The Plague of the Zombies

Rating:
Summary: Compelling work from Hammer
Review: "Plague of the Zombies" is a great little gothic mystery thriller. Preceeding "Night of the Living Dead" by a couple years, it marks Hammer Films only foray into the zombie genre. Great performances abound, particularly from Andre Morell and young Jacqueline Pearce. Crisp direction from John Gilling combined with the rich colour, typical of HammerFilms at this time, makes for a beautiful film, which is stunning in this DVD transfer. The look and feel of this DVD version was much like seeing this for the first time...absolutely stunning! Reminiscent of a rather macabre Sherlock Holmes story, this film holds up wonderfully, both visually and plotwise. Not a gore flick by any means, this a well thought out and engrossing film that makes me wish John Gilling had spent more time in the gothic genre which Hammer is so well known for. If you like this one, be sure to check out the other Gilling directed Cornish horror..."The Reptile". Either way, you are in for a treat!

Rating:
Summary: GOOD HAMMER HORROR.....
Review: "Plague" is a well made British period horror film about a Cornish lord/landowner using voodoo (via rituals he picked up in the islands) to turn the local people into zombies to work his tin mines. Very good production with good acting and atmospheric sets make this highly watchable. Jacqueline Pierce (also in Gillings' "The Reptile") is very good as a victim. I recommend both films to Hammer and horror fans. They're perfect companion peices for each other. "Plague" is stylish and well worth seeing. Although classy and non-gory, it's interesting as an early modern effort to present a zombie story in literate terms. The DVD from Anchor Bay is fine. Enjoy this one.

Rating:
Summary: Hammer makes a film about traditional zombies
Review: "The Plague of Zombies" is the only Hammer film to deal with that particular type of walking dead and one of the studio's better efforts once you get past the idea of the voodoo of Haiti being used in Cornwall to solve a labor shortage. The film begins with an intense voodoo ceremony that somehow disturbs the sleep of Alice Tompson (Jaqueline Pearce). She happens to be the wife of Dr. Peter Tompson (Brook Williams), the physician of a small Cornish village whose patients have been dying due to some mysterious malady that he can not even diagnose let alone cure. The good doctor's mentor Sir James Forbes (Andre Morell) has traveled with his daughter Sylvia (Diana Clare) to see if he can help. While the women have a run in with Clive Hamilton (John Carson), the local squire (and the obvious man behind all the evil doings), the physicians find they cannot do any autopsies because all of the graves of the recent dead are empty!

The most memorable moment in this film is when Peter passes out and the dead erupt from their graves in a dream sequence. Ultimately the film suffers from the fact that the audience is so far ahead of the characters in terms of figuring out the mystery. Of course Hamilton spent years in Haiti and is using the dead to work his otherwise unprofitable tin mine. The mysteries are only mysteries because Peter Bryan's script says they are mysteries. However, "Plague of Zombies" does remind us of what the term "zombies" meant before the flesh-eating corpses of George Romero et al. Note: This 1966 film was shot on the same sets as "The Reptile," also directed by John Gilling and also set in Cornwall, but the production crew does a nice job of redressing everything so its hard to tell.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling work from Hammer
Review: "Plague of the Zombies" is a great little gothic mystery thriller. Preceeding "Night of the Living Dead" by a couple years, it marks Hammer Films only foray into the zombie genre. Great performances abound, particularly from Andre Morell and young Jacqueline Pearce. Crisp direction from John Gilling combined with the rich colour, typical of HammerFilms at this time, makes for a beautiful film, which is stunning in this DVD transfer. The look and feel of this DVD version was much like seeing this for the first time...absolutely stunning! Reminiscent of a rather macabre Sherlock Holmes story, this film holds up wonderfully, both visually and plotwise. Not a gore flick by any means, this a well thought out and engrossing film that makes me wish John Gilling had spent more time in the gothic genre which Hammer is so well known for. If you like this one, be sure to check out the other Gilling directed Cornish horror..."The Reptile". Either way, you are in for a treat!

Rating:
Summary: Hammer makes a film about traditional zombies
Review: "The Plague of Zombies" is the only Hammer film to deal with that particular type of walking dead and one of the studio's better efforts once you get past the idea of the voodoo of Haiti being used in Cornwall to solve a labor shortage. The film begins with an intense voodoo ceremony that somehow disturbs the sleep of Alice Tompson (Jaqueline Pearce). She happens to be the wife of Dr. Peter Tompson (Brook Williams), the physician of a small Cornish village whose patients have been dying due to some mysterious malady that he can not even diagnose let alone cure. The good doctor's mentor Sir James Forbes (Andre Morell) has traveled with his daughter Sylvia (Diana Clare) to see if he can help. While the women have a run in with Clive Hamilton (John Carson), the local squire (and the obvious man behind all the evil doings), the physicians find they cannot do any autopsies because all of the graves of the recent dead are empty!

The most memorable moment in this film is when Peter passes out and the dead erupt from their graves in a dream sequence. Ultimately the film suffers from the fact that the audience is so far ahead of the characters in terms of figuring out the mystery. Of course Hamilton spent years in Haiti and is using the dead to work his otherwise unprofitable tin mine. The mysteries are only mysteries because Peter Bryan's script says they are mysteries. However, "Plague of Zombies" does remind us of what the term "zombies" meant before the flesh-eating corpses of George Romero et al. Note: This 1966 film was shot on the same sets as "The Reptile," also directed by John Gilling and also set in Cornwall, but the production crew does a nice job of redressing everything so its hard to tell.

Rating:
Summary: Hammer's Only Excursion Into Zombie Horror
Review: By 1966 Hammer Studios were among the leaders in producing stylish horror stories often in a period setting and they were responsible for resurrecting most of the great horror characters of Hollywood's heyday like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy who had been out of favour for almost a decade. The Zombie genre strangely was never a subject Hammer explored, the sole exception being this beautiful 1966 production of "Plague of the Zombies". It incorporates most of the elements made famous by Hammer, an English setting last century, a mysterious plague settling on the unsuspecting townspeople, a dark secret that needs unravelling, and ghoulish deceased residents rising from the dead for a sinister purpose. This film makes terrific viewing with some of Hammer's best atmospheric and makeup work on show in a beautiul full colour production.

"Plague of the Zombies", takes place in a small Cornwall village where a mysterious epidemic is decimating the population. The victims develop a strange lethargy and then die from undeterminable causes. The village doctor Dr. Peter Thompson (Brook Williams), is completely baffled so he writes to his old college mentor in London Sir James Forbes asking him to come down to help solve this problem. Sir James travels down with his daughter Sylvia (Diane Clare). who is a friend of Peter's wife Alice. Upon arriving however they discover that many strange things are going on. They first encounter trouble with the local Squire Clive Hamilton who has recently arrived in the area after a period in Haiti and owns a large estate that includes a disused tin mine. Peter informs them that the villagers distrust him and wont let him perform an autopsy on any of the plague victims making a treatment impossible. Alice alarmingly is also suffering from the epidemic. Sylvia's suspicions are raised when she sees the Alice wandering off into the forest at night. Following her she comes into contact with Squire Hamilton and his young ruffian friends and fears for her life. Alice is later found dead and a local villager found near the body states that he has seen his recently deceased brother wandering in the area with a ghoulish zombie-like appearance. Sir James begins to suspect Squire Hamilton of foul play and after further investigation involoving a clandestine visit to the Hamilton estate, he dicovers that the squire is using voodoo practices from his days in the Carribean to firstly kill and then ressurect the deceased villagers as zombie like slaves to work in his tin mine. Watching Alice's fresh grave Sir. James and Peter witness a ghastly scene whereby Alice's body is turned into a zombie and Sir James is forced to kill her in front of Peter. Squire Hamilton has meanwhile singled out Sylvia as his next target and while visiting her manages to get a sample of her blood which he then uses in his magic magic ritual to lure her into his clutches. Arriving just in time to save her Peter and Sir James witness the whole of the interior of the mine erupt into flames with the Squire and his unfortunate zombie followers consumed in the holocaust.

With it being one of the most atmospheric of the Hammer productions, "Plague of the Zombies", also displays good acting by the leads and an overall beautiful film with high production values. The superb zombie makeup is some of the best ever created at Hammer with the ghoulish grey faces and rotting skin a real stand out. The famous dream sequence of the zombies clawing their way out of their graves in the mist shrouded graveyard is one of the most remarkably eerie scenes in any Hammer production. Fine performances are delivered by Hammer regular Andre Morell as Sir. James Forbes who is excellent in his investigator role trying to solve the mystery and the two female leads are also most capable with Jacqueline Pierce as Alice being so effective that she returned in director John Gilling's next production of "The Reptile", playing the title character. John Carson makes a terrifically sinister Squire Hamilton who is at the centre of all the trouble and Hammer regular Michael Ripper lends his always excellent support as the befuddled Sargeant trying to help out in solving this mystery. Composer James Bernard contributes an eerie score combining the wild Carribean elements with the more traditional Gothic tones so typical of Hammer. Lush colour photography and Victorian flavour, the typical Hammer trademarks, are amply used here alongside the "greyish"toned scenes with the zombies to startling effect.

Despite having a fairly obvious story and villian "Plague of the Zombies", is a first rate horror story. Hammer Studios had a way with stories such as this where the violence in minimal and the blood letting kept to the background. The zombie scenes alone make "Plague of the Zombies", memorable horror viewing before more famous zombie stories surfaced on screen in following years. For some atmospheric chills in the mist shrouded English countryside make sure you see Hammer's "Plague of the Zombies".

Rating:
Summary: A low-budget, atmospheric gem from Hammer Films
Review: Filmed by John Gilling back-to-back with "The Reptile," "Plague of the Zombies" is a gem of low-buget gothic horror. The story unfolds like a mystery, with the village doctor and his mentor investigating the truth behind an unexplained series of deaths. The trail leads them to the village squire, played with a memorable evil aloofness by John Carson, who apparently learned a thing or two about voodoo and raising the dead whilst in the Caribbean. Beautifully shot on a limited budget, this film exudes atmosphere, and was obviously made with Hammer's usual care and attention. It makes me yearn for the days when horror films actually starred ADULTS, and not teenyboppers that I find it impossible to identify with. Hammer's gothic horror films were very popular with young and old alike, and there was not a teenager in sight in the cast, but a lineup of veteran actors. Have times changed that much? Will there ever again be a wave of adult horror films? But enough of my musings. Back to the film at hand. "Plague" builds tension steadily, without overblown special f/x (which the studio couldn't afford anyway). The suspense relies on character, setting, and simple makeup and camera effects. Not a great film, but a minor classic of its kind, and one of the better Hammer films. It forms a nice companion piece with "The Reptile," and the two films together make a nice double feature, though it is obvious that the same sets were used.

Rating:
Summary: Solid Hammer House Movie
Review: Firstly, the movie doesn't involve a plague of zombies at all, rather a modest collection of them being used as illegal workers underground in a tin mine - remember "101 uses for a dead cat"? Despite this, all the usual Hammer type features are here: the superstitious villagers blind to what is happening under their noses, the outsider running his own investigation by digging up bodies in the middle of the night, cigars and brandy around the fire, the deranged squire who hides the evil secret in his castle and of course - a fiery finale. This is a most enjoyable film, with good straight faced actors who act well, and bring you along for the ride. This is about what you would expect from a good solid hammer film. This is a fun movie to watch on a lost weekend over a bottle of wine.

Rating:
Summary: These guys could work for Kathie Lee
Review: Forget the Kooky end to this well laid out Hammer classic. The eerie countryside, the mysterious mood of the town folk, and the sinister squire create the atmospheric horror synonomous with Hammer.The hair stands on the back of your neck during a fantastic graveyard dream sequence. Lots of voodoo and strange events lead up to a very different end. Don't forget to watch the origional trailers included with the widescreen version... It's a hoot!

Rating:
Summary: atmospheric and engaging, with some nice scares
Review: Hammer's only foray into the realm of the zombie film is also most likely the only film about voodoo rites to be set in the British countryside. This incongruity is actually one of the film's great strengths, as it supplants into an unsuspecting society a horror totally alien. Beautifully photographed, as always, with interesting (intentional?) observations on the exploitation of the working class at the hands of the aristocracy. A socialist zombie film? Probably not, but it's a nice thought. The film's principal flaw is that it's structured like a mystery. None of the mysteries here are very mysterious, it's obvious who is behind the zombies. The uneven story is well served, though, by the cast. The sadly underrated Andre Morrell is delightful as the film's nicely mature hero, starting off as a pompous, bitter, stiff upper lip, decidedly British sort of insufferable upper class snob, but gradually revealing a much more human interior, ultimately forming the film's moral center. Conversely, John Carson's villain starts off suave, independent, charming, vaguely and intriguingly decadent, but gradually reveals his truly sinister nature. Jacqueline Pearce is superb as ever in her small role, appealingly doe eyed and waifish. One of director John Gilling's best, and one of the more offbeat Hammer offerings. It's nice to see it made available in such a superb widescreen transfer. Scared me senseless as a wee lad, I couldn't even look at stills of the grinning, glassy eyed, pasty faced zombies. Watch for the famous dream sequence!