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Cry of the Banshee

Play trailer Poster for Cry of the Banshee R Released Jul 22, 1970 1h 27m Horror History Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 4 Reviews 38% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
Monomaniacal witch hunter Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price) cruelly persecutes the peasants in his corner of Elizabethan England, manufacturing charges and meting out punishment without regard to justice. While trying to wipe out a coven of witches, he fails to take into account the possibility that real witches might have real power. He is unprepared when Oona (Elisabeth Bergner), the head of the coven, transforms a trusted member of Whitman's household into a vehicle of demonic vengeance.
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Cry of the Banshee

Critics Reviews

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Eddie Harrison film-authority.com …has plenty of points of interest, although for once, the cut version might be preferable… Rated: 3/5 Nov 30, 2023 Full Review Jennie Kermode Eye for Film Handsome sets and costumes give the film a certain glamour that helps to obscure its weaknesses. Rated: 3/5 Nov 12, 2021 Full Review Matt Brunson Creative Loafing Lacking the style and the smarts of the similar Witchfinder General, this unpleasant outing merely vacillates between silliness and sadism. Rated: 2/4 Feb 20, 2016 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Aug 11, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Tom K Vincent Price is as fantastic and menacing as usual. He does his best with the weak story given to him. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 04/07/23 Full Review sean s I saw this movie as a young kid in the 1970s and thought "Man, what a crazy movie." Considering it was made in 1970, it isn't too bad for one of those English witchcraft persecution movies that have always been around. Vincent Price puts on a campy mean show. The movie looks dated here and there, but parts of it are interesting and have held up. Overall it is a little too rapey for me, but that is how they set up the villains and revenge element. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member "Who spurs the beast the corpse will ride? Who cries the cry that kills? When Satan questioned, who replied? Whence blows this wind that chills? Who walks amongst these empty graves And seeks a place to lie? ‘Tis something God ne'er had planned, A thing that ne'er had learned to die." That poem is Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells" and it starts this movie, which is the last of the American-International Pictures Poe movies — Roger Corman had moved on and Gordon Hessler directed this one — and other than that, this movie had nothing to do with the Baltimorian author. According to Peter Fuller on the site Spooky Isles, AIP promoted this movie as the hundreth film that its star Vincent Price was in. The truth is that it was prbably his seventy-sixth. Undaunted, AIP did the exact same publicity for his next movie, The Abominable Dr. Phibes. This movie looks great — it was shot in the Grim's Dyke House, the same location as Curse of the Crimson Altar and The Devil Rides Out — and it has an incredibly wonderful opening animation by Terry Gilliam that was cut from the American print. Well, if you liked Vincent Price as a witchhunter in Witchfinder General, good news! He's Lord Edward Whitman, who has decided that its time to destroy every witch in England, breaking up Black Masses and generally killing them left and right before one of them, Oona, possesses his loyal servant Roderick. It's also the movie that inspired a band to name themselves Siouxie and the Banshees. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Though it lacks that the pathos of 'Witchfinder General', 'Cry of the Banshee' still gives Vincent Price the opportunity to show off his slightly more dramatic chops in a lush horror period piece. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 05/23/20 Full Review Audience Member Though it lacks that the pathos of 'Witchfinder General', 'Cry of the Banshee' still gives Vincent Price the opportunity to show off his slightly more dramatic chops in a lush horror period piece. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review júlio a Ah, é filme de bruxa dos anos 70, não dá pra cobrar muito. E é bem divertido apesar do vilão ser tão tosco que nem aparece direito :D As cenas de lutas são bizarras de ruins ahahahahah Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Cry of the Banshee

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Movie Info

Synopsis Monomaniacal witch hunter Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price) cruelly persecutes the peasants in his corner of Elizabethan England, manufacturing charges and meting out punishment without regard to justice. While trying to wipe out a coven of witches, he fails to take into account the possibility that real witches might have real power. He is unprepared when Oona (Elisabeth Bergner), the head of the coven, transforms a trusted member of Whitman's household into a vehicle of demonic vengeance.
Director
Gordon Hessler
Producer
Gordon Hessler
Screenwriter
Tim Kelly
Production Co
American International Pictures (AIP)
Rating
R
Genre
Horror, History, Drama
Original Language
British English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 22, 1970, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 17, 2017
Runtime
1h 27m
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