The Plague of the Zombies (Real Folkloric Zombie Mayhem)
Amazing, a zombie film that embraces the use of the term “zombie.” I thought they were extinct! When did calling the undead “zombies” become a cuss word in cinema? Writers treat it like the plague (pun intended). Seriously though, the 1966 Hammer production (reproduced by Scream Factory on Blu-Ray, which is how I accessed the movie), The Plague of the Zombies, surprised me (and it was my first time watching a Hammer film, which didn’t disappoint). The film follows Sir James Forbes (Andre Morell), his daughter, Sylvia (Diane Clare), and Forbes’s former pupil, Dr. Peter Tompson, the latter seeking help from his old mentor to figure out what illness is killing the inhabitants of the Cornish village he works in. The movie plays an excellent spin on the zombie trope: it doesn’t put a spin on it at all! The film goes back to the original Haitian zombie, which William B. Seabrook made popular in the West with his book, The Magic Island, in which he writes about Haitian superstitions, such as voodoo. These living dead return through this mysterious, dark magic, becoming slaves to the conjuror.
Though this film came out before the swath of zombie films which were produced in the latter half of the 20th-century, before George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, which transformed the modern cultural view of zombies into flesh eating, plague carrying sacks of meat, it’s nice to see a movie go back to the original meaning of the word “zombie.” What they do similar with the undead, and very well, is the makeup and costume design. The moribund texture of the skin and the bright, piercing eyes produce quite a sight. They do, however, have a conservative amount of screen time, but the narrative and its pace makes up for this. Carrying many of the scenes, Sir James Forbes is basically a well-respected man of science turned Sherlock Holmes, his intuitive, curious, and authoritative nature being what carry many of the scenes building up to the climax. Some moments did take me by surprise, some through shock and others awe. The biggest (and possibly only) problem in this film is the ending, which leaves one wanting a little more, though it does wrap up everything. The greatest strength of The Plague of the Zombies is the atmosphere it creates. There’s a scene or two that is pure gothic beauty, and I would go as far as to write one of them is one of the greatest horror scenes I’ve seen (of course this is all subjective, but I’ll defend my claim if challenged). Don’t go into this film expecting another Evil Dead or Braindead gore-fest (despite the exquisite nature of gory exploitation films), but rather a fun, Gothic zombie flick with a dash of detective story. In the Scream Factory version you also get a wealth of features including audio commentary, interviews, and original promotional trailers, among others.
Scream Factory Official Instagram
Written by Logan, Sexton of the Derelict Dead
The Plague of the Zombies
Scream Factory
4.5 / 5
