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.

BloodTheTelepathicDog 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).

Prof-Hieronymos-Grost Lord Edward Whitman(Vincent Price) is a wicked magistrate who why while not believing in Witchcraft, delights in accusing peasants of the crime. The punishments he dishes out are not always within the law though. Working On a tip off, his men kill many within a coven of witches, the witches leader Oona swears revenge and pleads with Satan to send her an Avenger who will smite him and his family. Such an avenger is the mild mannered stable hand Roderick(Patrick Mower), who was found as a child in the woods and brought up by the Whitmans, around his neck he wears a strange and ancient medallion of unknown origin.Gordon Hessler has a mixed filmography in Horror, this on the face of it, is a production designed to take advantage of Michael Reeves's Witchfinder General, as wonderfully hammy Vincent Price and the beautiful Hilary Heath, both return, as does DP John Coquillon, who adds oodles of atmosphere and energy with his ever moving camera which captures the location work beautifully. Hessler learnt his trade with Hitchcock and to some extent it shows in this film, he knows when and where to provide the scares. The film itself was much rewritten and Hessler found himself getting further away from the theme of the title which had already been sold as a Banshee film before filming began, but he was reigned back in by the producers, the meddling doesn't quite ruin the film but it does have a lot going on plot-wise, as a result. The witches coven send a "Sidhe" an ancient derivative of the banshee in the form of Patrick Mower, (his make up none to convincing) to kill one by one, members of the Whitman family, not all of which are bad, some are very decent people, this effective ploy is also used with the witches, making it hard to take sides or see who the really bad guys are. Fans of period Brit Horror shouldn't be disappointed, there's copious nudity and plenty of buxom wenches that make for pleasant viewing, there's also an excellent sting in the tale.

bensonmum2 By no stretch of the imagination is this even close to Price's best film. In most of his films, Price can play the most evil, vile, hideous person alive, yet you can still find qualities to like because of his charismatic, sympathetic nature. This is not the case in Cry of the Banshee. Price's Lord Edward Whitman is a character without any likable qualities.I don't think the story (very similar to The Conqueror Worm) was very original for its time. There are far better "burn the witch" movies that preceded Cry of the Banshee. Price again plays a witch finder. But, he messes with the wrong witch and she places a curse on his family. One by one, family members die at the hands of the witch's Banshee.Two things I liked were the ending and the Banshee make-up. The end of the film had some mild surprises that I enjoyed. And the Banshee makeup was good, IMO, because it wasn't over-done. The minimalistic approach to the make-up worked for me.