NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Scott LeBrun The setting is 16th century England, where obsessions with superstition and sorcery rule the day. Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price) is a harsh magistrate punishing any and all people who come under scrutiny for being witches. After a mass killing, he earns the wrath of a witch named Oona (Elisabeth Bergner). You guessed it: she places a curse on him and his whole family, summoning a sadistic demon.Cult director Gordon Hessler takes a so-so script by Christopher Wicking and Tim Kelly and gives it plenty of flavorful period atmosphere. The story may not be that strong, but all the bells and whistles of this A.I.P. production help to make up for that. One can hardly fail to notice that it's not entirely unsympathetic to the witches, and portrays "the establishment" as a crass and foul bunch of people. Whitman and his entourage will amuse themselves by manipulating and embarrassing their victims in their opulent castle. The pacing is mostly effective, and the "banshee" of the title is appreciably kept as mysterious as possible; it's never very well lit. It also builds up a decent body count, and dishes out some pretty gory violence.Price delivers a solid performance, refraining from becoming overly theatrical for the most part. Essy Persson is very good playing the unfortunate, ill-fated wife. Hilary Heath, Carl Rigg, Stephan Chase, Marshall Jones, Andrew McCulloch, Michael Elphick, and Patrick Mower comprise an excellent supporting cast. Bergner is good, if also unmemorable, as the antagonist, and Hugh Griffith makes the most of his regrettably minor role, as a grave digger and corpse robber."Cry of the Banshee" is not a great horror film, but it is good fun. Trivia item: the opening title sequence was animated by Terry Gilliam.Available in both an A.I.P. theatrical version and a director's cut.Seven out of 10.

Leofwine_draca We're back in familiar WITCHFINDER GENERAL territory as Vincent Price sends all manner of innocent young girls to be burned and tortured in this enjoyable period potboiler. However, CRY OF THE BANSHEE lacks the power of its obvious influence and is content to go through the motions instead. There is nothing wrong with this, and it remains a thoroughly entertaining movie which seems exactly like a Hammer film in all but name.The atmospheric forest scenery certainly adds to the lavish look of the film as do the costumes. Despite the low budget these all look authentic. What is surprising is the amount of gratuitous nudity in this film - a lot more than was offered in other films of the time. Almost every female in this film has her top torn off at one time or another, perhaps making this more enjoyable for the male viewers. The violence level is pretty graphic, too, although the disappointing gore only consists of some cheap-looking blood smeared over a few necks and faces. Also, the chief villain in this film is a werewolf, and when we finally get to see it, it looks really disappointing, just a bloke with brown makeup on his face.The cast is pretty good for a film of this sort, with Price relishing a role which he could play in his sleep by now - although he keeps the hamming to a bare minimum here. His male supporting cast are mainly macho, handsome actors of the period - such as Patrick Mower - and fail to make much impact, leaving Price to hog much of the limelight for himself. It's only Hugh Griffiths in a fun role as a gravedigger who stands out from the mostly similar-looking crowd. Loads of pretty actresses also populate the cat, including WITCHFINDER GENERAL's Hilary Dwyer and THE OBLONG BOX's Sally Geeson.So, for Hammer fans, this is fine entertainment with plenty of intrigue and action to keep things moving quickly over the rather familiar plot. Any film which has suspicious priests and people descending into broken tombs to break up evil gatherings where the high priestess is sticking pins into a voodoo doll is good by my book, and no mistake. Not the most powerful of the witch-burning genre, but a solid enough piece of entertainment, no mistake.

GL84 Tired of fighting against a coven, an aristocratic lord humiliates the leader of a revered witch and sends them out on a mission of vengeance against him and his kingdom to settle the score once and for all.Frankly, this one was overall quite decent and enjoyable but certainly has a few minor flaws as well. Among the better aspects here, the best is undoubtedly the fact that this one certainly manages to really explore the idiotic nature of misunderstanding witchcraft among those who supposedly hunt them down for a living, here basically making them the living embodiment of taking every single notion of their livelihood as meaning their indulgence in witchcraft and the need for punishment. The harassment of local weapon for wearing supposed jewels and charms of local witch clans, any sort of odd behavior or going against even the most foolhardy of orders makes for a rather intriguing following to the authority here wherein you want to see them fail as befits their stupidity against the innocents among them, and that indeed sets up the film's two big marks in its torture scenes and the final comeuppance. The torture here is kept within realistic realms, mainly public humiliation and spectacle around whipping or branding with scalding irons, and a later scene of gaining a confession by tying one up to wooden posts and setting it on fire makes for a wholly enjoyable piece, while the revenge tactics of the final half are just plain enjoyable. The animal attacks in the forest, turning the wife on him with her behavior at the dinner reception and finally the ending here is all part of the total package of revenge and it really seems to be worthwhile and truly earned which is always a plus. On the negative side, the fact that this one tends to really ham-fist itself here when it comes to the exploitative side of things despite that indeed being part of the film's aim as if wallowing in those areas are beneath it. The violence and gory kills are nearly nonexistent as are the tortures here by keeping it in the mostly realistic realm and there's barely any nudity despite several scenes of the hunters lecherously ripping their shirts and blouses open to torment them as this shifts the camera around to avoid that altogether which really questions why it would've been included anyway. As well, there's not a whole lot of action out witch-hunting since this instead focuses on them talking about the coven and they danger to him they posses rather than explicitly show it, so it suffers from that small factor as well though on the whole this one is quite good.Rated R: Violence, Language, Nudity and themes of incestuality.

Witchfinder General 666 Gordon Hessler's "Cry Of The Banshee" of 1970 is certainly one of the weaker films with the great Vincent Price, but it is still a pretty good horror flick, and certainly way underrated. I must add, however, that Vincent Price is my favorite actor of all-time and my personal opinion is that you can never go wrong with a film with Price in the lead.Price stars as Lord William Whitman, a sadistic despot in Elizabethean England, who wants to terminate superstitious beliefs by brutally massacring followers of the 'old religion', a bizarre hippie-style witch cult lead by an old woman called Oona (Elisabeth Bergner). Lord Whitman, who lives in his castle with his kind-hearted daughter Maureen (Hillary Heath) his sadistic son Harry (Carl Rigg), his wife, Lady Patricia (Essy Persson), and Roderick, a young man whom the despotic lord let live with his family since childhood, shows no mercy when it comes to the persecution of the pagans living in the woods, and brutal oppression is the everyday situation in his town, where people are tortured and killed for the simple suspicion of being followers of Oona's cult.Some parts of the movie remind a lot of Michael Reeves' masterpiece "Witchfinder General" of 1968, which also had Price in the lead and which is, of course, incomparably better than "Cry Of The Banshee". Besides Price, the movie also stars Hillary Heath, who also played the female lead in "Witchfinder General". Price is excellent as always, and Heath also delivers a good performance as his daughter. The rest of the acting differs, some performances are better, some worse, but they're certainly not terrible. The movie certainly has a few pretty cheesy moments, but it has at least as many creepy ones. Although the violence in this movie is not comparable to the violence in "Witchfinder General", the movie has some pretty brutal moments and some nudity, which gives the film a nice Exploitation feeling."Cry Of The Banshee" is certainly not one of the masterpieces with Vincent Price, but it is certainly not as bad as many seem to regard it. I personally found it very enjoyable, it definitely has some creepy moments, and I warmly recommend it to fans of Horror flicks and Vincent Price. 7/10