Left with my nerves torn to ribbons by 2012's ultra-creepy The Woman in Black,I felt that for October,I would take at one or two of Hammer Horror original titles.Searching round on Amazon,I was thrilled to discover that my interest in Hammer had hit at the perfect time,thanks to Studio canal bringing out new editions of the films,existentially remastered from the original negatives.
Carefully judging the prices,I decided that Plague of the Zombies would be my intro to the world of Hammer Horror.
Getting a letter from his former top pupil, (whose also married his daughter's best friend) about a mysterious illness that is leading to people dying in a very strange way,Sir James Forbes and his daughter Sylvia decided to go and pay Dr. Peter Tompson a visit,in the hope of helping him to stop the continuous spreading of the illness.Arriving to the village in Cornwall,James and Sylivia are horrified to discover that the town is controlled by upper-class gangs,who rule the area with an iron fist.
Attempting to make the gangs see reason,the Forbes and Tompson tell them that an autopsy has to be performed on one of the victims,so that the cause of death can officially be confirmed.Angered by their demands,the controllers of the village tell the Forbes and Tompson that it is simply "marsh fever" and is something which does not need any investigating at all.
Seeing signs of this being a cover up,James and Peter begin to relies,that they only have one,illegal option left,to find out what disease is really killing the poor people of the town:dig up a body. Repairing to carefully open the coffin,James and Peter are interrupted,when two police officers spot them,and get set to arrest them both on "grave robbery".
Fearing that this could possible be their only chance to see-what after effects the illness has had on the decease body,Forbes and Tompson quickly open the coffin,only to discover,that despite a person being buried in it,the coffin is now completely empty.
View on the film:
Feeling unsure about what I was about to witness,in my first ever,"classic era" Hammer Horror,I was relived to find Studio Canal giving the film a tremendous red carpet treatment,with the bonus making of on the DVD showing the painstaking work that the company had put in,to bring this terrific movie,truly back from the dead.
Opening with a lively,proto-Jaws like score from the great James Bernard,director John Gilling shows the events at the start of the movie to be "just another,typical day in Cornwall" as a West Indies Voodoo/Zombie ritual takes place deep within a tin mine.Despite being restrained by the studio to only use sets that would be used for the filming of another movie, (The Reptile) Gilling shows tremendous skills in not allowing the "boxed-in" restrictions from stopping him creating a wonderful,mysterious atmosphere.
Although the film does feature a number of good,surprisingly dream-logic style Zombie scenes,Gilling unexpectedly makes the most chilling moments in the film,ones which involve psychological fear rather than gore,with one of the most terrifying scenes in the film,being a character fearing that they may be about to get gang Raped.
Showing a strong influence of Arthur Conan Doyle,screenwriter Peter Bryan, (who,in 1959 wrote the screenplay for Hammer's version of Doyle's The Hound of the Baskerville) combines Tompson and the Forbes increasingly dangerous, amateur sleuthing with a wonderful,cleverly handled underlying subtext,which shows,that even after becoming dead & buried,the working class,is here literally used as slaves by the upper-class of the village,to do all of the "dirty work for them,even after death!
Despite great performances from the whole cast,with the charming Diane Clare, (whose other credits include Ice Cold In Alex,Whistle Down the Wind and 1963's The Haunting) as Sylvia Forbes,and the wickedly good,James Mason-sound-alike John Carson as the boo-hiss Squire Clive Hamilton being two of the main highlights,Bryan sadly struggles to give the film the knock-out punch that it feels to be building towards in the first hour,as the ending leaves behind any sense of atmospheric, mystery horror behind,to instead end on a poorly done, Disaster movie-like note .
Carefully judging the prices,I decided that Plague of the Zombies would be my intro to the world of Hammer Horror.
Getting a letter from his former top pupil, (whose also married his daughter's best friend) about a mysterious illness that is leading to people dying in a very strange way,Sir James Forbes and his daughter Sylvia decided to go and pay Dr. Peter Tompson a visit,in the hope of helping him to stop the continuous spreading of the illness.Arriving to the village in Cornwall,James and Sylivia are horrified to discover that the town is controlled by upper-class gangs,who rule the area with an iron fist.
Attempting to make the gangs see reason,the Forbes and Tompson tell them that an autopsy has to be performed on one of the victims,so that the cause of death can officially be confirmed.Angered by their demands,the controllers of the village tell the Forbes and Tompson that it is simply "marsh fever" and is something which does not need any investigating at all.
Seeing signs of this being a cover up,James and Peter begin to relies,that they only have one,illegal option left,to find out what disease is really killing the poor people of the town:dig up a body. Repairing to carefully open the coffin,James and Peter are interrupted,when two police officers spot them,and get set to arrest them both on "grave robbery".
Fearing that this could possible be their only chance to see-what after effects the illness has had on the decease body,Forbes and Tompson quickly open the coffin,only to discover,that despite a person being buried in it,the coffin is now completely empty.
View on the film:
Feeling unsure about what I was about to witness,in my first ever,"classic era" Hammer Horror,I was relived to find Studio Canal giving the film a tremendous red carpet treatment,with the bonus making of on the DVD showing the painstaking work that the company had put in,to bring this terrific movie,truly back from the dead.
Opening with a lively,proto-Jaws like score from the great James Bernard,director John Gilling shows the events at the start of the movie to be "just another,typical day in Cornwall" as a West Indies Voodoo/Zombie ritual takes place deep within a tin mine.Despite being restrained by the studio to only use sets that would be used for the filming of another movie, (The Reptile) Gilling shows tremendous skills in not allowing the "boxed-in" restrictions from stopping him creating a wonderful,mysterious atmosphere.
Although the film does feature a number of good,surprisingly dream-logic style Zombie scenes,Gilling unexpectedly makes the most chilling moments in the film,ones which involve psychological fear rather than gore,with one of the most terrifying scenes in the film,being a character fearing that they may be about to get gang Raped.
Showing a strong influence of Arthur Conan Doyle,screenwriter Peter Bryan, (who,in 1959 wrote the screenplay for Hammer's version of Doyle's The Hound of the Baskerville) combines Tompson and the Forbes increasingly dangerous, amateur sleuthing with a wonderful,cleverly handled underlying subtext,which shows,that even after becoming dead & buried,the working class,is here literally used as slaves by the upper-class of the village,to do all of the "dirty work for them,even after death!
Despite great performances from the whole cast,with the charming Diane Clare, (whose other credits include Ice Cold In Alex,Whistle Down the Wind and 1963's The Haunting) as Sylvia Forbes,and the wickedly good,James Mason-sound-alike John Carson as the boo-hiss Squire Clive Hamilton being two of the main highlights,Bryan sadly struggles to give the film the knock-out punch that it feels to be building towards in the first hour,as the ending leaves behind any sense of atmospheric, mystery horror behind,to instead end on a poorly done, Disaster movie-like note .