6. Witchfinder General (1968) - Matthew Hopkins
During the English Civil War in the 1600s, Matthew Hopkins, a witchfinder and opportunist takes advantage of societal collapse in order to impose a stranglehold of terror in East Anglia. With his assistant John, he goes from village to village killing 'witches'. Richard, a soldier, travels to Suffolk to see his girlfriend Sara, a niece of the village priest. He asks the priest if he can marry Sara and the priest says yes because he feels trouble is coming to town. Richard rides off to fight again. The priest's prediction comes true as Hopkins and his retinue arrive in the village and round up suspects - including the Priest whom they throw in a cell and torture. He is about to be killed by Hopkins when Sara offers him up sexual favours to spare her uncle's life. Scumbag Hopkins is called to another village and his odious assistant rapes Sara. When Hopkins finds this out - he refuses to have anything to do with Sara and resumes the torture of her uncle. He also kills a few people before he buggers off. Richard returns home and is distraught when he sees the state Sara is in. He vows to kill Hopkins and his assistant. He meets up with the assistant who has been temporarily separated from Hopkins. After a fight, the assistant flees and imparts the knowledge that Richard is gunning for both him and Matthew. The dastardly duo frame Richard and Sara for witchcraft and begin to torture them. Even as Richard sees needles being stuck in Sara's back, he will not confess - he yells instead his desire to kill Hopkins. The army storm the building and Richard breaks free from his bonds. Richard hacks at Hopkins with an axe but the scumbag is still alive and one of the army shoots Hopkins to put him out of his misery. Richard's mind snaps and he shouts "You took him from me! You took him from me!". Sara screams hysterically. Horror acting guru Vincent Price plays the role of scumbag Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins. We are used to seeing Price in many scumbag horror roles but usually he is hamming it up. With Witchfinder General, Price plays it deadly serious and in my opinion, this is the crowning achievement of his career. It is a credit to Price that the critics were so repulsed by the film and its sadism. He made it come alive with his chilly, arrogant demeanour and insatiable lust for torture, perversions and killings. This is a very sober scumbag with no hint of parody and his evil ways burrow right under the skin.