Witchfinder General

Last night I was watching the 1968 movie Witchfinder General, directed by Michael Reeves, which starred Vincent Price as the historical figure Matthew Hopkins, who during the English Civil War went around the countryside and, calling himself "The Witchfinder General", was paid by villagers to basically torture and execute anyone accused of witchcraft. The film, which is set in 1645, involves a Parliamentarian soldier on a mission of vengeance after Hopkins attacks his fiance and kills her father. The film is not particularly accurate, historically, but it is very good. The movie is really gruesome, particularly by the standards of the time. When it was released in America it was re-named The Conqueror Worm to tie it in with the Roger Corman movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Although this movie has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Poe.

After that I saw a 1962 Ingmar Bergman film called Through a Glass Darkly. It is about a family living on a small Swedish island, the daughter of which is slowly growing insane, the father is guilty about the fact that he is more curious than anything to see how his daughter's condition progresses, and her husband and brother look on powerless to do anything. The film is really bleak and very powerful.

I went to the shops today and bought a CD of That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Series Four and the CD of the recent radio drama of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Then I went along to the travel agent to get more details about my holiday.

On my way home I stopped off at the supermarket for my groceries for the week and got an issue of Uncut magazine which was running a special feature about the band Joy Division.

Terror of the Zygons

Last night I was watching the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, a 2004 film directed by Alfonso Cuaron and based on the J.K. Rowling novel. I'd seen it before, but it was a lot of fun. I also watched a 1975 Doctor Who story on TV called "The Terror of the Zygons". The story involves the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) summoned to the Highlands of Scotland to investigate the mysterious wrecking of oil rigs in the North Sea. It turns out that the thing responsible for the sinkings is none other than the legendary Loch Ness Monster, which is discovered to be a cybernetic creature called a Skarasen which is owned an operated by a race of creatures called the Zygons which live in a spaceship underneath Loch Ness and intend to use the Skarasen in their bid to take over the world. It wasn't a bad story, even if the Loch Ness Monster looks more like something given away free in a cereal box.

Today I went out to my parent's house for lunch as usual. As it was Burns' Night on Friday we had haggis (which was very nice), with mashed potato and a glass of whiskey. After that I went to a nearby supermarket with my mum where I got a book called The Good Guy by Dean Koontz and the latest issue of Uncut magazine which featured a free CD of musicians who influenced Bob Dylan.