Sir James Forbes (Morell) arrives in a remote Cornish village to identify a mysterious plague afflicting the population. But the dead are not allowed to rest in peace. Local squire Charles Harris (Carson), a disciple of Haitian witchcraft, is using the voodoo magic to resurrect the dead to work in his decrepit and unsafe tin mines that are shunned by the local population. But his magic relies on human sacrifice and he unleashes his army of the undead on the unsuspecting village with horrific consequences.

As well as being genuinely horrifying and suspenseful, The Plague Of The Zombies is held in very high esteem by film critics and is one of Hammer’s most artistically satisfying films. Hammer’s only zombie movie, it was released a full two years before George A. Romero’s contemporary-set Night Of The Living Dead and has similarly political themes to Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead. It was shot back-to-back with The Reptile by Gilling and his crew, with a shared supporting cast (Hammer stalwart Michael Ripper, Jacqueline Pierce) and the same sets including the Cornish village. For this reason the two films make a natural double-bill.

Producer (s):

• Anthony Nelson Keys