Horrorfest 2010: Witchfinder General

For most of the short running time of WITCHFINDER GENERAL, I kept thinking, "Is this really a horror movie?"

I even double-checked my list to make sure WITCHFINDER GENERAL was on there. Maybe I was confused and had it on some other mental list of movies to watch and decided it must be a horror movie based on the title? But no, it was on my list. Definitely part of Horrorfest.

It seemed like more of a swashbuckler to me, at first, as the hero rode to the rescue -- yes, it deals with witch hunts in the mid 1600s in England. But, not from a supernatural angle. In fact, there's nothing supernatural in this film at all. It takes the firm stance that none of these people were actually witches and that the witch hunters were full of shit and motivated by money and power rather than any desire to do God's work.

As I read up on the movie, I see that it must be considered a horror movie because of the torture scenes. Self-titled "Witchfinder General" Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price) travels the English countryside with his demented assistant Stearne (Robert Russell) torturing and killing accused witches in exchange for money and favors. The film lingers on the torture scenes, but they didn't seem too sensational to me until I considered the fact that the film is from 1968 and although it wasn't unusual at the time to feature blood and violence, it was unusual to focus specifically on the torture aspect for entire scenes. So, the film is a horror film when considered in context.

Hopkins and Stearne torture and kill a priest (Ruper Davies) whose niece (Hilary Dwyer) is engaged to be married to a soldier (Ian Ogilvy) who is fighting for the parliamentary side of the English civil war. The chaos and unrest caused by the war itself has partially given Hopkins and Stearne their opportunity to take advantage of local villagers in their witch hunt.

In the process of executing the priest, Hopkins coerces the niece into sleeping with him in exchange for sparing her uncle's life. The out of control Stearne rapes the girl, Hopkins goes back on his word, and the engaged soldier is blinded with rage at what has happened to his bride to be and vows revenge on the witch finders.

The movie reaches a little more depth than might be expected by avoiding any forays into the supernatural realm and steering clear of a heroic, happy ending. Hopkins is seen as nothing more than an opportunistic, evil charlatan preying on the weak and the young soldier, Marshall, starts out heroic but descends into bloody madness as he realizes there's really nothing that can satisfy his desire for revenge. This is a little more philosophically complex than your average revenge fantasy in which we all agree to look the other way and pretend an eye for an eye actually does some good.

Most of the strength of the film rests on the shoulders of Vincent Price's authoritative and arrogant performance as the titular character, but Robert Russell also deserves some credit for his performance as the twisted assistant, Stearne.

Again, reading up on the movie, I was surprised how much of it is based in actual fact -- there really was a guy named Matthew Hopkins who traveled around with an assistant named Stearne. He called himself the Witchfinder General and used many of the methods of torture and execution depicted in the film.

Of course, the real Hopkins and Stearne retired peacefully and were not murdered in the name of vengeance. They weren't hunted by a vigilante soldier but were denounced by prominent citizens, politicians and clergy men throughout their careers.

When it comes to the movies, I prefer the ax wielding soldier out for revenge.