Written by Fantasma el Rey
For Vincent Price’s 75th role we see him as Matthew Hopkins in 1968’s Witchfinder General, directed by Michael Reeves and based on the historical novel by Ronald Bassett. It is a tale of horror in the sense that for the most part these events did take place and people like Hopkins did exist.
Hopkins roams the countryside in Cromwell-era England searching for witches and doing God’s work by condemning them to death after torturing them into confessions of guilt. In reality these women and men (mostly young women) are innocent and a confession can be a murmur just before they pass out from blood loss. The accused are brought before Hopkins after he’s been paid by the town folk to basically exterminate the people that they find annoying or troublesome. After Hopkins enjoys carnal pleasures with the accused young women, they are tortured, mostly by Hopkins assistant, who likes to watch and hear their screams, and then hung. Amidst the chaos of civil war, Hopkins slips under the radar of the authorities and plays off the fears and religious beliefs of the common man to mask his sadist fetishes.
Hopkins’ reign of terror begins to unravel after he tortures and abuses a young woman whose soldier husband vows to avenge his wife’s honor. From there, we have scenes of Hopkins in various towns and villages doing his best to rid the world of the “foul ungodliness in women kind.” Now that along with the whole torture/sex thing says to me that Hopkins had a bad run with women throughout his life. Maybe his mother abused him or he is a bastard son of many possible men. Perhaps his wife left him or became the town doorknob. Who knows such things? All I know is that we have a wonderful vehicle for Vincent Price to prove once more that he is the greatest ghoul, well maybe second or third, or tied for first with Lugosi and Karloff.
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