The Lord Of the Living Dead

'Plague Of The Zombies' is, quite simply, fantastic. Hammer's only zombie picture is fast moving, pretty surreal and rather kinky, and I love it. 

When Professor James Forbes receives a worrying letter about a mysterious epidemic from his favourite pupil, he and his daughter hot foot it down to his proteges practice in Cornwall just in time to see a funeral interrupted by a load of yahoos, the deceased unceremoniously dumped out of his coffin. A few nights later, the dead man is seen roaming around looking menacing and, when further investigations are made, his grave and many others are found to be empty...

But what does this have to do with the spate of mysterious deaths, or the arrogant Magistrate / Lord of the Manor and his obnoxious cabal of thuggish mates? And what about the incessant voodoo drums coming from the disused tin mine? As Toyah might say 'it's a mythtery'.

Part Gothic, part Scooby Doo, 'Plague of The Zombies' has a huge amount to recommend it, including probably the best nightmare sequence in Hammer history. Perfect as a double bill with 'The Reptile', not least because they were made back to back on the same sets, and it's fun to spot the similarities. Highly recommended.

  

Plague Of The Zombies

Taking The Hiss

Although Hammer specialised in reinvigorating older horror film traditions  (Frankenstein, Dracula) they also had a number of opportunities to start their own - their radical reworking of the Werewolf story, for example, or 'The Gorgon', both of which could have easily have been turned into a franchise.

'The Reptile' has a great premise: a group of Burmese snake worshippers have the ability to transform their people into cold blood, skin shedding monsters (who then come back to England to live in Cornwall). With a less rushed, more considered script, and perhaps Peter Cushing to tell the the back story and give it credibility, it could have run and run.

As it is, we're left with a decent Hammer film with a singular storyline that incorporates a very odd monster, a lot of green, drooling faces, Private Fraser from 'Dad's Army' and a sitar jam that ends with an autodestructive finale straight out of a Who concert.

The narrative is nippy but slightly repetitive (see 'green, drooling faces'), and the whole film cries out for a strong lead, although dear old Michael Ripper does his best in a fair sized supporting role and Jacqueline 'Servalan out of Blake's Seven' Pearce is an attractive female presence (some of the time).

Something of a missed opportunity, but generally good stuff.

The Reptile

Beware The Beat

'The Mummy's Shroud' was the third of Hammer's four Mummy themed films and, although it's a bit cheap looking (The Mummy is basically wearing a romper suit) and is obviously supporting feature material, it zips along okay and has some good moments, and that's more than alright with me. 

The storyline is fairly typical - British archaeologists desecrate tomb, get nastily knocked off one by one by reanimated Egyptian corpse - but what's particularly good about it is that Hammer stalwart Michael Ripper gets a proper role - lots of lines, a character, everything - and he does brilliantly with it, creating a memorable and sympathetic person who we feel really sorry for when the Mummy gets hold of him (and chucks him through a window and into a trough in the street).

Perhaps the best bit, however, is the ending, in which the 'Spell of Life' that brought the Mummy back is countermanded by the 'Spell of Death' and the Mummy, on command, literally crushes itself into a dirty pile of nothingness. Cool.

The Mummy's Shroud