Plague of the Zombies (1966)

dir. John Gilling cast Andre Morell, Diane Clare, Brook Williams, Jacqueline Pearce, John Carson

Residents of a late 19th-century Cornish village are dying mysteriously and the local doctor, Peter Thompson (Williams), seems powerless to find the cause of the deaths, much less stop the "plague." In desperation, he writes to his mentor, Sir James Forbes (Andre Morell), in London for advice. Sir James decides to pay an unexpected visit to Cornwall, bringing along his loyal daughter, Sylvia (Clare), who is a friend of Dr. Thompson's wife, Alice (Pearce). One there, he finds that the local tin mines, abandoned for lack of workers, seem to be operating again, and that the local squire, Clive Hamilton (Carson), is just back from a sojourn in Haiti. Gee, I wonder what could be happening?

Hammer Film's only foray into the zombie sub-genre and one of the last major zombie films before George A. Romero changed the game forever, this is fun if not a certified classic. Like most Hammer horror films, it is well-acted. Andre Morell is the epitome of the capable, level-headed, upper-class British professional. I think he's great as a sixtyish hero (he was 57 when the film was released); he exudes gravitas, but also compassion. Carlson is effectively ice-cold as Squire Hamilton, who can be charming, but is the polar opposite of Sir James, in that Hamilton has no compassion for anyone "beneath" him and is perfectly willing to exploit the working classes for selfish ends. Most reviews pan the performance of the beautiful Clare (supposedly, a direct descendant of Buffalo Bill!) while praising that of Pearce. I think both actresses turn in fine work. Character actor Michael Ripper, who had small parts in dozens of Hammer films, has a medium-sized role as the local policeman. As always, he's great.

The script, sets, and costumes in "Plague of the Zombies" are superior. I especially liked the masks and robes worn by the voodoo cult members. Like most Hammer films, this looks much more expensive than it actually was and easily lends itself to suspension of disbelief. The green-skinned zombies don't really look like dead bodies, but the look is pretty effective all the same.

This film also one of the great sequences in zombie history. After watching a zombie rise (only to be quickly dispatched by Sir James), Dr. Thompson faints. He then dreams of awakening alone in the misty graveyard and watches in horror as the inhabitants of the graves claw their way out of the earth and surround him. Shot mainly in Dutch angles, it's a great, scary scene.

On the negative side, there are lots of plot holes if you care to look for them. Also, the film is structured as a mystery. However, as Bruce Lanier Wright points out in his excellent Nightwalkers: Gothic Horror Movies, this is laughable, as the solution to the "mystery" is obvious by the time the film is a few minutes old. This is one of many, many British and American horror films that equate voodoo with devil worship. At least here, most of the villains are white, though Hamilton does have a couple of black servants/followers.

Still, if you can get past these weaknesses, and don't require your zombies to be of the flesh-eating persuasion, this one is very entertaining.