Witchfinder General

The Witchfinder General, aka The Conqueror Worm, aka Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General, aka Suffolk Nights: The Ballad of Matthew Hopkins, aka Rancorman: The Legend of Matt Hopkins. I don't even know why I'm making fun of this movie, as it's really, really good. Vincent Price plays a witch hunter taking advantage of English civil war in the mid-1600s. Self-appointed, Hopkins and his side-kick travel the countryside from town-to-town sating locals' paranoia and bigotry by torturing and murdering eccentric local citizenry.

Hopkins gets a bit of sex action on the side by promising to spare the loved ones of those he beds. In all of movie evildom, is there a crueler bad guy move than the "I'll think about not killing your pa or ma or brother Bill (or fill in the blank), but only if you sleep with me"... and then kills them anyways? I don't think so.

Price makes a particularly compelling witch hunter because his voice sounds so much like a witch's, all high and nasaly and bordering on screechy. That said, Price has one of the all-time great movie voices and Matthew Hopkins is one of his best roles. Price plays Hopkins without a hint of the vintage Price-ian irony or silliness, despite looking like Bea Arthur in a goatee. His Hopkins no doubt influenced Christopher Guest's Count Rugen portrayal in The Princess Bride twenty years later. Both characters are evil and wear puffy pants and have terrible hair and are bastards.

Extras on this disc include a commentary with producer Philip Waddilove and actor Ian Ogilvy, as well as a featurette on the making of the film. Director Michael Reeves died at the age of 25 within months of the film's release and both extras lovingly remember the young director, a sort of Orson Welles of British horror who never had the chance to reach his potential. This, his one great film, could have been called Citizen Slane. -- Jason Woloski