Coltrane . He was nominated for a BAFTA for his...
, who wrote extensively and enthusiastically about the film in his 1973 book A Heritage of Horror, reviewed the film in 1971 for Time Out, commenting: “…one of the most personal and mature statements in the history of British cinema…The performances are generally excellent, and no film before or since has used the British countryside in quite the same way.” Danny Peary noted, “The Conqueror Worm is a stunning film in many ways, but probably Reeves’s greatest achievement is that he was able to maintain an extraordinary momentum throughout, until the film ends as it began, with a woman (this time Sara) screaming.” In 2000, Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm is a British film critic and historian.Malcolm was educated at Eton College and Oxford University. He worked for several decades as a film critic for The Guardian, having previously been an amateur jockey and the paper's first horse racing correspondent. In 1977, he was a member of...
included Witchfinder General as part of his series The Century of Films, a list of what he considered to be the one hundred most "artistically or culturally important" movies of the 20th Century. Malcolm asserted that the film "is one of the most compulsively watchable ever made in Britain" and "transcends its genre with the sheer panache of its making." In 2005, J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
James Lewis Hoberman , also known as J. Hoberman, is an American film critic. He is currently the senior film critic for The Village Voice, a post he has held since 1988.-Education:...
of the Village Voice stated that the film “…has long been a cult item -- in part because its talented 25-year-old director, Michael Reeves, died of a drug overdose before [sic] the film's release, but mainly because it is an extraordinarily bleak story of political evil...Reeves shot on location and the movie has a robust autumnal quality perfectly matched by Price's overripe performance…it remains contemporary, and even frightening, in its evocation of cynical Puritanism and mass deception.”
In his 2007 book, Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’, Lee Fratantuono described Witchfinder General as a modern retelling of the main themes of Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
's epic Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
, and its central image of the unrelenting nature of fury and madness and its power to corrupt essentially good heroes. Fratantuono has written that in the film Reeves “has captured exactly the point of Virgil’s great epic of madness and its horrifying conclusion.”
Influence
Writer Mark Thomas McGee noted that Witchfinder General "did fantastic business and kicked off a second wave of Edgar Allan Poe movies" produced by American International Pictures, including Gordon HesslerGordon Hessler
Gordon Hessler is a British film and television director, screenwriter, and producer.He was raised in England and studied at the University of Reading. While a teenager, he moved to the United States and directed a series of short films and documentaries...
's The Oblong Box starring Price (originally scheduled to be directed by Reeves but handed over to Hessler after Reeves bowed out a week prior to production) and Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971). Hessler's Cry of the Banshee
Cry Of The Banshee
Cry of the Banshee is a 1970 horror film directed by Gordon Hessler, starring Vincent Price as an evil witchhunter. The film was released by American International Pictures. The film co stars Elizabeth Bergner, Hilary Dwyer, and Hugh Griffith...
(1970), which featured Witchfinder co-stars Price and Hilary Dwyer, was also vaguely associated with Poe in advertisements ("Edgar Allan Poe Probes New Depths of Terror!"); it was dismissed by Allmovie as "a rehashing of Witchfinder General." This new Poe "series" was short-lived and effectively over by 1971.
According to AIP's Louis Heyward, Witchfinder General "was very successful in Germany—it was the most successful of the violence pictures—it started a vogue." "Copycat" films financed, or partially financed, by German production companies included Mark of the Devil (1970), with Herbert Lom
Herbert Lom
Herbert Lom is a Czech film actor, best known for his role as former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movie series.-Life and career:...
and Udo Kier
Udo Kier
Udo Kier is a German actor, known primarily for his work in horror and exploitation movies.-Early life:...
, Night of the Blood Monster (1970), directed by Jesus Franco
Jesús Franco
Jesús "Jess" Franco is a Spanish film director, writer, cinematographer and actor. His career took off in 1961 with his cult classic The Awful Dr. Orloff, which received wide distribution in the United States and England...
and starring Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
, and Hexen geschändet und zu Tode gequält (1973), released in the U.S. years later on video as Mark of the Devil Part II.
Tigon's own Blood on Satan's Claw
Blood on Satan's Claw
Blood on Satan's Claw is a 1970 British horror film made by Tigon British Film Productions and directed by Piers Haggard. The film was written by Robert Wynne-Simmons, with additions by Piers Haggard, and stars Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden and Barry Andrews...
(1971) was produced "as a successor, in spirit if not in story" to Witchfinder General, and borrowed Reeves's usage of "the usually tranquil English countryside as a place of terror."
Some critics maintain that Ken Russell
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell was an English film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. He attracted criticism as being obsessed with sexuality and the church...
's The Devils
The Devils (film)
The Devils is a 1971 British historical drama directed by Ken Russell and starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. It is based partially on the 1952 book The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, and partially on the 1960 play The Devils by John Whiting, also based on Huxley's book...
(1971) was influenced by the commercial success of Reeves's film, with one writer calling Russell's movie "the apex of the ‘historical’ witch-persecution films started by Witchfinder General." However, Russell has noted that he hated Reeves's film, describing it as "one of the worst movies I have ever seen and certainly the most nauseous."
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
has referred to the film as a prime example of a short-lived sub-genre he called "folk horror", grouping it with Blood on Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man.
The film has had a minor influence on heavy metal music
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
. In 1980, the movie inspired a band to call themselves Witchfinder General
Witchfinder General (band)
Witchfinder General is a doom metal band from Stourbridge, England. They were part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene and have been cited as a major influence on the doom metal genre.-Biography:...
. The group broke up in 1983. Another metal band, Cathedral
Cathedral (band)
Cathedral are a doom metal band from Coventry, England. The group forged a link between early doom metal and a 1990s extreme metal aesthetic, making doom slower and heavier. Their debut album, Forest of Equilibrium, is considered a classic of the genre. They later on changed their doom style,...
, released a 1996 EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
titled Hopkins (The Witchfinder General), featuring a song of the same name. That song also appeared on their album, The Carnival Bizarre and the music video was included as an extra on the UK DVD release of Reeves's film. And Electric Wizard
Electric Wizard
Electric Wizard are a stoner metal band from Dorset, England that formed in 1993. The band have since recorded seven albums, at least three of which are now considered to be landmarks of their genre: their self-title debut, Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics..., and Dopethrone...
have a song from their 2000 album Dopethrone
Dopethrone
Dopethrone is the third full-length album by the doom metal band Electric Wizard. It was released in 2000 through Rise Above Records and re-released by the same label in 2004 and 2007 with an extra song....
called "I, The Witchfinder", although its lyrics indicate it may also have been inspired by Mark of the Devil.
The film was the inspiration for a BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
play Vincent Price and The Horror of The English Blood Beast by Matthew Broughton, first broadcast in March 2010.
Historical accuracy
While some reviewers have praised the film for its ostensible “historical accuracy”, others have strongly questioned its adherence to historical fact. Dr. Malcolm Gaskill, FellowFellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
and former Director of Studies in history at Churchill College, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, and author of Witchfinders: A 17th-Century English Tragedy, critiqued the film for the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
History website, calling it “a travesty of historical truth.” While acknowledging that “there is much to be said in favour of Witchfinder General–but as a film, not as history”, based purely on its level of historical accuracy Gaskill gave the film “3 stars” on a scale of 0–10.
Gaskill had several complaints regarding the film’s “distortions and flights of fancy”. While Hopkins and his assistant John Stearne really did torture, try and hang John Lowes, the vicar of Brandeston, Gaskill notes that other than those basic facts the film’s narrative is “almost completely fictitious.” In the movie, the fictional character of Richard Marshall pursues Hopkins relentlessly to death, but in reality the “gentry, magistrates and clergy, who undermined his work in print and at law” were in pursuit of Hopkins throughout his (brief) murderous career, as he was never legally sanctioned to perform his witch hunting duties. And Hopkins wasn’t axed to death, he “withered away from consumption
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
at his Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
home in 1647”. Vincent Price was 56 when he played Hopkins, but “the real Hopkins was in his 20s”. According to Gaskill, one of the film’s “most striking errors is its total omission of court cases: witches are simply tortured, then hanged from the nearest tree.”
Home video versions
Censorship and musical rights issues kept a complete, pristine version of Witchfinder General from being released on videotapeVideotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
, laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
or DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
for many years. Although uncensored theatrical prints have been available for archival showings in the U.S. for several years, video releases of the title were repeatedly compromised.
In 2001, a DVD was released in the UK by Metrodome consisting of two versions, the complete “Director’s Cut” containing the four minutes of previously censored violence, and an “Export Version”, also with the violence intact but including brief shots of nudity added to certain sequences. In both versions, the four minutes of violence have been taken from what has been described as “a grainy VHS source.” Some critics complained that watching the film in this manner was an often “jarring” or “distracting” viewing experience. In addition, the soundtrack of the newly inserted nude shots had “brief snippets of audio repeating itself because of the timing involved in inserting the previously cut footage”.
In the U.S., while censorship of the film has never been a factor, the film nonetheless experienced numerous delays in appearing on home video in its originally intended form. When Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
acquired the rights to many of AIP’s titles in the 1980s, they were unable to also purchase rights to the musical soundtracks of some of the films, and added synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
scores by composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Kendall Schmidt in lieu of the original music. Witchfinder General was one of these “problem” titles. For years, Paul Ferris’s acclaimed full orchestral score was not available in the U.S. on home video releases, although it was included on theatrical and syndicated television prints. The HBO videotape release from the late 1980’s utilized the Orion version, which also included the nude inserts. Tim Lucas
Tim Lucas
Tim Lucas is a film critic, biographer, novelist, screenwriter, blogger, and publisher/editor of the video review magazine Video Watchdog.-Biography and early career:...
noted that the spoken soundtrack to these newly added “spicy” shots “doesn’t match it correctly."
In 2005, writer Steve Biodrowski reported that a “definitive version” of the film had been restored and would be released in the U.S. on DVD by MGM-UA
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
in August of that year, as part of their Midnite Movies series. After Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
purchased the rights to the MGM film library, James Owsley (Director of Restorations at MGM) advised Philip Waddilove (one of Witchfinder Generals producers) that the date of the DVD release was postponed until October 2006. In an interview conducted in August 2005, Waddilove revealed that he had learned Sony had "little interest" in the film and no official announcement of any pending DVD release had ever been made. Waddilove noted that "the principal at Sony doesn't greenlight DVDs of anything older than ten years!!" However, the film was indeed released under the Midnite Movies banner on September 11, 2007 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of the 20th Century Fox film studio. It was established in 1976 as Magnetic Video Corporation, and later as 20th Century Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video and FoxVideo, Inc....
. The release includes the complete, uncut version of the film with the Ferris score intact. Price's opening and closing narration tacked on to the AIP Conqueror Worm version, as well as the alternate nude sequences, were not available on this release, but they were included in the UK Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
release from Odeon Entertainment issued in June 2011. The Blu-ray utilized the same high-definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
transfer as the 2007 MGM DVD and was completely uncut.