General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast

NOT The 1980 James C. Wasson film in which an anthropologist and his students attempt to track down a Bigfoot responsible for a rash of violent murders… OR the 1988 Kevin Tenney film, Night of the Demons’ where Ten teenagers party at an abandoned funeral parlor on Halloween, awakening demonic spirits… Rather, we all, hopefully, watched the 1957 British horror film, produced by Hal E. Chester...

Tales of the Unexpected was a British television series that aired between 1979 and 1988. Each episode told a story, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, with an unexpected twist ending. Every episode of series one, and a number of episodes in subsequent series were based on short stories by Roald Dahl, collected in the books Tales of the Unexpected, Kiss Kiss, and Someone Like You. M...

Possum is a 2018 British psychological horror film written and directed by Matthew (Garth Marenghi) Holness in his feature film debut, starring Sean Harris and Alun (Krull) Armstrong. It centres on a disgraced children's puppeteer who returns to his childhood home and is forced to confront the abuse and trauma he suffered there. Possum is an adaption of Holness' short story of the same name,...

In this episode, we are joined by BOOMER from Podcast in the Woods https://linktr.ee/woodspodcast This is the episode Ross was in btw: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6G5TocltVLFUgVdPdPUC2V?si=fQ7JuHMLTP2mbSqlrpH20Q The Wailing is a 2016 South Korean horror film written and directed by Na Hong-jin and starring Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Chun Woo-hee. And was cited in  the documentary “Wood...

The Ritual is a 2017 British/ Canadian horror film starring Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, and Sam Troughton (grandson of two time General Witchfinder featured actor, Patrick - 2nd Doctor -Troughton, or as we like to call him Kinky Klove)   The film is based on the 2011 novel The Ritual by Adam Nevill, which we've been told by listener ‘Mr London’, is pretty cree...

Scars of Dracula is a 1970 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker for Hammer Films. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, along with Dennis (i should be so good for you) Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Patrick Troughton, and Michael Gwynn.  Although disparaged by some critics, the film does restore a few elements of Bram Stoker's original character: the Count is introduced as an "icily c...

The General Witchfinders present: Folk in Hell! (a spinoff podcast) The Innocents  NOT the 1961 film with Deborah Kerr, which we WILL be covering in the mothership show at some point, which has a far more comprehensive Wikipedia article than the sparsely covered film that we did watch, hence Ross adding in this short paragraph to bulk out the intro a little -  Rather, we are talking abou...

Thomas Nigel Kneale was a British screenwriter who wrote professionally for more than 50 years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and was twice nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay. This year is the 100 anniversary of his birth. Predominantly a writer of thrillers that used science-fiction and horror elements, he was best known for the creation of the character Profe...

An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 horror comedy film written and directed by John Landis. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, the film stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne and John Woodvine. The film's plot follows two American backpackers, David and Jack, who are attacked by a werewolf while travelling in England, causing David to quest...

Twins of Evil (also known as Twins of Dracula) is a 1971 British horror film directed by John Hough and starring Peter Cushing's in his first film after the death of his poor wife, Helen, along with Damien Thomas and the real-life identical twins and former Playboy Playmates, Mary and Madeleine Collinson. It also sees the return of one of General Witchfinders favourite cinematographers, Mr Dick Bu...

The Wicker Man is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Big Chris Lee. In his 7th appearance on The General Witchfinders. The screenplay by Anthony (frenzy) Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 novel Ritual, centres on the visit of Police Sergeant Neil Howie to the isolated island of Summerisle in sea...

Here are some clips from the first three episodes of the podcast, go and listen to the whole thing here... Dracula AD 1972 https://shows.acast.com/general-witchfinders/episodes/1-dracula-ad-1972 The Curse of Frankenstein https://shows.acast.com/general-witchfinders/episodes/2-the-curse-of-frankenstien Sapphire and Steel - Assignment 4 https://shows.acast.com/general-witchfinders/episodes/3-sapphir...

The Oblong Box is a 1969 British horror film directed by Gordon Hessler, starring, The King of the Grand Guignol The Merchant of Menace, The Master of Horror: Vincent Price, as well as Christopher Lee and Alister Williamson. This was the first film to star both Price and Lee. Loosely based on the 1844 short story "The Oblong Box", it explores and combines several themes typical to the work of Edga...

The Legend of Hell House is a 1973 supernatural horror film directed by John Hough, and starring Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, and Gayle Hunnicutt.  It follows a group of researchers who spend a week in Belasco House, the "Mount Everest of haunted houses." , originally owned by Emeric Belasco, an imposing, perverted millionaire and supposed murderer whose acts of debauchery w...

A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and (Like the first 3rd doctor Adventure, The Spearhead from Space) the films were all shot on 16 mm colour film. The remi...

Frenzy is a 1972 British horror / thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (aged, at time of production, 71).  It is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career.  The screenplay, centred on a serial killer in contemporary London and the ex-RAF serviceman he implicates, was written by Anthony Shaffer, based on the 1966 novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arth...

Staring Noel Willman, Ray Barrett, Jennifer Daniel and Jacqueline ‘Servalan’ Pearce, The Reptile is based in the fictional village of Clagmoor Heath in Cornwall where several locals are dying from what is deemed to be the "Black Death".  Harry Spalding inherits his late brother Charles' cottage and arrives with his new bride, Valerie. The inhabitants of the village keep clear of the couple an...

Ghostwatch, a drama produced for the BBC anthology series Screen One, is a British reality–horror/pseudo-documentary television film, broadcast on BBC1 on Halloween night, 1992. Written by Stephen Volk, and directed by Lesley Manning. Despite having been recorded weeks in advance, the narrative was presented as live television.   During and following its first and only UK television broadcast...

Quatermass 2 (a.k.a. Enemy From Space in the United States and Canada) is a 1957 black-and-white British science fiction horror film from Hammer Film Productions, directed by Val Guest, that stars Brian Donlevy, John Longden, Sidney James, Bryan Forbes, Vera Day, and William Franklyn. Quatermass 2 is a sequel to Hammer's earlier film The Quatermass Xperiment, Like its predecessor, it is...

Xtro is a 1983 British science fiction horror film directed by Harry Bromley-Davenport.  Starring Bernice Stegers, Philip Sayer, and Simon Nash, the film focuses on a father who was abducted by, what could be seen as aliens, and returns to his family three years later, where he goes in search of his son.  Even though the plot involves extraterrestrials, the creatures in this film are at...

The Earth Dies Screaming is a black and white, 1964 British horror science fiction film directed by Terence Fisher ( who also directed The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) - covered in episode 2 of the General Witchfinders, and went on to film several adaptations of classic horror subjects, including Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959), and The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) ‘Dies Screaming’ stars Willard...

Released on the 6th day of the 6th month in the year 1976, the week The Wurzels ‘Combine Harvester’, became number one in the UK (coincidence?)... The Omen, which was originally considered by Warner Bros, who thought it might be ideal for Oliver Reed, is an American-British supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner, written by David Seltzer, and eventually starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remic...

Dead of Night is a 1945 black and white British anthology horror film, made by Ealing Studios, was their sole attempt at making a horror movie.  It Featured the following stories The Hearse Driver, based on "The Bus-Conductor" by E. F. Benson The Christmas Party The Haunted Mirror The Golfer's Story, based on "The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost" by H. G. Wells and The Ventriloquist's Dummy...

Hellraiser is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker based on his 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart. The film marked Barker's directorial debut. Its plot involves a mystical puzzle box which summons the Cenobites, a religious sect in Hell known as the ‘Order of the Gash’, describing themselves as "explorers in the further regions of experience", and g...

Horror of Fang Rock is the first serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 September 1977. The TARDIS lands on the island of Fang Rock off the south coast of England in the early 20th century. Noticing that the lighthouse isn't functioning properly, the Doctor, in his fourth incarnation (or infin...