A welcome job of restoration, even of only of a few snippets, for Michael Reeves' masterpiece. Set during the English Civil War, this is less a horror film than a Peckinpah-ish meditation on violence, history and hypocrisy with Vincent Price cutting a fine figure as Hopkins, a sadistic huckster who tours rural England torturing and hanging accused witches for profit. On his trail is vengeance-seeking Roundhead Ian Ogilvy, who precipitates a blood bath finale - note the eye stomping - that still manages to shock.
Reeves, who died shortly after the film was finished, is one of the great tragic losses of British cinema, not just for his 60's modish use of gore and rebellion but for his great sense of English landscape lyricism.
