SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Nigel P Alongside 'The Reptile', a film made back-to-back with this, 'Plague of the Zombies' is widely considered something of a diamond in Hammer's crown. And it is. Whereas 'Reptile' was infused with a rich Cornish atmosphere on which to base its tale of terror, only the realisation of the titular creature let things down. No such trouble here - in fact, the appearance of the zombies depicted in this John Gilling directed production went on, coincidentally or not, to influence many of the living dead productions to this day. Milky eyed, rotting, stumbling creatures, they are truly a sight to behold, especially in their first appearance: Diane Clare's Sylvia Forbes stumbles through the night after her fragile friend Alice (the mighty Jacqueline Pearce) only to find her presumably dead, and in the arms of a shockingly revealed, grinning dead man. It is sterling stuff.Peter Bryan's screenplay sets the ball rolling immediately with a fox-hunt being carried out across countryside and village by a handsome troupe of violently arrogant upper-class young bloods. We immediately despise these cowards, and therefore hold Squire Clive Hamilton in both fear and high regard, as he appears to be their master. Hamilton is played by one of my favourite actors, John Carson, a superbly spoken gentleman who seemed to specialise in well-bred rotters. Had Christopher Lee not been available, I am convinced Carson would have made an equally well-received Dracula.Andre Morell, another Hammer stalwart, is also a great presence here, as he is in all of his appearances. He plays Hamilton's nemesis Sir James Forbes, a stuffy but very appealing professor. Brook Williams is also very good as the harassed young Peter Thompson. A word too, for the formidable Denver, Hamilton's lackey and first class bully - Alexander Davion plays him wonderfully.Apart from some unfortunate day-for-night sequences not quite convincing (a common problem from filmic productions of this time), the Cornish location is magnificently used. Superstitious villagers, scared locals, a charmingly manipulative and evil aristocrat, Michael Ripper, something strange going on in the mines - all terrific horror staples. And that dream sequence celebrated by Hammer fans, deserves all the accolades it gets.

Prichards12345 Look no further than Hammer's own Hound of The Baskervilles for the inspiration behind this movie. Peter Bryan wrote the script for both films, and with its well-depicted Cornish setting, charming elderly hero and green-fleshed zombies this is certainly one of their better efforts in the mid-sixties.Andre Morrel is superb as Sir James Forbes, investigating a strange series of deaths which his son-in-law Doctor (Brook Williams) brings to his attention. Sir James eventually uncovers the machinations of the local squire (another excellent showing from John Carson), who is zombifying the local populace to mine for him. This is probably lifted from WHITE ZOMBIE. And the basic story bares some resemblance to Dracula. It's well disguised, however.There's also Jacqueline Pierce's memorable turn as a sweet young wife transformed into one of the undead. She's was probably not intended to dig in the tin mines with the rest of the zombies! The most famous sequence, of course, is the nightmarish resurrection scene. Brilliantly shot and edited, this is one of Hammer's most frightening moments. Ironically, the movie went out as the support to Dracula Prince of Darkness, but it's a much better film than its "A" feature. Plague of The Zombies still holds up.

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.