- Director
- Michael Reeves
- Year
- 1968
- Country
- UK
- Runtime
- 87 min
Also released as
- The Conqueror Worm
- Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General
- Matthew Hopkins: Conqueror Worm
- Edgar Allan Poe's The Conqueror Worm
- O Lόfoς ton Kremasmέnon
- Boszorkányvadász generális
- Heksebrenneren
- Robak zwycięzca
- General vânător de vrăjitoare
- Cuando las brujas arden
- 驱魔降邪
Filed under
Witchfinder General
Vincent Price with the camp switched off, torturing people in English summer sunshine.
Michael Reeves was 24 and did not want Vincent Price, who he thought was a ham. The two of them fought throughout the shoot. What Reeves got out of him is the only performance of Price's career with no wink in it at all: Matthew Hopkins as a bureaucrat who has noticed that the collapse of civil authority is a business opportunity.
The film's real argument is that the horror is administrative. Hopkins charges by the witch. He is not a fanatic and barely mentions God. The countryside is shot in bright, beautiful, unmistakably English light while people are drowned and burned in it.
Reeves died the following year, aged 25, of an overdose of barbiturates. This is the third and last film he finished.
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The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Finland
USA
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Checked 9 Aug 2026
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