Witchfinder General

Director: Michael Reeves

Cast: Vincent Price

1968 / 86min / 35mm

Before his tragic death at age 25, Reeves produced a historical horror that ranks among the best of British horror. As the English Civil War rages, Vincent Price’s psychotic inquisitor Matthew Hopkins terrorizes the countryside on a serial killing spree carried out under the pretext of doing God’s work. Price, usually asked to play things plummy and camp, is genuinely disturbing as the embodiment of Puritan hypocrisy and cruelty, and the film’s evocation of evil on the loose in the lush, idyllic English countryside leaves a mark on the mind like a burning brand.