THE CONQUEROR WORM
I feel conquered
This movie is none of the things I normally look for in a Vincent Price movie. For starters, it's one of those "witch-burning" movies which I usually don't really care for. It's not very much fun, it's stark, it's brutal, it's nasty and ugly and it's frequently just plain unpleasant. It's also the second-best movie I've seen him in, behind only Theater Of Blood.
Price plays Matthew Hopkins, everybody's favorite witchfinder. He does it for God, he does it for money, and he's not above getting the occasional ride on a young filly in the course of his work, if you know what I mean. He and his sadistic assistant engage in their work with businesslike determination and cruel glee, respectively - that is, until they intrude upon the lives of a young lassie and her father. For you see, the girl is married to an English soldier who isn't afraid to do what it takes to bring about a different justice than the kind that Hopkins is used to dispensing.
Of course, the centerpiece of this movie is Price's mesmerizing performance. Hopkins may be evil or he may be mad, but Price damn near has you believing that he's doing God's good work. The sheer stern authority projected by this guy is just frightening.
Sure, everything else about the film is first-rate: sets, costumes, supporting cast, direction, all. But Price is what you're gonna have a hard time forgetting. Almost all of his roles had that hammy undercurrent that made him so charismatic; here, there's no trace of it, and Price shows us a different kind of charisma, the charisma of abusers and tyrants.
This is not an easy movie to endure - it's not frightening in a conventional "scary movie" way, so much as it is almost painfully harrowing in its depiction of cruelty and madness in the names of justice and God. But it's as worthwhile as anything you're likely to see in the next...well, a long time.
Now I'm gonna go off and listen to Cathedral's Hopkins: The Witchfinder General EP. Oh yeah - this movie's also known as Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General.