The seventeenth century on film: patriarchy, magistracy and witchcraft in British horror films, 1968-1971

The seventeenth century on film: patriarchy, magistracy and witchcraft in British horror films, 1968-1971

This article argues that the a series of films made between 1968 and 1971 and set in the seventeenth century mark a departure not only from the typical setting of British horror films, but also from what was then the prevailing portrayal of patriarchal authority in Britain's horror output. While the films examined in this paper have often been read as aligned with and sympathetic to counter cultural forces, and thus as a refraction of contemporary 1960s social unrest through a seventeenth century lens, this paper finds in them a contrary position. It suggests that bringing the seventeenth century onto the screen allowed horror filmmakers working for the smaller Tigon company to re-endorse the fatherly authority that Hammer, Britain's largest horror studio, was then calling into question.

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