- Director: Michael Reeves
- Writers: Tom Baker, Michael Reeves
- Stars: Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Rupert Davies
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes
- aka “The Conqueror Worm”
- Link: https://amzn.to/3xLC34z
Synopsis
A gang of villagers, accompanied by a priest, drag an old woman through the streets while we cut to a man building a scaffold. She screams a lot until they kick the stool out from under her. Then all the villagers walk back home. Credits roll.
The year is 1645. Te law doesn’t exist in these troubled times. Matthew Hopkins preys upon the superstitious countryside. A group of Cromwell’s Roundheads stop to rest the horses, and Royalist snipers attack them. Robert Marshall is told to stay with the horses, but they quickly take care of the Royalists. The next day Marshall takes leave and returns home… to the town that hung the witch in the pre-credit sequence.
Sara’s uncle has agreed to let Richard marry his niece if he will take her away from this terrible town. They have sex that night to celebrate.
The next day, Matthew Hopkins and his torturing assistant, John Stearne, are coming to town. Stearne jokes that Hopkins makes the King’s gold for every witch they kill. They come for Sara’s Uncle, the village priest, who denies everything. Stearne tortures him, stabbing him repeatedly because that’s a test of Satan’s men.
Hopkins questions Sara and hints that she might “sway” him of her uncle’s innocence tonight in her bedroom. He wants to “find the truth,” one button at a time. Hopkins drags his feet on Uncle John to get Sara where he wants her. Stearne follows Hopkins that night and sees that Hopkins is boinking Sara in his off hours. Hopkins goes to visit the neighboring town in the morning, and Stearne rapes Sara, but someone tells on him when Hopkins returns. Now that Sara isn’t “pure,” Hopkins orders that Uncle John should be tortured until he confesses, which doesn’t take long.
There are three confessed witches. Hopkins ties them up and throws them into the moat. If they drown, they’re innocent; if they float, they’re witches and will be hanged. They lower them into the water, but not all the way, so they survive for hanging, which they do not survive. Hopkins collects his gold, and he and Stearne leave.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, Richard Marshall gets the news of what happened to Sara’s uncle and heads straight home to investigate. He meets with Sara, who tells him everything. Marshall swears vengeance on John’s murderers.
He soon runs into Stearne, and they fight, but Stearne gets away. After a high-speed horse chase, Stearne gets to Hopkins first. Hopkins isn’t afraid, all he has to do is accuse Marshall of being a witch. Marshall gets warned for going AWOL from duty, but goes back to his unit. Hopkins and Stearne run into trouble with some soldiers, and the two men split up; Stearne gets shot in the shoulder. Stearne wants revenge on Hopkins for deserting him.
Cromwell orders Marshall to capture the King, who is trying to escape the region. He hears where Hopkins is working and goes straight there. Hopkins has upgraded his procedure from hanging to burning. Hopkins and Stearne make up, and they spot Sara in the town they’re currently in. Where Sara is, Marshall will soon come, and they can get their revenge on him.
Hopkins gets the town magistrate to accuse Sara and Marshall of doing witchcraft. They are arrested. They shoot the husband of the woman who was burned earlier, but before he dies, he tells Marshall’s men what happened.
Hopkins and Stearne torture Sara while Marshall is forced to watch, meanwhile, Marshall’s soldiers advance on the tower. Marshall gets free and takes an axe to Hopkins.
Commentary
This was originally marketed as “Edgar Allen Poe’s The Conqueror Worm.” Vincent Price said this was his best performance in a horror film, and it is a lot more graphic than most of his films. There’s torture, rape, burning, drowning, surgery, revenge, and general mayhem aplenty. There’s also nearly zero hamminess from Price, which is a nice change.
A lot of this film takes place outdoors, in day and night, and the sets and costumes are fascinating. The feud between Hopkins and Stearne is short-lived and doesn’t really go anywhere— they make up far too easily.
The story was fairly predictable, but the seriousness and gore raised it above the usual Price films. This was fantastic.