Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Beware, 21 May 2007
The DVD, although having resonable picture quality, has been cut to fit with a 15 certifcate. At least with the previous version, it had the full uncut film, however poorly inserted they were. Therefore if like me, your studying this film, or maybe just want to see what all the fuss about the violence was, DO NOT BUY
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Surely a Great Talent Cut Short, 5 Sep 2007
The most remarkable thing about this film is also the saddest. For all its faults, Witchfinder General demonstrates a considerable talent in its director Michael Reeves, who was only twenty four when he made the film. He died the following year but had he lived he would now be in his sixties with a considerable career behind him. We can only speculate. While the circumstances of his death remain controversial (suicide or accident?), Reeves was known to suffer from depression, which make this film even more fascinating.
Witchfinder General is not a great film, although it could have been, but then it is forty years old and it shows. While it attracted a lot of attention at the time because of its violence, the acts portrayed are not excessive compared to what we see today. What is unsettling though, is the sense of pain, suffering and barbarity which suffuse the film, even during the quieter periods. While painting a sombre picture of the cruelty, ignorance and general lack of morality of those times, there's a kind of Hammer atmosphere to the film which doesn't help to remove it from standard horror status - you're always aware that you're watching a late sixties film. This is a pity because it obviously aspires to being so much more than it is. And there's far too much screaming.
There are a few notables in the cast and these help to lift the largely unimpressive dialogue. Vincent Price, who was at loggerheads with Reeves during shooting but later acknowledged the merits of this film, depicts the Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins as a deranged but intelligent opportunist, a very nasty piece of work. It's a beautifuly judged yet understated performance which makes you wonder why he never played anyone other than Vincent Price. It is interesting to note that Reeves actually wanted Donald Pleasance for this role but his American backers insisted on Price. For all his nastiness, the Witchfinder leaves most of his evil deeds to his henchman, Sterne but there's a bit of a problem here as Robert Russell is as wooden as a gallows pole and this pretty well dilutes any real sense of nastiness within his character. He's no match for Price and it shows.
The locations fit neatly into the historical aspect of the film and Reeves uses the landscape to great effect in a variety of contexts, although we are treated to far too many shots of people riding horses through the English countryside to an over-vigorous soundtrack which is completely ill considered.
This film may well have been an attempt by Reeves to confront his demons, which makes it very frightening indeed, and after writing about it, I feel that I should watch it again.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More than a horror movie, 13 Feb 2008
The Witchfinder General is a so-called horror-movie starring Vincent Price as witch hunter Matthew Hopkins. The movie was filmed by director Michael Reeves in 1968 and caused a lot of controversial discussion during that time due to some shocking scenes showing excessive brutality and cruelty.
The story is set in the 17th century during the English civil war between 1643 and 1645 and depicts true cases of the inquisition where people were arbitrarily sentenced as witches and burnt to death or hanged.
Vincent Price, a world famous actor, is mainly known as player of sinister people. On a par with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff , he is widely accepted as a character actor in horror movies. He obtained a reputation especially for a broad audience in Roger Corman's movies of Edgar Allan Poe's stories. In the Witchfinder General, Price plays the witch hunter Matthew Hopkins with such an intensity - expressed only by his gestures - which is frightening. This is one of the movie's qualities. Director Michel Reeves could adequately express the terror and the fear of the inquisition only with the facial expression of his main actor. The hanging and burning scenes in the movie are - in my view - added to show the whole brutal and inhumane reality of that time. In contrast to present-day movies and not only horror movies the Witchfinder General's violence scenes, seem not as frightening as in the movie's first release in 1968.
Moreover, the realistic view without any compromises to the inquisition's system to sentence people unliked, makes the movie more frightening than the violence scenes. Therefore, the Witchfinder General is more than a horror film. Michel Reeves showed in his movie with brutal frankness how in a corrupt system intolerance develops and finally ends in violence and death. That is exactly what makes this movie worth seeing even today more than 40 years after its release.
If possible, you should buy the uncut version of the movie to better understand the director's intention as described above.
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