Directed
By: John Gilling
Starring:
Andre Morell, Diane Clare, Brook Williams, Jacqueline Pearce
Within
a remote eighteenth century Cornish
village, an evil presence lurks within the darkness of the witching
hour, a mysterious plague relentlessly taking lives at an unstoppable
rate. Unable to find the cause, Dr Peter Thompson enlists the help of
Professor James Forbes. Desperate to find an antidote
what they find instead are empty coffins with the diseased corpses
missing. Following a series of strange and frightening clues, Thompson
and Forbes are lead to a deserted mine where they discover a world of
black magic and a doomed legion of flesh eating
slaves, the walking dead.
Review:
Part of a four picture deal with Hammer's new distributors back in 1965. The
film initially supported Dracula Prince of Darkness in a Double Bill feature.
Ironically, it's one of the most interesting Hammer film, along with my
personal favourite: Twins of Evil.
The idea of Haiti
rites transplanted to a Cornish village doesn't bear a lot of scrutiny, but
it's innovative nonetheless and influenced a number of movies. The look of the
zombies gave way to movies like The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue
and the gag when the recently revived Alison is decapitated by a shovel had to
have influenced Sam Raimi when making The Evil Dead. Fulci clearly
referenced Plague at the end of City of the Living Dead, with zombies being set
on fire. The contacts that the zombies wore could have influenced the look of
the zombies in Shaun of the Dead. So, whilst the zombies in this feature aren't
cannibals, there's plenty to interest the zombie film fan.
Typically,
the producers looked to provide a decent and memorable cast. Andre Morell gives
a sterling performance as the Holmes inspired Professor James
Forbes and can be recognised as a sort of H.G. Wells inspired
character, too, perhaps even a nod to Quatermass. Morrell has a presence
and charisma that is easy to like.
Diane
Clare who plays his daughter Sylvia is fairly typical of the blonde woman in
peril but has enough to do to avoid being a full stereotype. Brook Williams,
who played Doctor Peter Thompson was unfortunately not given much to work with.
As discussed in the interviews, playing the good guy isn't always easy because
there's less to do. Williams did a good job of providing the movie with an
everyman character that we can relate to but the character isn't the most
interesting of the lot.Sadly, Jacqueline Pearce, who played his onscreen
wife, felt the need to point out this defiency in the accompanied featurerette.
With all the potential to talk about in the featurette, I was disappointed that
Pearce chose to berate a fellow actor. It's possible that she was led to this
point by the interviewer and the editing of the piece helps focus on it. With
no question or interviewer to reference the anaecdote, it's difficult to judge.
Thankfully, the rest of the cast chose to talk mainly about the positive
experiences during the shoot. Pearce, herself was fine in the role of Thompson's
wife, Alice, who comes to a grisly end in the most memorable scene in the
movie.
As
ever, the story is widely important to the enjoyment of the movie. The film is
a bit vague as to what made Hamilton bring back Voodoo rites to the village to
gain cheap labour but it doesn't really matter what his intentions are; the
story is concerned with that fact that he's doing it and doesn't care who he
kills to maintain it. It falls to Forbes to stop him. Whilst it would be a full
three years until George Romero's hard hitting game changer hit the cinemas,
Plague still has it's moments of darkness. The scene where Sylvia is beset
upon by the thugs in red jackets is tinged with a cruel implication as to what
fate could have befallen the young woman. She is "saved" by Hamilton
and given the nature of what he does later we can only assume he saved her,
either out of a misplaced sense of honor or because he needed her for his
workforce.
Two
stand out scenes are that of the dream sequence and
Alice 's second death. The dream sequence is a
zombie film lover's delight as outstretched hands burst forth from soil graves
to shuffle on to murder Peter Thompson. Despite an make-up error during the
scene, Alice 's resurrection is creepy enough on
it's own, but Forbes finds a spade to use to lop off the undead
Alice 's head. The camera
lingers on the convincing severed head, and my memories of The Evil Dead
meant that I expected to see the eyes move in the decapitated head's sockets.
Later
scenes with the zombies in the mine are also effective. The only downside is
that the zombie that scares Sylvia, earlier in the movie, when it throws
Alice 's corpse at her,
whilst issuing a cackle through it's undead lips, is easily the creepiest
zombie of the lot.
Benard's
score gives Plague its no-nonsense attitude. The voodoo drums would be
borrowed by Fabio Frizzi for Fulci's Zombie Flesheaters, over dubbing wailing
on to the music giving it a further creepy atmosphere.Typically, for that era,
the score borders on the avant-garde but Benard keeps the score accessible and
not too abstract.
This
Blu-ray presentation is fantastic. You can see how good the work has been from
the restoration comparison featurette on the disc. Extras also include: World
of Hammer episode “Mummies, Werewolves And The Living Dead” / Brand new
featurette: ‘Raising The Dead’ / Restoration comparison / Restored
trailer
Summary:
The restoration makes the movie look as if it had been released yesterday.
Hopefully, more Hammer movies will receive this treatment in future and I know
a couple are in the pipeline for restoring. This British Institution certainly
deserves the effort.
Score: 9/10
Plague of the Zombies was released on 18th June 2012. Grab one!
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