Influence
Writer Mark Thomas McGee noted that Witchfinder General "did fantastic business and kicked off a second wave of Edgar Allan Poe movies" produced by American International Pictures, including Gordon Hessler's The Oblong Box starring Price (originally scheduled to be directed by Reeves but handed over to Hessler after Reeves bowed out a week prior to production) and Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971). Hessler's Cry of the Banshee (1970), which featured Witchfinder co-stars Price and Hilary Dwyer, was also vaguely associated with Poe in advertisements ("Edgar Allan Poe Probes New Depths of Terror!"); it was dismissed by Allmovie as "a rehashing of Witchfinder General." This new Poe "series" was short-lived and effectively over by 1971.
According to AIP's Louis Heyward, Witchfinder General "was very successful in Germany—it was the most successful of the violence pictures—it started a vogue." "Copycat" films financed, or partially financed, by German production companies included Mark of the Devil (1970), with Herbert Lom and Udo Kier, The Bloody Judge (1970), directed by Jesus Franco and starring Christopher Lee, and Hexen geschändet und zu Tode gequält (1973), released in the U.S. years later on video as Mark of the Devil Part II.
Tigon's own Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) was produced "as a successor, in spirit if not in story" to Witchfinder General, and borrowed Reeves's usage of "the usually tranquil English countryside as a place of terror." Mark Gatiss has referred to the film as a prime example of a short-lived sub-genre he called "folk horror", grouping it with Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man.
Some critics maintain that Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) was influenced by the commercial success of Reeves's film, with one writer calling Russell's movie "the apex of the 'historical' witch-persecution films started by Witchfinder General." However, Russell has noted that he hated Reeves's film, describing it as "one of the worst movies I have ever seen and certainly the most nauseous."
The film has had a minor influence on heavy metal music. In 1980, the movie inspired a band to call themselves Witchfinder General. The group broke up in 1983. Another metal band, Cathedral, released a 1996 EP titled Hopkins (The Witchfinder General), featuring a song of the same name. That song also appeared on their album, The Carnival Bizarre and the music video was included as an extra on the UK DVD release of Reeves's film. And Electric Wizard have a song from their 2000 album Dopethrone called "I, The Witchfinder", although its lyrics indicate it may also have been inspired by Mark of the Devil.
The film was the inspiration for a BBC Radio 4 play Vincent Price and The Horror of The English Blood Beast by Matthew Broughton, first broadcast in March 2010.
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