How many people have heard of Michael Reeves? Most biographies are written about famous people or people who hobnob with famous people or lesser-known people who have led particularly interesting lives. Michael Reeves is none of these. He was an English ex-public school boy, obsessed by cinema, who made three low-budget horror films and died from a barbiturate overdose at the age of 25. With such a short and relatively uneventful life, why should anyone bother to write a 360- page biography of him? The reason is that one of his films achieved ‘cult’ status.
There seem to be two definitions of a cult movie. One is a film made some time ago that has grown in stature over the years and matured into something fashionably popular – The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, It’s a Wonderful Life, Psycho, Some Like it Hot, for example; films that are forever attracting tributes and imitations and the origin of phrases such as ‘The wicked witch of the west’, ‘Nobody’s perfect’ and ‘Round up the usual suspects’, lines that have passed into the knowing filmgoer’s standard library of quotes.
The other definition of a cult movie – and the one probably more recognisable to the film buff – refers to an unusual film, sometimes acknowledged by critics on its first release but largely ignored by the general public, which has built up a small coterie of passionate admirers. Three of the most celebrated British cult movies are Peeping Tom, The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General. Michael Reeves is the director of Witchfinder General and that is why some people find him interesting and that is why John B. Murray has written a book about him.
Witchfinder General (curiously retitled The Conqueror Worm in America) was released in 1968 and is set during the English Civil War.
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