The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

Powerful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This is a slow moving olden-days zombie movie. I wasn't that impressed because this was made before the stunning atmosphere of Rosemary's Baby (1968) and didn't take inspiration from the insane violence of Blood Feast (1963). The acting and direction is fine and I would say that it is impressive for the time but can't compare to modern horror. There are some cool scenes and sets but nothing memorable.

Before zombies became flesh eating creatures it were slaves driven by voodoo rituals from witch doctors. Even though a much better effort than the overly boring "I walked with a zombie" this one focuses on the greed of a magistrate (and he has a few other important professions) using voodoo not only to cause death upon young people (mostly men). Again with voodoo he brings them back to life as zombies who are forced to work for him as slaves in a mine digging I guess for gold or other precious things. It has a few nice scenes such as the rising from the grave from Alice and turning into a zombie and than the dream sequence where we see other dead people digging themselves up from their resting place. Unfortunately that is not enough to save the movie. Not saying the story is bad and it's OK in the visual department but it doesn't come across as very atmospheric. There are no stand out performances. I feel this one would have been better had it been in black and white. For me it lacked soul and felt overly long to reach its goal. A rather weak finale too. I think White Zombie did a much better job even though the story was very simple.

Sylvia Forbes receives a letter from her school friend Alice who lives in a village in Cornwall , a village that has been struck by a mysterious illness that is killing the inhabitants . Since her father is the eminent doctor Sir John Forbes she suggests they visit the village to get to the bottom of this mystery If you've been brought up on the post Danny Boyle super fast zombie era then don't build your hopes up . In fact if you're ages with me and remember catching all these George A Romero movies on home video in the 1980s where a zombie sinks its teeth in to someone and bite a chunk out of someone , again don't expect any gore . In fact don't expect any zombies because its not that type of movie . In many ways it plays out like a period mystery set in the late 19th Century and uses most of the sets used from the other Hammer movie from 1966 THE REPTILE one of the best most atmospheric films the studio produced . If you're expecting something along the lines of THE REPTILE again you're going to be disappointed The problem lies in the way the story is told . We're shown a scene where black extras thump on some bongo drums ( Films in those days did play up to stereotypes a bit too much and Hammer were worse than most at it ) where a Shaman gives an incantation . If you've no knowledge as to what might be happening here the title of the film gives a very big clue . What this means is that the audience are one step ahead of Sir John Forbes as he tries to solve the mystery , a mystery that is rendered redundant to the audience . The Shaman's plan for the undead when it is revealed is faintly ridiculous when given any thought , but I guess those nasty mine owners don't believe in a ( Pun alert ) paying their employees a living wage Not to be totally negative there is a plus point in the film's favour and that is the casting of Andre Morell as Forbes . Morell is best known for his portrayal as the eponymous Professor in the original BBC production of QUATERMASS AND THE PIT . Every time I give a loan of my DVD of that show to anyone vaguely interested in television science fiction they always comment that one of the best things about the show is Morell's performance . He effectively plays the same character in exactly the same way which is in no way a criticism . Forbes is an intellectual studious man with a hint of both arrogance and open mindedness and he's very easy to buy in to as being a real person who is on a mission to solve something which makes the film slightly better than it possibly deserved to be

Let's not pretend that this film is some kind of masterpiece-it's Hammer and you know what your in for.Like most of these movies it takes an eternity to get going but when it does your just about glad you stuck with it.Acting is above average for the genre-Morel is excellent as the hero and plays the upper class gent with aplomb.Never did understand why the Squire wanted a crew of zombies in the first place.It seems he was only using them as cheap labour for the tin mine situated underneath his house-an extreme measure to go to.Suppose zombies don't need lunch breaks or ask for pay rises but by the look of them they make pretty crap workers for a tin mine.Not in the least scary-but good hammy Hammer fun.