Introduction -- The place of the film -- Context, production and reception -- Analysis -- The influence of the film.

Witchfinder General (1968), known as The Conqueror Worm in America, was directed by Michael Reeves and occupies a unique place in British cinema. Equally praised and vilified, the film fictionalizes the exploits of Matthew Hopkins, a prolific, real-life ""witch hunter, "" during the English Civil War. For critic Mark Kermode, the release proved to be ""the single most significant horror film produced in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, "" while playwright Alan Bennett called the work ""the most persistently sadistic and rotten film I've ever seen."" Steadily gaining a cult reputation, unimp.