Witchfinder General Details

Condemned on first release as extremely bloody and sadistic, this penetrating chronicle of the social evils at large during the English Civil War from director Michael Reeves is now an acknowledged horror classic. Vincent Price plays it straight for once as the cynical religious maniac instigating torture and degradation for pleasure and profit in an intense study of pathological cruelty. With non-gratuitous violent imagery crucial to the brutal history lesson, Reeves's final work (he died of an overdose shortly after) is a thematically fascinating and gruesomely incisive look at the lust for and abuse of power.

Savage, stylish minor horror melodrama with a growing reputation as the best work of its young director. Not for the squeamish despite its pleasing countryside photography.