Archive of films Witchfinder General / Witchfinder General

United Kingdom
1968, 87 min

Section: Midnight Screenings
Year: 2008

Witch hunter Matthew Hopkins – brilliantly played by Vincent Price - tours Civil War England, using cruel torture to extract “confessions” from his victims. Director Michael Reeves’ gory, influential period piece combines visceral horror with a dry meditation on the corrupting power of violence.

Synopsis

Witch hunter Matthew Hopkins tours Civil War England, employing cruel torture to extract ‘confessions’ from his victims. When he rapes a young woman, her lover, a soldier, seeks revenge. Later acclaimed as the best film of Reeves’ sadly brief career, the explicit depiction of depravity and torture in Witchfinder General disgusted many critics upon first release. A realist in the mould of his idol, Don Siegel, Reeves was fascinated by the corrupting power of violence. His film is superb visceral exploitation cinema, but it manages also to dryly draw attention to societal acceptance, and normalisation, of state-condoned brutality. Veteran thespian Price and young hotshot director Reeves had a frosty relationship. But Reeves somehow coaxed a chillingly low-key performance from his star, entirely at odds with his usual flamboyance, but just right for the sombre mood of the film. Beautifully shot in unspoilt Suffolk countryside, the peaceful backdrop makes the grim horror of the narrative all the more shocking.

About the director

Michael Reeves (b. 1944, London; d. 1969), a keen cineaste from an early age, was educated at King’s Mead, an ivy-clad English public school, where he wrote film reviews for the school magazine. He worked in a minor capacity for Don Siegel, after flying to the US and turning up unannounced on the director’s doorstep; and made tea on the set of Jack Cardiff’s The Long Ships (1963). In Italy, producer Paul Maslansky hired him as 2nd assistant director on the horror film Il castello dei morti vivi (1964); with Maslansky’s help, Reeves financed, co-wrote and directed The She Beast (1965) (featuring scenes later reworked in Witchfinder General). Back in England, he directed The Sorcerers (1967) and Witchfinder General for Tigon. Reeves’ career was tragically cut short when he died of an accidental barbiturate overdose in 1969.

Contacts

BFI
21 Stephen Street, W1T 1LN, London
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 207 255 1444
Fax: +44 207 436 7950
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.bfi.org.uk

Hollywood Classics
Suite 31, Beaufort Court, Admirals Way, E14 9XL, London
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 207 517 7525
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.hollywoodclassics.com

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About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Midnight Screenings

Director:	Michael Reeves
Screenplay:	Michael Reeves, Tom Baker
Dir. of Photography:	John Coquillon
Music:	Paul Ferris
Editor:	Howard Lanning
Producer:	Arnold Louis Miller
Production:	Tigon British Productions Ltd.
Cast:	Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer, Nicky Henson, Patrick Wymark
Contact:	BFI, Hollywood Classics

Guests

Vic Pratt

Film Institution Rep.