I have no idea what convinced me to watch this film. I mean, Vincent Price aside, it hasn't got any real stars to speak of. It didn't score particularly well on IMDB. It's not even well-known.

It is, nevertheless, a fairly compelling piece of work, but, oddly, not for anything actually in it.

Set during the English Civil War of 1641-1651, Withfinder General is the grim, fictionalised account of Matthew Hopkins, the self-appointed Witchfinder General and scourge of witches across the Home Counties, as he criss-crosses the land with his sadistic companion, John Stearne, to elicit confessions from those suspected of witchcraft.

However, the questioning techniques are a touch weighted and inexorably result in one of two choices: death now or death a little later in the day.

The ruse only starts to unravel when Hopkins picks on a young woman whose husband happens to be a hothead in Oliver's Army.



I'm making it sound better than it actually is. I mean, it's an okay film but it'll never be mistaken for a classic. It also has, for some inexplicable reason, the same uncomfortably drawn out sex scene as that featured in the later Don't Look Now. It just looks like a couple of parents going at it, and you're left feeling, jeez, I wish these two slightly overweight people would hurry up...

But its USP is the interest it'll spark in England's rich history. Because before this film gave me cause to dig a little deeper, I didn't know anything about Oliver Cromwell, England's brief flirtation with a republic, or the posthumous execution of a dead man... They were strange times.

This fairly unremarkable film gave me that motivation, and that's why it's better than it actually is.

Witchfinder General: 6/10.