Cry of the Banshee (1970)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This is a nasty bit of business made by AIP during that dreary period where the colorful, fun horror movies of the '60s were giving way to the darker, grittier movies of the '70s. It stars Vincent Price, easily the biggest name in horror in the '60s. Despite the title, there's no banshees in this movie. It's about an evil magistrate (Price) who abuses and kills people in his village in the name of witch hunting. Similar at this point to another (better) Price vehicle from around this time called The Conqueror Worm. But the similarities end there as the main plot is about some witches summoning a demon or something to seek revenge on Price and his wicked children. No banshees to be found. Lots of sexual stuff, though, and not all of it consensual. There's even a song about rape in the movie. So...yeah...more banshees and less rape, please. This is an ugly, cheap, and unpleasant exploitation movie. It's not fun enough to be entertaining and, as for horror, it couldn't scare a five year-old. One interesting little bit of trivia is that Terry Gilliam did the opening credits. They're done in that same style Monty Python was famous for.

Well, it isn't that good of a yarn - I just couldn't avoid the pun. In this Vincent Price vehicle (probably one he would loath to admit making) an English village is terrorized by witchcraft, but even more terrorized by the men who vow to rid the land of witches. Vincent Price plays a mad witch-hunter, quick to brand women (quite literally mind you) as witches. When he and his men brutally murder followers of an old witch named Oona (Bergner) she places a hex on Price's house, vowing to kill his bloodline.STORY: $$ (Quite weak. The banshee of the title doesn't play a role. I suppose the howling of a wolf in the background was a simulation for a banshee's scream, but it was a letdown. Also, the characters in this film are hard to like. I guess we're suppose to root for Price's college educated son and his floozy of a daughter, but they weren't very likable characters).VIOLENCE: $$$ (You'll get plenty of tortured women, if that is your thing. One defenseless lass gets burned at the stake for no reason and another witch gets branded with a red hot poker. There is a monster in the film who goes about slashing folks with its claws, adding to the gore and blood departments).ACTING: $$ (Nothing great here. This is Vincent Price at his hammiest. Essy Persson does a good job portraying an unstable woman but Elsabeth Bergner made for a poor leader of witches. The fact that English isn't her first language shows - she seems to struggle through her lines at times).NUDITY: $$$ (The filmmakers seem to use the exposing of a woman's breasts as a metaphor for the exposing of a witch. None of the non witches have nude scenes, but nearly every witch in the film is "exposed" as being a witch).

The title is probably the most interesting thing about this competent but totally undistinguished horror flick, in which Vincent Price returns to Witchfinder General (aka Conqueror Worm) territory. Other than frequent flashes of nudity, Cry Of The Banshee has a dated air to it and feels very much like one of the films Roger Corman's team was turning out in the early '60s. It is nearly always a pleasure to watch (and listen to) Price, mainly because he manages to bring great charisma to his characters even when they're rotten to the core. In this one his performance as Lord Edward Whitman is as polished as usual, but the character is so thoroughly dislikable - so totally free of sympathy or compassion - that not even an actor as charismatic as Price can make him appealing to the viewer.In Elizabethan England, a wicked magistrate named Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price) is obsessed with finding and tracking down those who practise witchcraft. However, Whitman has a nasty habit of abusing his own position of power – quite often, he falsely accuses pretty young peasant women of witchery and has them beaten, stripped and humiliated for the private entertainment of himself and his family. Unsuspectingly, Lord Whitman actually stumbles upon a REAL coven of witches, led by the powerful but mostly peaceful Oona (Elisabeth Bergner). After subjecting them to his usual brand of torment and degradation, he has all the witches killed apart from Oona herself. Later, Oona summons the titular banshee so that it can work its way through Whitman's family circle, killing off his odious relatives until only he remains. The banshee manifests itself in the guise of a handsome young man named Roderick (Patrick Mower), who manoeuvres his way into the Whitman household and makes them pay with their lives for the terror they have brought upon so many innocent people….The film opens with a surprisingly imaginative titles sequence which is the work of Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam. It is sad that little of that imagination is to be found in the remainder of the film. Gordon Hessler directs in routine fashion, moving the proceedings along in a workmanlike but rarely enthralling manner. The supporting performances are generally OK, given that the script is made up of standard characters and situations (having said that, the film's climactic "twist" is admittedly well handled, with a satisfying and rather creepy sting in the tail). Cry Of The Banshee is hardly the stuff of classic horror – there are better horror movies, there are better Vincent Price movies, and there are better movies about witch-hunting – but on the whole it is passable fare. Those who like old-school chillers in the Hammer Horror/Roger Corman style will probably find this an entertaining time-filler.

You always know what to expect from this genre of low-budget supernatural-historical movies ... peasants with one brain between the lot of them, fine wenches being treated very, very badly, and plenty of over-acting from men wearing tights and funny hats.Cry of the Banshee has all of these elements, and is fairly representative of the genre. It isn't on the same level as cult movies like "Witchfinder General" (also starring Vincent Price), but it does have it's moments. Here Vincent Price plays a wicked lord with a very strange family. He takes great pleasure in finding, mistreating and executing young witches, until he messes with the wrong coven and his entire family is cursed. They soon begin to get gruesomely killed off one by one by a seemingly unstoppable monster. That'll teach 'em.Vincent Price gives a fairly memorable performance here as the evil, sadistic lord of the town. He does the best he can with the script, anyway, which is all a great actor can ever do. Nobody else on the cast is particularly noteworthy, but on the whole it's a fairly competent movie as far as the acting is concerned. On the subject of the script, it does seem to be thing that everyone involved struggled with. The movie had already been sold to the distributors, which meant that the director, re-writers and so on couldn't change it as much as they would probably have liked to, so they didn't necessary end up making the movie they wanted to make.This accounts for the way that some aspects of the film are so much better than others. In some scenes the actors themselves seem pretty bored with it, whereas in others the relish in the opportunity to show their full talent. The scenes involving the witches coven are pretty interesting, and some of the climatic moments are particularly well-shot. Also, the opening credits sequence is instantly recognisable as the work of Monty Python's artist Terry Gilliam, which is pretty neat. However, there aren't enough great moments to elevate it above most other movies of it's kind.If you're a fan of Vincent Price, or of those trashy period movies of the sixties and seventies, you might want to give this one a look. Otherwise, it probably won't appeal to you that much.