whitch finder general

Witch Finder General was directed by Michael Reeves who died young at the age of 25, due to an overdose. It was produced by Tigon films and in the USA was called The Conqueror Worm, with reference to Allen Poe, this was an attempt to gain popularity. Vincent Price was also told to narrate a prologue and epilogue from one of Poe's poems, again at an attempt to increase popularity. In the year that this film was made the Hippie culture that had promoted love and harmony started to fade as anarchism/punk era began! There were many public outbreaks of violence and in some circumstances, fatality's occurred. Violence was now becoming much more real and accepted. This film asks the question as to why violence and brutality is so easily accepted. The film is quite bleak in its outlook, but does portray the obvious issues surrounding society's acceptance of violence and interestingly shows that without proper rules and enforcements society will end up in chaos. The film was censored by the BBFC (British Board Film Censorship) which is now known as British Board Film Certification. The name change shows that they were trying to get away from film censorship and more into film certification. The original lead was played by Donald Pleasance who was in ineffectual, but the directors wanted Vincent Price as they knew that with him came a stereo type and he would not be able to play the ineffectual part, so the whole script was re-written around Vincent. This shows how much the actors influence the production of a film.