The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

John Gilling

Writer:

Peter Bryan (writer)

Release Date:

12 January 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Young workers are dying because of a mysterious epidemic in a little village in Cornwall. Doctor Thompson...

Plot Keywords:

Professor | Mine | Village | Dying | Epidemic

Cast

André Morell	...	Sir James Forbes
Diane Clare	...	Sylvia Forbes
Brook Williams	...	Dr. Peter Tompson
Jacqueline Pearce	...	Alice Mary Tompson
John Carson	...	Squire Clive Hamilton
Alexander Davion	...	Denver (as Alex Davion)
Michael Ripper	...	Sergeant Jack Swift
Marcus Hammond	...	Tom Martinus
Dennis Chinnery	...	Constable Christian
Louis Mahoney	...	Coloured Servant
Roy Royston	...	Vicar
Ben Aris	...	John Martinus
Tim Condren	...	A young blood (as Tim Condron)
Bernard Egan	...	A young blood
Norman Mann	...	A young blood

Also Known As:

The Zombies

Runtime:

91 min | USA:90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

UK:12 (DVD rating) | UK:15 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | Netherlands:12 (DVD rating) | Finland:(Banned) (1966) | Norway:15 | Norway:18 (1970) | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

Diane Clare's voice is dubbed in this movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Sir James and Peter are watching Alice's grave, they have to leave to help the vicar who has been attacked. The squire and his men open the grave and reveal Alice's corpse but are disturbed when Sir James and Peter return. As the two watch she transforms into a zombie and crawls out of her grave. But when they arrived back in the cemetery and found the open grave we see Alice for an instant in her coffin and she is already in zombie make up, even though this is before the transformation.

Quotes:

Sir James Forbes: I, I find all kinds of witchcraft slightly nauseating and this I find absolutely disgusting.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Truly, Madly, Cheaply!: British B Movies (2008) (TV)

Brisk, efficient Hammer offering

Though I'm a big Hammer fan from first time around, incredibly I missed this when it came out (actually, I was a bit young), and never caught up with it on TV. A pal of mine , gave me the DVD, so I was finally able to see it.

PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES isn't the front rank of Hammer movies. I saw THE MUMMY right after and it's plain that Hammer weren't spending much money on ZOMBIES, compared with the earlier film, but though it was obviously made by the Hammer B-team on a b- movie budget, ZOMBIES does everything that it was intended to do.

Great to see a very young Jacqueline Pearce as the doomed friend of the heroine. I met Jacqueline a few times during the 1980s when she was in BBC's BLAKE'S 7, and she was a very funny, sometimes outrageous person. But you'd never know if from this fairly thankless role.

Anyway, not Hammer's best, but fun nonetheless. Worth a look if you ever get the chance to see it.