Witchfinder General

Aroview: An astonishing, darkly uncompromising historical account of hypocrisy, injustice and death in olde England that features an atypically malevolent performance by Vincent Price, this is one of the defining horror films of the 1960s.

Inspired by the professional duties of real-life state witch-hunter Matthew Hopkins and his brutal assistant, who terrorized townships in 1645, this is as compulsive as any morbid spectacle, complete with executions and torture sequences that proved far too rich for censor’s tastes of the day and beyond. Since restored in all its grimly detailed glory, it’s charged with great momentum and rage by a director who committed suicide soon after the film was released, only adding to the film’s spellbinding mythology.

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