The Plague of the Zombies

John Gilling's The Plague of the Zombies, a product of the influential Hammer studio, is probably one of the more overlooked films both within the zombie genre itself and when placed next to its Hammer contemporaries, for whom this was their first and only zombie outing.

Released in 1966, two years before Romero's genre-redefining Night of the Living Dead (more on that later), Plague is the other 1960's zombie movie, was nonetheless often in the shadow of Romero's film despite being a strong picture in its own right. One reason for this, I suspect, was probably due to the fact that Plague was missing key Hammer actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, whose names are synonymous with a Hammer bill.

Furthermore, the zombie film in general was largely being ignored. The genre had stayed true to its voodoo roots for the most part from 1932's White Zombie on (though there were some exceptions) onwards, and with the ushering in of the atomic age and the Cold War and fears of Communism both home and abroad hot on its heels, the zombie of voodoo lore just wasn't frightening anymore. Moreover, vampire (particularly Dracula) films were more in at the time (the aforementioned duo of Cushing and Lee starred in many of the Hammer Dracula pictures), and despire Plague's double billing with Dracula: Prince of Darkness, it somehow slipped through the cracks of time.

While it sticks to the old school roots of voodoo magic, Plague has some unique touches that make it well worth the time. As opposed to many zombie films that were set in Haiti or Africa, Plague takes place in a Cornish town in England, where it mixes the best of both worlds: voodoo dolls and zombie rituals combine with the ghostly, empty moors of the English countryside. While not as unforgiving and socially relevant as Romero's film two years later, The Plague of the Zombies is nonetheless a strong entry in the genre, powered by good-to-great performances all around and a neat dream sequence where the dead rise from their graves. It's a real shame then that Hammer never made another zombie film; as the genre began to gain steam and reach a fever pitch in the 70's and 80's, Hammer could have given the Italian gore maestros a run for their money.

Buy it here, here, here or here.