Today we leave the 1980s behind and take a look at a nasty little gem from 1968 called Witchfinder General, which stars Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins, the titular professional witch hunter. Set in the mid-1640s, amid the turmoil of the first English Civil War, the film splits time between Hopkins—who travels from town to town ferreting out "witches," torturing people for fun, and collecting fees for his troubles—and a young pro-Parliament soldier whose betrothed has been raped by Hopkins's brutal assistant.
Unlike the other films we'll discuss this month, Witchfinder General isn't a horror film, strictly speaking. There are no actual witches, most of the action takes place in broad daylight, and the torture scenes, while unpleasant, are largely historically accurate. At its core, the film is about the depravity of its title character, and the horrible toll his callous abuse of power takes on the innocents around him. But the very presence of Vincent Price, along with the fact that it was produced by Tigon British Film Productions, qualifies it at least as a "thriller." And speaking of Price, Matthew Hopkins is one of his finest creations—a creature of pure self-serving malevolence—and it's a remarkably subtle performance by Price standards. Perhaps adding to the its horrific mystique, director and co-writer Michael Reeves was found dead at the age of 25 after an accidental barbiturate overdose just months after the film's release.
Witchfinder General was released by American International Pictures in the U.S., but the title was changed to The Conqueror Worm. Although there is little more than a passing reference to Edgar Allen Poe's poem in the film, AIP was hoping to cash in on Roger Corman's successful string of Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price (such as The Fall of the House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), and The Raven (1963)).
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