Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Witchfinder General
The Conqueror Worm / Der Hexenjäger

UK 1968
produced by
Tigon/AIP
directed by Michael Reeves
starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer (= Hilary Heath), Rupert Davies, Robert Russell, Patrick Wymark, Wilfrid Brambell, Michael Beint, Nicky Henson, John Trenaman, William Maxwell, Tony Selby, Bernard Kay
written by Michael Reeves, Tom Baker (II), based on a book by Ronald Bassett, music by Paul Ferris

Matthew Hopkins

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro


1845: In an England torn by civil war, where gouvernmental jurisdiction is scarce, the money grabbing unscrupulous self-appointed witchhunter Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price) roams the countryside, especially the East that is already controlled by Cromwell's (Patrick Wymark) army.

& so it happens that he & his partner & torture-master John Stearne (Robert Russell) come to the small village of Brandiston, where the priest John Lowes (Rupert Davies) is accused of witchcraft by some villagers who think him to be a Royalist. Soon Hopkins & Stearne start torturing the man to get a confession from him, but when Hopkins lays eyes on his niece Sarah (Hilary Dwyer), he decides he has to have the woman at any cost ... & when she offers him her body in order to keep her uncle from further torture he happily agrees.

For a time, everything seems to go well, as Hopkins, as long as he makes nightly visits to Sarah, won't allow Stearne or anyone to lay hands on the priest. But then, when Hopkins is out, Stearne decides to have a little fun with Sarah on his own & rapes her. When Hopkins learns about this, he feels Sarah is spoilt for him, & executes the priest & several other witches publicly before moving on.

A short time later, Richard (Ian Ogilvy), a soldier in Cromwell's army & fiancé of Sarah, learns about this though & decides on the spot to take revenge, even if this means deserting, which almost costs him both his career & even his life when his superior learns of it. Only the fact that he once saved this superior's life now saves his own.

But when Richard gets an order to capture the English Kingm before he can escape to France, he sees another chance to do a little witchhunter-hunting on the side, & soon he can track down Hopkins to another small village - unfortunately the same small village Richard has moved Sarah to to save her from the mischievous villagers of Brandiston. & what's even more unfortunate is that Hopkins has learned about Richard tracking him, & has decided to turn the tables on him, accusing both him & the girl of witchcraft. & he would be successful too, as he & Stearne succeed in arrestuing the couple & bringing them down to their torture dungeon, but they havenT' taken into account Richard's 2 fellow soldiers, who will stop at nothing to save Richard, by now a captain ...

In the end though, they can do nothing more but to shoot Hopkins dead as an act of mercy when Richard frantically mutilates him with an axe, & all the while, Sarah is screaming, having gone mad from all the horrors.

 

Witchfinder General is today rightly considered as one of the milestones of the horror-genre, a no-nonsense macabre parable about human atrocities in times of instability & war, that would deliver its serious message in an entertaining context though, unembarassingly mixing history- & horror-elements (& even boldly adding a little bit of Western flavour), all complemented by an atmospheric direction & overall great performances - especially by Vincent Price, who had a rare opportunity that he could be equally great as a restrained actor as he was as the almost comedic ham - who as a consequence at this point in his career played almost exclusively in horror-comedies.

For American distribution, the film was retitled The Conquerer Worm by its American co-producer AIP, which was responsible for part of the budget & for the casting of Vincent Price, who then was an AIP contract player. The Conquerer Worm is the title of an Edgar Allan Poe poem that had virtually nothing to do with Witchfinder General, but the title was tagged on anyhow as AIP wanted to sell the movie in the States as part of their even by then vaning Edgar Allan Poe-cycle - an effort that is no longer understandable from today's point of view, given the cult status of the movie today, but made some sense back then.

Witchfinder General was quite a success in its time, too, & spawned many, invariably inferior but sometimes fairly interesting, imitations & rip-offs, most notably the infamous Hexen bis auf's Blut gequält/Mark of the Devil, Jess Franco's Der Hexentöter von Blackmoor/The Bloody Judge, & even Ken Russell's The Devils.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Witchfinder General
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Witchfinder General here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find Witchfinder General at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!