poe-48833 As it turns out, THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES is an exceptional entry in the genre: part Monster Movie and part Social Commentary (worker rights are touched on- like the right not to be worked to death after Death...), it boasts a solid cast working from a sound script, with some taut direction and some suitably icky makeups (I've always liked the "soulless" look white contacts give Supernatural characters; Sam Raimi nailed the look in THE EVIL DEAD). The direct lineal descendant of movies like WHITE ZOMBIE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES can be viewed as the last of that particular line: within a year or two, George Romero would redefine the Zombie in Fright Films (for better or for worse) for Generations to come.

AaronCapenBanner John Gilling directed this atmospheric Hammer studios thriller that stars Andre Morell as Sir James Forbes, who, along with his daughter Sylvia(played by Diane Clare) have arrived at a Cornish village to help his former student Peter Thompson(played by Brook Williams) deal with a string of mysterious deaths he hasn't been able to solve because of the superstitious villagers. The local Squire Hamilton(played by John Carson) is in reality the leader of a secret voodoo cult that is using zombies as slave labor in his silver mine, and having first targeted Peter's wife Alice, now wants Sylvia... Excellent horror film has fine atmosphere, direction, and script, with good performances by all. Makes a perfect double feature with "The Reptile", also from Hammer.

Tom Erik Høiås Good film about a professor who answers to a calling made from a previous student. This student is now the doctor of a small town, and he finds it bizarre that people in the dozens keep dying with no sign of a criminal act. The Professor played by Sir Andre Morell starts digging up bodies only to find out that the graves are empty. What can this be? where are the bodies? And why did the professor's daughter see a presumably dead person up and walking in the dead of night? All seems to point towards a rich man living in a castle after he in recent years have returned from Haiti. The Professor soon realizes that he is a practitioner of black magic or Voodoo if you will. I must say that this film had a way more intricate plot than at first glance. A recommended film and one of the better Hammer productions i have up to this point had the pleasure of seeing.

TheTominator Known for being the first movie to introduce zombies as flesh eating ghouls (before Night Of The Living Dead did it), this low-budget Hammer movie doesn't really have a lot to offer. We start with a creepy underground voodoo ritual, unintelligible chanting and blood dropping on a doll, and a woman waking up and reciting the same chant. We learn later that the woman is an old friend of the protagonist, played with expression by Diane Clare. Her father and her go to a small British village, to visit the woman and her husband, a doctor (and former student of the old man) who is struggling with the skepticism of the village people on letting him perform an autopsy on any of the many recently deceased. The last noteworthy character is the Squire Clive Hamilton, a rich and mysterious man. Hamilton's men kidnap Ms. Forbes (Clare), and take her to his home, where they begin to torture her mentally, but the charming Squire comes to the rescue, and from there on, attempts to spark a relationship with her. Of course not everything's what it seems, and soon enough Mrs. Forbes' friend dies, murdered by a decomposing man. While her father and the doctor investigate, she learns that Mr. Hamilton might be the cause of her friend's death, and that she might be next. While quite original for its time, for me it didn't work as well, because, well, I've watched a lot of movies that pull the same tricks before seeing this. The look of the zombies is easily surpassed by that of Night Of The Living Dead, which was made only a year later, and the acting is average at best, the standoff being Clare and André Morell, who plays her father. The mystery is easy to figure out 30minutes in the movie, but it's still a very original movie for it's time, and you can see that it was made with a lot of love for the genre.