Alicia I love this movie so much

ShangLuda Admirable film.

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Scott LeBrun The setting is 16th century England, where obsessions with superstition and sorcery rule the day. Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price) is a harsh magistrate punishing any and all people who come under scrutiny for being witches. After a mass killing, he earns the wrath of a witch named Oona (Elisabeth Bergner). You guessed it: she places a curse on him and his whole family, summoning a sadistic demon.Cult director Gordon Hessler takes a so-so script by Christopher Wicking and Tim Kelly and gives it plenty of flavorful period atmosphere. The story may not be that strong, but all the bells and whistles of this A.I.P. production help to make up for that. One can hardly fail to notice that it's not entirely unsympathetic to the witches, and portrays "the establishment" as a crass and foul bunch of people. Whitman and his entourage will amuse themselves by manipulating and embarrassing their victims in their opulent castle. The pacing is mostly effective, and the "banshee" of the title is appreciably kept as mysterious as possible; it's never very well lit. It also builds up a decent body count, and dishes out some pretty gory violence.Price delivers a solid performance, refraining from becoming overly theatrical for the most part. Essy Persson is very good playing the unfortunate, ill-fated wife. Hilary Heath, Carl Rigg, Stephan Chase, Marshall Jones, Andrew McCulloch, Michael Elphick, and Patrick Mower comprise an excellent supporting cast. Bergner is good, if also unmemorable, as the antagonist, and Hugh Griffith makes the most of his regrettably minor role, as a grave digger and corpse robber."Cry of the Banshee" is not a great horror film, but it is good fun. Trivia item: the opening title sequence was animated by Terry Gilliam.Available in both an A.I.P. theatrical version and a director's cut.Seven out of 10.

Rainey Dawn Medieval madness over witchcraft is how I would sum up the film.I quite liked Vincent Price in this film, he was evil and nasty as the character is suppose to be. He's a very unlikeable fellow in this film.As far as the rest of the cast: they were good as well. No it may not have been first class acting (including Mr. Price) but everyone played their roles quite well.The costuming, set and scenery is outstanding! I felt I was brought back to medieval times.The Banshee itself? The viewer really does not see clearly - instead it is left to your imagination as to what The Banshee completely looked like.The story really is a little bit sketchy because it leaves you with a few questions unanswered but that is what keeps you pondering the film. There was an opening for a part two left in this film if they wanted to make it. A part two could have answered the questions the viewer was left with and (maybe) it could have been the end of The Banshee as well.I will have to rate this film 8/10

wildpeace10 While i'm interested in seeing every horror movie vincent price has ever made,i happened to search for other American movies featuring actress Essy persson(which i liked in the foreign science fiction film MISSION STARDUST)and that's how i discovered this film.It does have a similar subject as Vincent price's other witches hunter film WITCHFINDER GENERAL but as unsatisfying as that one was,CRY OF THE BANSHEE is even worst.The violence(consisting of people getting blooded by a mostly unseen beast)is dull and repulsive and the nudity (Essy doesn't get naked in anyway in this film)isn't that great either.Most of the personnalities are unsympathetic and some of the dialogue is terrible.If this wasn't a presold product,it's doubtful that it would even have had a theater run.They say making movies is hard but when you look at the final result of this film,you can easily think that anybody could have made a film like this.

Noel (Teknofobe70) You always know what to expect from this genre of low-budget supernatural-historical movies ... peasants with one brain between the lot of them, fine wenches being treated very, very badly, and plenty of over-acting from men wearing tights and funny hats.Cry of the Banshee has all of these elements, and is fairly representative of the genre. It isn't on the same level as cult movies like "Witchfinder General" (also starring Vincent Price), but it does have it's moments. Here Vincent Price plays a wicked lord with a very strange family. He takes great pleasure in finding, mistreating and executing young witches, until he messes with the wrong coven and his entire family is cursed. They soon begin to get gruesomely killed off one by one by a seemingly unstoppable monster. That'll teach 'em.Vincent Price gives a fairly memorable performance here as the evil, sadistic lord of the town. He does the best he can with the script, anyway, which is all a great actor can ever do. Nobody else on the cast is particularly noteworthy, but on the whole it's a fairly competent movie as far as the acting is concerned. On the subject of the script, it does seem to be thing that everyone involved struggled with. The movie had already been sold to the distributors, which meant that the director, re-writers and so on couldn't change it as much as they would probably have liked to, so they didn't necessary end up making the movie they wanted to make.This accounts for the way that some aspects of the film are so much better than others. In some scenes the actors themselves seem pretty bored with it, whereas in others the relish in the opportunity to show their full talent. The scenes involving the witches coven are pretty interesting, and some of the climatic moments are particularly well-shot. Also, the opening credits sequence is instantly recognisable as the work of Monty Python's artist Terry Gilliam, which is pretty neat. However, there aren't enough great moments to elevate it above most other movies of it's kind.If you're a fan of Vincent Price, or of those trashy period movies of the sixties and seventies, you might want to give this one a look. Otherwise, it probably won't appeal to you that much.