Witchfinder General Movie Review

Witchfinder General is a 1968 horror movie directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy and Hilary Dwyer.

The movie begins with a woman being dragged to a gallows. She has been branded a witch and she will be hanged. A man called Matthew Hopkins(Price) is in charge of weeding out the witches all over the country. The country is in the middle of a civil war, so he is taking advantage of the situation. He has a sidekick called John Stearne(Robert Russell) who is a bad guy. They get paid for their services in each county. They torture women and force confessions out of them.

A man called Richard Marshall(Ogilvy) is a soldier and he is going to see his sweetheart, Sara(Dwyer). When he arrives, he talks to her uncle, a priest called John Lowes (Rupert Davies). He gives his permission for Richard to marry his niece. He wants her to get away from the village. Bad things are happening there. They are in trouble and Hopkins is on his way to the the village. Richard reassures Sara that he will protect her. He leaves the village, just as Hopkins and Stearne are arriving.
They decide that Lowes is in league with the Devil and he is taken away and tortured. Sara is horrified by this and she offers herself to Hopkins to save her uncle. Hopkins is interested but he has to leave on business. Hopkins leaves Stearne in charge and he decides to rape Sara. When Hopkins comes back and finds out what happened, he loses interest in Sara and orders the execution of her uncle.

Richard arrives back in the village and he finds out what has happened to his woman. He sends Sara away and he vows revenge on Hopkins and Stearne. He finds Stearne and they fight but he escapes and Richard can't kill him. Stearne goes back to his boss and tells him about Richard. Richard gets a few friends to go and get Hopkins, but his plan is foiled and Richard and Sara get captured and taken away to be interrogated. Sara is tortured and Richard gets angry and breaks free. He gets Stearne and he kills him. He goes to get Hopkins. Richard's soldier friends are coming to help him. He gets an axe and he chops into Hopkins over and over until one of his friends puts a bullet into Hopkins. Richard seems to have lost his mind. Sara screams and she is horrified by what has happened...

This is a very good film. It is entertaining and Price outdoes himself here. I think that he makes the movie better. In essence, the film would not be very good without him. Ogilvy plays his part well also. I liked the story in this one and I enjoyed the ending. The climax is vicious yet satisfying as the two horrible characters get what is coming to them. It is a nasty movie. Price is at his dreadful best here. His character is a morally bankrupt man who likes to see people tortured or killed. His assistant is very nasty also. He certainly looks the part! You don't feel any sympathy for them when they meet their end and even though the two lovers are traumatised, two evil beings have been slain and I liked that. All in all, this is a very enjoyable movie with Price in fine form. I recommend it and I will give it a 7/10.