作品1968
Witchfinder General
Witchfinder General is a 1968 British period folk horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer, Robert Russell, Rupert Davies, and Patrick Wymark. The screenplay, by Reeves and Tom Baker, was based on Ronald Bassett's 1966 novel.
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Witchfinder General is a 1968 British period folk horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer, Robert Russell, Rupert Davies, and Patrick Wymark. The screenplay, by Reeves and Tom Baker, was based on Ronald Bassett's 1966 novel.
Witchfinder General (titled onscreen as Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General) is a 1968 British period folk horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer, Robert Russell, Rupert Davies, and Patrick Wymark. The screenplay, by Reeves and Tom Baker, was based on Ronald Bassett's 1966 novel.
The film is a heavily fictionalised account of the murderous witch-hunting exploits of Matthew Hopkins (Price), a lawyer who falsely claimed to have been appointed as a "Witch Finder Generall" [sic] by Parliament during the English Civil War to root out sorcery and witchcraft. The plot follows Roundhead soldier Richard Marshall (Ogilvy), who relentlessly pursues Hopkins and his assistant John Stearne (Russell) after they prey on his fiancée Sara (Dwyer) and execute her priestly uncle John Lowes (Davies).
Made on a low budget of under £100,000, the film was produced by Tigon British Film Productions. In the United States, where it was distributed by American International Pictures (AIP), Witchfinder General was retitled The Conqueror Worm (titled onscreen as Matthew Hopkins: Conqueror Worm) by AIP to link it with their earlier series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations directed by Roger Corman and starring Price; because its narrative bears no relation to any of Poe's stories, American prints book-end the film with his poem "The Conqueror Worm" being read through Price's narration.
Witchfinder General eventually became a cult film, a development partially attributable to Reeves's death nine months after its release. Several prominent critics have championed the film, including Tim Lucas, J. Hoberman, Danny Peary, Robin Wood and Derek Malcolm; their praise has highlighted its direction, performances, and musical score by .
來源：Witchfinder General (film) （CC BY-SA）
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From 1645 to 1647, Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne travelled the east of England as witch hunters. They harshly interrogated suspected witches (using methods such as sleep deprivation), examined them by pricking for a witch's mark, or sometimes threw an accused witch into water for a "swimming test". Local authorities paid for these services, plus expenses. Shortly before his death from consumption in 1647, Hopkins published The Discovery of Witches, his treatise on witch hunting. In one of its illustrations, he was labelled the "Witch Finder Generall".
Ronald Bassett's Witchfinder General, a novel loosely based on the historical Hopkins and Stearne, was published in 1966. Tony Tenser, the founder and chief executive of Tigon British Film Productions, read Bassett's book while it was still in galley form and purchased the film rights on impulse before pub
In 1645, during the English Civil War, Matthew Hopkins, an opportunistic witch hunter, takes advantage of the breakdown in social order to impose a reign of terror in East Anglia. Hopkins and his assistant, John Stearne, visit various villages to torture confessions out of suspected witches. They charge the local magistrates for the work they carry out.
Richard Marshall is a young Roundhead. After surviving a brief skirmish and killing his first enemy soldier (and thus saving the life of his Captain), he rides home to Brandeston, Suffolk, to visit his lover Sara, the niece of John Lowes, the village priest. Lowes gives his permission to Marshall to marry Sara, telling him there is trouble coming to the village, and he wants Sara far away before it arrives. Sara tells Marshall that they have been threatened and have become outcasts in their own village, and Marshall vows to protect her. At the end of his army leave, Marshall rides back to join his regiment and chances upon Hopkins and Stearne on the path. Marshall gives the two men directions to Brandeston, then rides on.
In Brandeston, Hopkins and Stearne immediately begin rounding up suspects. Lowes is accused at his home and tortured. He has needles stuck into his back (in an attempt to locate the so-called "Devil's Mark") and is about to be killed when Sara stops Hopkins by offering him sexual favours in exchange for her uncle's safety. Hopkins is called away to another village, and Stearne takes advantage of Hopkins's absence by raping Sara. Hopkins returns, discovers what Stearne has done, and refuses to interact with Sara. He instructs Stearne to begin torturing Lowes again. Shortly before departing the village, Hopkins and Stearne execute Lowes and two women.
Marshall returns to Brandeston and is horrified by what has happened to Sara, vowing to kill both Hopkins and Stearne. After "marrying" Sara in a ceremony of his own devising and instructing her to flee to Lavenham, he rides off by himself. In the meantime, Hopkins and Stearne have become separated after a Roundhead patrol attempts to commandeer their horses. Marshall locates Stearne, but after a brutal fight, Stearne is able to escape. He reunites with Hopkins and informs him of Marshall's desire for revenge.
Hopkins and Stearne enter the village of Lavenham. On a patrol to locate the King, Marshall learns they are there and quickly rides to the village with a group of his soldier friends; however, having earlier learned that Sara was in Lavenham, Hopkins has set a trap to capture Marshall. Hopkins and Stearne frame Marshall and Sara as witches and take them to the castle to be interrogated. Marshall watches as needles are repeatedly jabbed into Sara's back, but he refuses to confess to witchcraft, instead vowing again to kill Hopkins. He breaks free from his bonds and stamps on Stearne's face while his army comrades approach the castle dungeon. Marshall grabs an axe and repeatedly strikes Hopkins. The soldiers enter the room and are horrified to see what their friend has done. One of them, Marshall's friend Trooper Swallow, puts the mutilated but living Hopkins out of his misery by shooting him dead. Marshall's mind snaps, and he shouts, "You took him from me! You took him from me!" Sara, also apparently on the brink of insanity, screams uncontrollably over and over again.
