the audience applauded

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Opening with a very brutal, pre-credits hanging, 'Witchfinder General' goes on to feature an exceptional performance from Vincent Price, who despite a clash with Director Michael Reeves (Reeves declined to greet the actor at the airport on his arrival and made it abundantly clear he was not happy with his casting), names this as one of his favourite performances. It is easy to see why – he is given Matthew Hopkins, a Witchfinder steeped in hypocrisy, cruelty and genuine sin. Despite Price's tendency to play extravagant characters, he invests Hopkins with a certain restraint, and is therefore extremely powerful: it is an excellent performance. Hopkins was a real life lawyer who, in 1644 elevated himself to witch-hunter, and is believed to be responsible for the deaths of 300 in the following two years.There is a lot of screaming in this film. Indeed, even as the end credits roll, the heartfelt cries of Sara (Hilary Dwyer) threaten to drown out the music before they finally fade away. Such outbursts are entirely warranted, given the saturation of lies and duplicity that make the law by which normal people are expected to live their lives.Michael Reeves died one year after this film's release, aged only 25, his potential as a director and writer barely tapped. His work on 'Witchfinder General' is unstinting in its depiction of vile human behaviour and gleeful cruelty, the camera never in any hurry to move away from scenes of graphic violence and barbarism, not least from Hopkins, who misuses the word of God entirely for his own end. Hopkins dies violently, but not as graphically as he deserves, hacked to death by a crazed Richard Marshall (Ian Ogilvy), whose wife Sara has suffered innumerable terrible acts of maltreatment.Whilst watching my DVD version of this film, there are many brief moments where the picture quality deteriorates noticeably – it suddenly struck me that these are scenes cut from the previous/initial release for reasons of bloodshed. Even with such pruning, the film provoked much outrage when it premiered. Despite this – or probably because of it – it was a success, even now held up as a cult classic. And so it should be. The way of life is presented in a way that causes the viewer to watch from behind their hands even today, and every member of the impressive cast is terrific, giving full-blooded, forceful performances. Donald Pleasance, Reeves' original choice for Hopkins, would have provided his own brand of excellence, but this is probably Vincent Price's finest hour – which is quite something for so prolific a performer.

The movie is definitely horror with the torture scenes in order to get a confession of witchcraft out of the poor victims as the main attraction, Next to the torture scenes (being called interrogations by the witch hunters) there is the hanging, the water test and burning at the stake accurately showing how cruel the witch hunting must have been and many died innocently just because witch hunters were greedy, abused the superstition or fear of people. Anyone making trouble for the authorities was likely going to be accused of witchcraft. Even though it is as usual another great performance from Vincent Price as the titular character he has not really that much screen time. To give the movie not too much of a documentary feeling they did put a story in it from a girl and her husband (who is a soldier) seeking revenge upon the witchfinder Matthew Hopkins for falsely condemning the girl's uncle of witchcraft which resulted in death by hanging. How accurate this story of the witchfinder general is, I have no idea. I don't think it ended the way it did. The ending I believe is to create still some sort of feel good and it clearly feels rushed.

Well, that was disappointing... I learned about this movie through doom metal bands like Witchfinder General and Cathedral, so my expectations were somewhat different than what I saw. I don't really know what I expected (maybe something more in the lines of A Field in England), but in any case something far less conventional than what I saw. It surprises me that this movie was so heavily cut in censorship. Maybe I underestimated the conservative sentiments in 1960s Britain... In any case, apart from Vincent Price, nothing about Witchfinder General makes me feel like I'm watching a horror movie. Some imagery certainly gives away director Michael Reeves' sentiment to the genre, but I thought he would've added more of an occult sensation in the picture. If Reeves didn't die an unfortunate young death a few months after this was released, I don't think it would've become such a cult hit...

The third and final film directed by Michael Reeves before his tragic death at the age of 25, this is my favourite of the 80 or so horror films that I have watched this year. The reason that it is so effective is that it does not involve gods and monsters but human beings who brutally tortured and killed their fellow human beings. It's an excellent exploration (and damning indictment) of the darkest part of human nature. It's also interesting in that it is based on actual events, albeit barely loosely. For instance, Price was 56 at the time while Hopkins only lived to be 26-27.It's well known that Reeves and his co-writer Tom Baker - no, not that one but that would have been awesome! - wanted Donald Pleasence rather than Vincent Price, one of the Old Masters of the horror genre, to play Matthew Hopkins as they thought that the former's acting style was more suited to the role. This often lead to conflict on set between Reeves and Hopkins. While Pleasence - who excelled at playing creepy characters in part because of his in no way intimidating appearance - would have been excellent, Price delivers one of the best performances of his long career, playing Hopkins with a wonderfully subtle level of menace in stark contrast to his generally more flamboyant style. The rest of the cast is very strong as well, particularly Ian Ogilvy (a close friend of Reeves who appeared in all three of his films), Rupert Davies, Hilary Dwyer and, in a small cameo, Patrick Wymark as Oliver Cromwell.