Scary Movies: Witchfinder General

I’ve seen a number of bad movies where Vincent Price was the best thing about the film, sometimes even the only thing in the film worth watching. But Witchfinder General (released in the US as The Conqueror Worm) is a movie where Vincent is the cherry on top of an already tasty production. I think it may even top Tomb Of Ligeia as the best Vincent Price film I’ve seen.

Vincent plays Matthew Hopkins, a real historical figure who wandered among the villages and towns of East Anglia during the general breakdown in order during the English Civil War in the 1640s. Accompanied by his sadistic assistant, John Stearne, Hopkins offered his “services” to the locals in exchange for a hefty fee, claiming to be able to identify witches. His method of identification is a variety of tortures designed to elicit confessions from the victims. Many places he went, he found villagers only too ready to accuse inconvenient neighbors of the terrible sin of witchcraft, punishable by death.

The hero of the film is Richard Marshall, a soldier in the Puritan army known as the Roundheads, who fought against the crown. After saving the life of his captain during a skirmish, he returns to his home village of Brandeston for a day to propose to the beautiful Sarah. Sarah is a ward of her uncle, the priest John Lowes.

Sarah accepts his proposal and the aged Lowed retires to his room for the evening, letting Richard and Sarah engage in a night of passion. The next day, Richard rides off to rejoin his unit, promising to return as soon as possible for the wedding. Not long after he leaves, Hopkins and Stearne arrive in Brandeston with a list of locals anonymously accused of witchcraft. John Lowes is at the top of the list.

Sarah is horrified by the cruel methods Hopkins uses to discover witches–sticking her uncle with pins until blood runs out to locate the alleged “devil’s mark” and forcing him to run for hours without rest. That evening, when John is imprisoned with the other accused witches, Sarah offers to spend the night with Hopkins if he will agree to spare her uncle.

Stearne is disappointed the next day when Hopkins decides that John Lowes isn’t a witch and is to be spared torture, although Lowes does remain imprisoned. Still, Stearne is busy enough beating the accused women for a confession that it doesn’t bother him too much. Hopkins must leave on some business in a nearby village, and during his absence, Stearne corners Sarah at her farm and rapes her. When Hopkins comes back, he gives the accused witches the water treatment–tossing them from a bridge into the river. If they float, they must be witches. Despite his promised to Sarah, he also includes her uncle among those tested. Of course, he concludes that they all float and he orders John Lowes and the others hanged.

Having received their pay, Hopkins and Stearne ride on for the larger town of Lavenham. Richard returns to Brandeston and is horrified by what has transpired. Rather than rejecting Sarah for sleeping with Hopkins, as she feared, he marries her in a ceremony he conducts himself. As part of the marriage vows, he also swears to achieve revenge against Hopkins and Stearne.

Believing she’ll be unsafe in Brandeston, where the locals so recently saw her uncle killed for witchcraft, Richard sends Sarah to Lavenham, not knowing that in fact the witchfinder and his assistant are headed the same direction. He goes back to his unit and meets the historical leader of the Roundheads, Oliver Cromwell, who praises him for the bravery Richard’s captain has described to him. Cromwell sends Richard off on an important mission with two soldiers under his command to locate the king, who has flown from the Puritan armies and is bound for the coast.

At a tavern on the way, Richard encounters Stearne, who became separated from Hopkins during an encounter with a Roundhead patrol that tried to commandeer their horses. Richard attempts to kill Stearne, who escapes and heads to Lavenham to warn Hopkins that a soldier is after them for revenge.

At the coast, Richard and his men learn the king has beaten them and already escaped by boat two days ago. On the return trip, Richard decides to go through Lavenham. He locates Sarah and they go to bed together while his two comrades go to the local tavern. Hopkins and Stearne have been waiting for Richard, however, and show up with the magistrate and a written accusation of witchcraft. The magistrate and two guards carry Richard and Sarah to the castle, where they are to be tortured until they confess. Richard’s two men return from the tavern shortly thereafter and find Richard and Sarah are missing. Will they be able to locate them in time, before Hopkins is able to brutalize Sarah into a confession while forcing Richard to watch?

Witchfinder General (1968)
Story/Plot/Characters— I was impressed with the historical accuracy of the script, the tight plotting, and the plausible dialogue. For once, Vincent Price is matched with decent actors, and all the characters are fully inhabited and well-rounded. (3 points)
Special Effects— Not exactly a special effects-heavy film, but it maximizes what it has–a witch burned at the stake, the all-too-believable pin stabbings to locate the devil’s mark, some tricky scenes of horse chases. Care is put into the sets, the costuming, the weapons, and the copious amounts of blood. (1.5 points)
Scariness— I would say this movie is intense rather than outright scary. Still, there are a number of unnerving scenes, and the evil of Hopkins and Stearne is palpable. (1 point)
Atmosphere/Freakiness— Most of the outdoor scenes were filmed on location in East Anglia, and the scenes in Lavenham were filmed in the actual historic Lavenham city center. It strikes the viewer as authentic, and effectively captures a time of war when villages in the English countryside were isolated and paranoid, and two men could travel about, earning money indulging in their sadistic fantasies. Much of the movie has that feeling that I look for in horror movies, of isolation with monsters creeping in (in this case, human monsters), and the heroes must rely on their own resources to survive, if they can. (2 points)
Total=7.5 points (Excellent)

Definitely the high point of Vincent Price’s career, and one of the all-too-few movies he was in that was worthy of his talents. A truly interesting, horrific film based on an actual historical episode.