Witchfinder General (1968)

So with Blood on Satan's Claw finally arrived, disgested and spat back out onto the internet, my next big task was to do much the same for my other extremely-late import copy of Witchfinder General. Now, seeing as I was quite pleased with the former, could the latter possibly live up to it? I mean this is an earlier film, after all. And presumably more of a historical film without any sort of supernatural element. How horrifying could it be considering I've seen later witch-finding films like Witchhammer and Ken Russel's mighty shocker The Devils? To say I was surprised by how ahead of its time it felt, especially in terms of violence and provocative subject matter, would be an understatement. I can see now why this is such a celebrated film that has inspired so many copycats of varying quality. It really is hard to shake.

The film starts out quite slow, barring an effective opening sequence depicting a hanging under desperate protest that will make your blood run cold. We then get lots of historical background and character backgrounds and it's not clear exactly where things are headed, but don't worry: within half an hour things very quickly go south, and you realize that what you're watching is really a low-budget exploitation film with just enough restraint to avoid becoming trash. But my god, if it isn't close. For a film made in '68, it's downright scandalous. There's rape, cuckoldry, and repeated sexual blackmail. There's cold-blooded torture, beating, and execution of blatant terrified innocents, begging messily for their lives, by a gang of violent misogynists. The violence is often lingered on, not necessarily visually, but in spirit; so much of the film is the bloodcurdling sobs and screams of women punctuated by shouts of 'Bitch!' from their male captors. There's no trace of the black comedy satire that made Witchhammer more palatable, nor the moral complexity that made The Devils so twisted, if undeniably satisfying; this is just pure, chaotic human evil played up to be as horrifying as possible to the viewer. It shares a similar thesis to many prior films in that the men in the film are often seen accusing women of instigating what is clearly their own sinful nature, and that the violence and torture indulged in may just be a violent masculine fantasy that comes from a similar place as does the crimes of incel vigilantes; Matthew Hopkins just happened to be born at the right time to indulge in his gruesome desire legally and without protest from the undereducated denizens of whatever village they were currently ravaging. There are some quite solid characters that display no end of decency, and they go a long way towards keeping the story from becoming a complete nightmare from start to finish, but no one is left untouched by the film's events, and it's true that some in the audience will no doubt leave this film feeling quite cold to it and its bleak nihilistic vision. Those who can make it will find themselves confronted by a very violent, quite mad and uncompromising ending that shrieks and screams at you for what feels like minutes before finally fading into music and releasing you from its grip. What a relief when it does.

This is my first Vincent Price joint and I can immediately see what all the fuss was about. His performance is pitch-perfect, and you totally buy him as evil incarnate: a brutal, violent man who will use any means necessary to get what he wants and who seems to have a talent for winning people over to his side, which gives him a license to do as he pleases that the protagonists don't have. At one point in the film, our resident witchfinder is on the run, with his partner gone, and with no means of defending himself against another attack, and yet by the time our heroes catch up to him again, he's set up nicely in another town where he is being treated like a king and given unlimited license to terrorize the residents. There is a mounting sense of dread that, along with the violence and ever-present cruelty against innocents, is often stomach-churning, and the cast make it all perfectly believable. And hey, look! It's Patrick Wymark, from Blood on Satan's Claw!

The film famously contrasts its beautiful English countryside with horrid acts of brutal violence that helped give rise to the idea of folk horror as a loose subgenre. It certainly makes the sadism much more disquieting, and in a way more realistic. I'm reminded of shots in modern crime films that contrast the execution of someone the audience cares about with shots of birds scattering, or picturesque scenery. So perhaps its area of influence is even larger than it's given credit for. A mark against the violence for horror hounds will likely be the bright, paint-like blood, but I can look past it at the violence being depicted and see that if anything, it's a relief that things don't look a touch more realistic, if only for the sake of good sleep. This is a quite low-budget affair, even for the time, but it has actually helped keep this film from looking like most everything else from the era. In an age where almost everything was shot on soundstages and studio lots, Witchfinder General uses mostly real locations with a minimum of sets, and it shows. Sure the low budget probably also contributed to the garish, slightly cheap costuming, but this, too, is a blessing in disguise, as it also exaggerates the way the participants in the story contrast with their environment, making it clear that they don't belong there. This was an idea explored fully in Joan Lindsey's Picnic at Hanging Rock, written just a year before, which wouldn't be seen on screen until the seventies, but I digress. It's impeccably-made, and a feast for fans of oh-so-rare historical horror, and it is no secret why this film has remained on the lips of genre enthusiasts for so many decades since its release. This film is still just as powerful as it was on release, and a big part of that is its presentation, even if there are occasional seams visible, like day-for-night photography and the aforementioned cheap practical gore effects.

Bottom line: it counts for a lot in horror to be scary; to shock and terrify and upset, that is an aim of horror as a genre, separated from its literary aims and thematic occupations. And that horror doesn't have to come from supernatural forces either, and indeed, human horror is often the most disturbing kind, like in later folk horror stablemate The Wicker Man. It's no wonder then that Witchfinder General is still considered one of the all-time great horror films. It compels and repels in equal measure, and once you've seen it, it's unlikely you'll ever forget it. It doesn't matter if you've seen any number of the films that followed in Witchfinder...'s wake: it's just as fresh and viscously incendiary as it was on release. I'm three-for-three with these witch-finding films being amazing so far, and thus really doubt that Mark of the Devil, when I deem to watch it, can possibly live up to the expectations I now have for it, but I suppose that's a topic for another day. I've finally finished out the unholy trilogy of terror that makes up the established canon of what constitutes folk horror, and while I feel it's unlikely any other films in this subgenre will be able to quite match their power, but I will continue to dutifully search for more all the same.