The Conqueror Worm AKA
Witchfinder General - I had heard so much about this film (mostly here) that I felt like I was missing out on a valuable piece of horror lore. I found it on tubi but there were commercial breaks and if there's one thing I despise it's having the flow of a film continually interrupted. But a good print is also on youtube without any annoying breaks.
Seeing as how they're both set during the English Civil War, watching
A Field in England (it's on kinocult) is what led me to this. Vincent Price plays Matthew Hopkins, a self appointed witchfinder who along with his "associate" John Stearne (Robert Russell) roam East Anglia in search of anyone accused of witchcraft. The problem being that many such accusations were based on hearsay and often the product of personal animosity or falsehoods. The film neither addresses nor delves deeply into anyone's motivations. It's a rather subdued Tigon Studios offering, closer to historical drama than straight up horror.
A young Parliamentarian soldier named Richard Marshall (Ian Ogilvy) takes leave to visit his fiance Sara Lowes (Hilary Dwyer). She lives with her uncle, John Lowes, (Rupert Davies) the village priest in Brandeston, Suffolk. Reverend Lowes gives the young couple his blessing to marry but warns Richard of trouble coming to the village and tells him that the lack of order in the land has encouraged "strange ideas". He entreats Richard to take Sara away but when his two day leave is over he must return to his unit but vows to eventually return. On the road back he encounters Hopkins and Stearne and unknowingly gives them directions to Brandeston. It turns out about the way you'd expect with some additional debauchery from both Hopkins and Stearne. The third act revolves around pursuit and retribution.
Director Michael Reeves died at the young age of 25 not too long after filming wrapped. I've also watched his previous film
The Sorcerers with Boris Karloff. I'm not sure how his career might have turned out but this was a tight and tidy 86 minutes long and showed great promise.
80/100