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, published in the horror anthology The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease, and partially inspired by the theories on the uncanny by Sigmund Freud. Holness soon forgot about the idea of adapting the story until he had begun working on developing a possible horror film. As a fan of the horror genre, Holness stated he much preferred horror films that resonate with the audience and force them to reflect on the experience afterward. Possum's visual style was inspired by public information films Holness saw in his youth. Other inspirations include Dead of Night (covered by us in the mothership show), George Romero's Martin, and German Expressionist films. Filming began in Norfolk, with additional filming taking place in Great Yarmouth and Suffolk. The film's score was composed by sound effects and experimental electronic music studio The legendary Radiophonic Workshop, and featured unreleased material by the studio's original member Delia Derbyshire. This marked their first soundtrack purposely constructed for a feature film.

In addition to garnering multiple awards and nominations, it was generally praised by critics for Harris' performance, the film's atmosphere, score, and unsettling imagery, though the story prompted several negative reviews.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched” as an excellent example of international, specifically Asian, Folk horror.

The film centers on a policeman who investigates a series of mysterious killings and illnesses in a remote Korean village called Gokseong in order to save his daughter.

According to director Na Hong-jin, this movie was made on the basis of folk religions in Korea and Nepal and on Catholic faiths.

Na teamed up with Thai director Banjong Pisanthanakun, acting  as the producer and screenwriter for ‘The Medium’, a supernatural horror film mockumentary. When writing the story, Na explained in an interview that The Medium was initially a sequel to The Wailing with Hwang Jung-min’s shaman character. However, this rendition did not come to light, as quoted by Na himself, “The Medium has no relation to The Wailing.” Therefore, not a very interesting titbit, but these newer films have hardly any info on Wikipedia or IMDB, so cut us some slack.

Na has said, “Whenever I finish a film, I don’t want to go anywhere near another one.” Which may explain the slow release of his movies, despite being in the film industry for over 15 years, he only has 3 films to his name. (which is probably more than whoever dished this shade on IMDB has ever done)

This review contains spoilers - please watch this before we ruin it for you

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 creepy.

The original tagline that was used when advertising the film was 'They should have gone to Vegas'. But due to the massacre that took place on 1st of October 2017, the tagline has now been changed to 'They should have gone to Ibiza'.

Although set in Sweden (helpfully clarified as being in Northern Europe by IMDB) the film was shot on location in the infamous Carpathian Mountains of Romania.

The screen writer, Joe Barton, went on to write the Excellent ‘Encounter’ staring Riz Ahmed, which Ross highly recommends and director, David Bruckner, went on to direct The Night House and has recently completed the reboot of the General Witchfinder ‘favourite’ Hellraiser, coming to cinemas soon

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$

Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.

https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 charming host;" he has command over nature; and he is seen scaling the walls of his castle. It also gives Lee more to do and say than any other Hammer Dracula film except its first, 1958's Dracula.

This film breaks the continuity maintained through the previous entries in Hammer's Dracula film series: whereas at the end of the preceding film, Taste the Blood of Dracula, the Count met his end in a disused church near London, this film opens with a resurrection scene set in Dracula's castle in Transylvania, with no explanation of how his ashes got there. Furthermore, in Scars of Dracula, the Count has a servant named Klove, played by Patrick Troughton; in the third film of the series, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula has a servant named Klove (played by Philip Latham) who appears to be a different character, though identically named. The disruption of continuity caused by Scars of Dracula reflects the fact the film was originally tooled as a possible reboot of the series in the event Christopher Lee elected not to reprise the role of Dracula, and, as Listener Christopher pointed out was intended for John Forbes-Robertson, who later played Dracula in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.

Peter Cushing was asked to appear in this movie, however due to conflicting schedules, he reluctantly declined the major role written for him. He was able to carry out a dare set by his good friend Christopher Lee. Due to a hold up in production in filming of "Scream and Scream Again", Peter was able to spend a day on set filming a brief cameo as a milkmaid for the opening village Inn scene.

Dracula's resurrection at the beginning of the film is the same footage as Dracula's death from Taste the Blood of Dracula, but simply played in reverse.

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$

Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.

https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 about - The Innocents or De Uskyldige  - a 2021 Norwegian supernatural thriller film directed by Eskil Vogt.

Four children become friends during the summer holidays, and out of sight of the adults they, discover they have hidden powers. While exploring their newfound abilities in the nearby forests and playgrounds, their innocent play takes a dark turn and strange things begin to happen.

Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "low-tech, high-tension", writing that "The lonely, uncanny and sometimes unthinkingly violent world of childhood is explored with chilling candour and exceptional skill". 

Jessica Kiang of Variety praised the performances of the child actors as well as the film's atmosphere, calling the film "both a satisfying genre exercise and a minute observation of the process by which young children acquire morality."

SPECIAL GUEST: Becca (Ross's long-suffering wife)

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Professor Bernard Quatermass.. Kneale wrote well-received television dramas such as The Year of the Sex Olympics and, the 3rd highest scoring General Witchfinders classic, The Stone Tape in addition to the Quatermass serials. He has been described as "one of the most influential writers of the 20th century", and as "having invented popular TV".

Part One: The Road

The Road is a 1963 British television play by Kneale. It was broadcast as part of the BBC Television anthology drama series First Night. An Australian remake was aired the following year. However, no recordings of the play, renowned as "one of the great missing masterpieces of British television." are known to exist having been tragically wiped by the BBC.

So… we listened to the  BBC Radio 4 audio adaptation, written by Toby Hadoke and directed by Charlotte Riches, aired on 27 October 2018. The production starred Mark Gatiss as Gideon Cobb, Adrian Scarborough as Sir Timothy Hassall and Hattie Morahan as Lady Lavinia Hassall.

Part Two:  Beasts: Baby

Beasts is a 1976 British television series. Written by Nigel Kneale, it is an anthology of six self-contained episodes that feature the recurring theme of bestial horror. The series was made by ATV for the ITV Network.

We watch the most infamous of the series, episode 4 titled ‘Baby’ Starring Simon ‘Manimal’ MacCorkindale as a newlywed whose wife (played by Midsumer Murders Jane Wymark - Daughter of Patrick Wymark as seen in The Witchfinder General)  sees her pregnancy falls foul of ancient witchcraft.

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$

Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.

https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 question whether he will become a werewolf under the next full moon.  The film made $62 million worldwide against the budget of $5.8 million and At the 54th Academy Awards, it won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Makeup.

Landis wrote the first draft of the screenplay for the film in 1969 and shelved it for over a decade. Prospective financiers believed that Landis' script was too frightening to be a comedy film and too humorous to be a horror film. After achieving success in Hollywood with the comedies The Kentucky Fried Movie, National Lampoon's Animal House and The Blues Brothers, Landis was able to secure financing from PolyGram Pictures to produce An American Werewolf in London.

An American Werewolf in London was the first film allowed to shoot in Piccadilly Circus in 15 years. Landis accomplished this by inviting 300 members of London's Metropolitan Police Service to a screening of his new film The Blues Brothers. The police were so impressed by his work that they granted the production a two-night filming permit between the hours of 1 and 4 a.m. Traffic was stopped only three times for two-minute increments to film the automobile stunts involving the double-decker bus.

An American Werewolf in London was released in the US by Universal Pictures on August 21, 1981. It was a critical and commercial success, winning the 1981 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and the first ever Academy Award for Best Makeup. Since its release, it has become a cult classic.

In December 2017, Max Landis confirmed on Twitter that he had completed the first draft of the script for a reboot of the film. But beginning in late 2017, accusations by a number of women that Landis had abused them emotionally or sexually began to emerge publicly. In the wake of those allegations, it remains unknown if Landis will be replaced or if the project will be put on indefinite hold.

In November 2019, Variety reported that Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic book series, was in consideration to serve as a producer for a new reboot.

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$

Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.

https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Bush.*

Twins of Evil was the third film in Hammer's "Karnstein trilogy," following The Vampire Lovers and Lust for a Vampire  in a series loosely based on Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla." 

These pictures were produced incredibly quickly, -and they were lurid even by Hammer standards, bloody and relatively steamy, with an emphasis on heaving bosoms and vampire-enhanced girl-on-girl sexuality

Much of the interest of the film revolves around the contrasting evil and good natures of two beautiful sisters, Frieda and Maria. Unlike the previous two entries in the series, this film contains only a brief lesbian element.

The film was released in the U.S. as a double feature with Hands of the Ripper (soon to be featured here in your favour British horror podcast)

Ingrid ‘Wicker man’ Pitt was offered the part of Countess Mircalla Karnstein, but refused.

Harvey Hall and Kirsten Lindholm appear in all three films of the trilogy, although in different roles in each one. 

Peter Cushing also played one of the leads in the first, The Vampire Lovers.

Special effects veteran Bert Luxford first employed Spam, then a marrow and finally resorted to using a large German sausage to simulate Frieda's decapitation for the climax of the film.

Australian indie rock band Turnstyle used a sample of Karnstein summoning Satan in their song Winter Rodeo, in 1999.

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$

Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.

https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£

*FYI Dick Bush also shot Tommy, The Phildelphia Experiment, The Lair of the White Worm, The Blood on Satans Claw, Phase IV, 2 pink panther movies and loads more - ‘Dick Bush Shoots’ could be a legitimate spin off podcast.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 search of a missing girl. Howie, a devout Christian, is appalled to find that the inhabitants of the island have abandoned Christianity and now practice a form of Celtic paganism.

The movie is well-regarded by critics. Film magazine Cinefantastique described it as "The Citizen Kane of horror movies", and in 2004, Total Film magazine named The Wicker Man the sixth greatest British film of all time, and during the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony the film was included as part of a sequence that celebrated British cinema.

In 1989, Shaffer wrote a script treatment for The Loathsome Lambton Worm, a direct sequel with fantasy elements. Hardy had no interest in the project, and it was never produced. In 2006, an ill-received American remake was released, from which Hardy and others involved with the original have dissociated themselves. In 2011, a spiritual sequel directed by Hardy entitled The Wicker Tree, was released and featured Lee in a cameo appearance.

Television actor Edward Woodward was cast in the role of Sergeant Neil Howie after the part was declined by both Michael York and David Hemmings. In Britain, Woodward was best known for the role of Callan, which he played from 1967 to 1972. After The Wicker Man, Woodward went on to receive international attention for his roles in the 1980 film Breaker Morant and the 1980s TV series The Equalizer.

The film was produced at a time of crisis for the British film industry. The studio in charge of production, British Lion Films, was in financial trouble and was bought by wealthy businessman John Bentley. To convince the unions that he was not about to asset-strip the company, Bentley needed to get a film into production quickly. This meant that The Wicker Man, a film set during spring, actually began filming in October 1972: artificial leaves and blossoms had to be glued to trees in many scenes. The production was kept on a small budget. Christopher Lee was extremely keen to get the film made; he and others worked on the production without pay,(Something he seems very keen to mention at every opportunity). While filming took place, British Lion was bought by EMI Films.

Iron Maiden released a single called The Wicker Man from their Brave New World album in tribute to the classic film.

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$

Just in case anyone has too much money and wants to give a bit to us to help with our hosting n stuff. It would be amazing if you fancied sending us some pennies - thank you.

https://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders

$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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-sapphire-and-steel-assignment-4

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.