Witchfinder General comes close to being the ultimate revenge fantasy. It is unique in other ways too. Vincent Price gives possibly his all-time best performance, working with a director who didn‘t want Price to start with. Third, it is about as grim as movies get. Not as bloody as a few, but bleak.
For years, it could only be found in a version prepared for the USA, retitled The Conqueror Worm, to make it sound like an Edgar Allan Poe movie. (That version ended with Vincent
Price reading the last lines of Poe’s poem The Conqueror Worm.) Because of extreme violence, it was often shown with massive cuts.
Price’s reading is effective and the lines of poetry do complement the story you have seen. But actually the story has nothing to do with Poe’s fiction. Instead, it was based on a novel by Ronald Bassett. Bassett’s novel is loosely based on a real man, Matthew Hopkins who worked as a witchfinder in England during the 1600’s.
One of the people who produced this movie describes Hopkins as a bad man who makes the people around him bad too. You could argue that Hopkins only takes a festering situation and exploits it.
A civil war in England filled with great religious persecution already rages. Different religious groups (mainly, Protestants and Catholics) are anxious to destroy other groups. Hopkins gives them an easy way to do this, by denouncing their enemies as witches. Again and again, you see Hopkins and his assistant Stearne dragging people away, then torturing them or killing them, while others look on, some with satisfaction, some with blank looks.
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A world with all decency gone
Hatred, jealousy, religious intolerance all contribute to what Hopkins is allowed, and encouraged to do. But is he truly a bad man?
You can’t possibly see him another way. The movie never gives you the least reason to justify anything Hopkins does. He is only for himself, torturing anyone he’s able to, and using the torture for whatever money, power and women he can get along the way. The script does not go very deep into any psychological motivation for his actions; all he knows is inflicting pain.
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Matthew Hopkins–man without conscience
Hopkins’ effects are seen most on the hero, a farmer-turned-soldier, Richard Marshall. The script does not try to analyze Marshall deeply either. He is more of an Everyman in a Hell-ish place and time than someone you get to know deeply.
Hopkins is responsible for the death of Marshall’s old friend John Lowes. Lowes is also the guardian of Sara, Marshall’s bride- to- be.
Marshall is torn between his love for his wife, and his vow to
kill Hopkins. He doesn’t know yet that he actually may have to choose between the two. The civil war is changing his life…too fast. He has just killed for the first time. By doing this (shooting a sniper) he saved his superior officer and became a hero.
But clearly, soldiering has brought out the violence in him too. He tries his best to resist this; when Sara says to him “The army has taught you rough manners,” he struggles to be tender with her. But hatred for Hopkins will make that impossible.
One of the reasons Witchfinder General works so well is that it
sweeps you up into this deadly desire for revenge…then clearly
shows you the actual revenge. It’s the classic case of: Be careful what you wish for…
Reeves’ outlook is a bleak one. Marshall is someone who truly wants to do the right thing. He wants no harm to come to Sara and to Lowes. When Hopkins deceives Sara into having sex with him, then has Lowes killed, Marshall promises Sara to take revenge. But again and again, you get the sense that the world is not a just universe. Already it’s clear that it is not a safe place.
In directing, Reeves works hard to show the contrasts between the calm, serene beauty of nature, and the brutality of people. The movie starts in a pristine forest—sunlight actually creating a cross between the trees. All is quiet.
Then, the sounds of hammering. It is a man putting together a gallows to hang a witch. Soon she will be dragged into this scene, with not a soul doing anything to protect her. Many in the crowd look happy to see her die, many seem totally uncaring. Nowhere do you see the least sign of compassion.
Lowes’ neighbors hate him and are willing to see him die because of their religious differences. But if he has wronged them in any way, the movie never shows it. Later, Marshall tells Sara she will be safe in another town, Lavenham. They find the same hatred and bigotry exist there too.
To get his revenge on Hopkins, Marshall is willing to put Sara’s life in jeopardy, actually see her tortured. It is as though his love for her has been held in suspension; revenge must come first. Sara gets a long, intense look at the man Marshall has become…with devastating results. At the end of the movie, both Sara and
Marshall seem lost to insanity—possibly forever.
Witchfinder’s director, Michael Reeves, was forced to use Vincent Price as Hopkins in order to get financial backing from the American film company AIP. The movie was actually produced by a small English company, Tigon. Reeves wanted an English actor,
Donald Pleasence, ( Dr. Loomis from the mental institution in
Halloween I and II).
I am a big fan of Pleasence. If you can find it check out the obscure Charlton Heston movie Will Penny (one of Heston’s personal favorites) for Pleasence’s incredible performance. A truly scary portrayal, a man you pray you’ll never run into. I caught myself more than once, picturing Pleasence doing some of the scenes Vincent Price was doing, and very effectively.
Having said that, I think that Reeves got most of what he wanted out of Vincent Price. Price’s tendency to ham it up, that slight wink to the audience; these are nowhere to be found. Price is cruel, unprincipled, cold as ice. But he never overdoes his performance.
A lot has been written about Reeves’ outlook, which is bleak, especially for a movie made in 1968. As in Night of the Living Dead, you find few heroes able to follow their ideals and show people a path out of prejudice, festering jealousy, and apathy. In this climate, the few good people are swept away in the flood.
They are quickly turned into victims, or blind seekers of revenge.
For a long while, Hopkins can corrupt all who listen to him