Rating: NR
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 09/11/2007
SubTitles: English/Espanol/French
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 87 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children
Distributor/Studio: MGM
A corrupt opportunist commits brutal crimes in the name of God and country in this atmospheric
period horror tale. In 17th century England, as a people's uprising threatens
Lord Cromwell's rule, superstition still rules the land, and the Royalists use this to their advantage by inaugurating a reign of terror in the name of wiping out alleged witches and agents of the dark arts.
Matthew Hopkins (
Vincent Price) has been appointed "witchfinder" by Puritan Royalists, and with the help of his thuggish assistant
Stearne (
Robert Russell),
Hopkins travels from town to town, brutally interrogating those accused of witchcraft and using fire, drowning, and torture to extract "confessions" from the accused. Of course,
Hopkins' opinions can be swayed with money and other considerations, and when
Father Lowes (
Rupert Davies), a priest whose sympathies do not lie with the Royalists, is arrested and tortured by
Hopkins and
Stearne, his devoted niece
Sarah (
Hilary Dwyer) is able to stay his punishment by sleeping with
Hopkins.
Sarah, however, is engaged to marry
Marshall (
Ian Ogilvy), a soldier in
Cromwell's army, and once
Marshall learns that the woman he loves has been seduced by
Hopkins -- and raped by
Stearne -- he becomes determined to expose the witchfinder and punish him for his misdeeds.
Witchfinder General was released in the United States by
American International Pictures, who in addition to arranging for
Vincent Price to play
Matthew Hopkins, changed the North American title to
The Conqueror Worm, after a poem by
Edgar Allan Poe which was read over the credits by
Price, though the story bears no real relation to
Poe's work.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
