The Plague of The Zombies (UK, 1966) 86 min color DIR: John Gilling. PROD: Anthony Nelson Keys. SCR: Peter Bryan. MUSIC: James Bernard. DOP: Arthur Grant. CAST: André Morell, Diane Clare, Brook Williams, Jacqueline Pearce, Joh Carson, Alexander Davon. (Hammer Films)
It’s Hammer time! The appeal of Hammer’s Gothic horror films was their more adult presentation than their American counterparts (more explicit bloodletting, and vampire girls with low-cut gowns), and especially their atmosphere. Even their most routine films (and by 1966, Dracula and Frankenstein had been resurrected once too often) are worth a visit for their lighting, fog and colour. One could easily get lost in the films and forget about the characterizations. Indeed the characterizations are weak in The Plague of the Zombies, one of a pair of pictures John Gilling made back-to-back. Its companion, The Reptile, is better-known (and probably better), but this film is also notable.
Dr. James Forbes (André Morell) and his daughter Sylvia (Diane Clare) travel to a small Cornish town at the behest of his former student, Dr. Peter Thompson (Brook Williams), to investigate the rash of mysterious deaths that have been occurring across the countryside. As the viewers would surmise from the pre-credits sequence, a strange unnamed voodoo ritual is involved. In a sequence that hearkens back to Dracula, once they arrive in the village, the visitors are met with equal parts scorn and bewilderment as to why they came there in the first place. In addition, when a hunting party weaves its way through a funeral procession, the coffin is upset and the corpse is revealed; a striking foreshadow of the moribund activity to come.
The walking dead in this old-fashioned chiller haven’t changed much since 1932’s White Zombie, even if now they prowl around an old tin mill instead of a Haitian sugar mill. You can see why George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead needed to come along in two years, where zombies preferred to have humans as food instead of as a boss. Still, this film unsatisfactorily explains why such great lengths are made to resurrect the dead. Is it because the undead are great workers who don’t bitch about the long hours and lousy pay?
What most matters about this movie is the trip getting there. The characterizations are low-key, but the actors seem to recognize the subtle humour in the screenplay. Most interesting is Thompson’s fiancee, Alice, played by Jacqueline Pearce. As in the sister film, The Reptile, she makes a memorable turn as someone who is tragically affected by supernatural occurrences.
Of course, the best thing going for the picture is its atmosphere. Director John Gilling (perhaps hired on the basis of his 1959 film, Mania) and cinematographer Arthur Grant pump a lot of mood into the supernatural goings-on, with ash-blue night photography and an effective graveyard sequence where they unearth a recently-deceased corpse. Watch for those eyes to open!
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #6, “The Second Annual Summer Drive-In Issue”.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.