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Witchfinder General
Description
Michael Reeves's Witchfinder General (1968) is supposed to be one of British folk horror's sacred texts. FolknHell has questions. Vincent Price terrorises East Anglia, the violence gets nastier than Hammer, and the whole thing starts looking suspiciously like a revenge film with a very good hat.
Full Episode Description
Michael Reeves's Witchfinder General (1968) arrives carrying a large reputation. Vincent Price plays Matthew Hopkins, a travelling witch-hunter turning accusation, fear and civil-war chaos into money, sex and violence. It is also routinely named alongside The Blood on Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man as part of British folk horror's so-called unholy trinity.
FolknHell is considerably less convinced.
Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall get into the film's human cruelty, Puritan hypocrisy, beautiful East Anglian countryside, spectacular quantity of horse riding and a revenge plot David describes as a "15th century John Wick". The real argument, though, is about belief. The villagers accuse, Hopkins profits and people suffer, but where is the shared folklore, ritual or older system of belief that makes The Wicker Man feel unmistakably folk horror?
Houghton makes the strongest case for the film itself, arguing that its grounded brutality, political edge and distance from contemporary Hammer fantasy give it real significance. Andy and David remain less persuaded that significance makes it good.
Spoilers throughout.
FolknHell Verdict
Historically important, brutally grounded and carried by a striking Vincent Price performance, but FolknHell's verdict is that Witchfinder General is not really folk horror. It has the landscape, the hats and the witchcraft accusations. What it lacks is the thing underneath them: a coherent folk belief system driving the horror. The threat is human nature, greed and power.
FolknHell Score
12 out of 30
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Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.
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