Main Cast: Andre Morell, Diane Clare, John Carson, Brook Williams, Alexander Davion
Release Year: 1966
Country: UK
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
A wonderfully atmospheric outing from Hammer Films, who diverged from their often successful variations on Universal's classic monsters into the world of zombies, a genre which had yet to receive its infusion of terrifying new blood with the 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead. The plot, which owes a debt to the Bela Lugosi chiller White Zombie, involves a mad Cornish squire, who solves an annoying labor crisis in his tin mines by turning local villagers into voodoo-controlled zombies. Dr. Thompson (Brook Williams) and his daughter Alice (Jacqueline Pearce) soon discover the unpleasant nocturnal habits of the shambling undead slaves -- including their tendency to go on murderous rampages when not directly under the squire's control. At the request of Alice, Sir James Forbes (André Morell) arrives on the scene to investigate. The superb script by Peter Bryan employs an interesting subtext about the rift between the British aristocracy and the exploited working class, but the film is less a political allegory than a spooky, atmospheric horror opus that ranks among Hammer Films' finest. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Jacqueline Pearce - Alice Thompson; Michael Ripper - Sgt. Swift; Dennis Chinnery - PC Christian; Ben Aris - John Martinus; Louis Mahoney - Servant; Jerry Verno - Landlord; Tim Condren; Roy Royston - Vicar
Credit
Don Mingaye - Art Director, John Gilling - Director, Chris Barnes - Editor, James Bernard - Composer (Music Score), Roy Ashton - Makeup, Bernard Robinson - Production Designer, Arthur Grant - Cinematographer, Anthony Nelson Keys - Producer, Bowie Films - Special Effects, Les Bowie - Special Effects, Peter Bryan - Screenwriter, Anthony Hinds - Screenwriter, John Elder - Screenwriter
Production on the film began on 28 July 1965 at Bray Studios. It was shot back-to-back with The Reptile using the same sets, a Cornish village created on the backlot by Bernard Robinson.
Plot
Sir James Forbes (Morell) and his daughter, Sylvia (Clare), travel to a Cornish village at the request of his former pupil, Dr. Peter Thompson (Williams). He needs help solving a spate of mysterious deaths, and Peter's wife, Alice (Pearce) is soon the next victim. The trail leads to Squire Hamilton (Carson), who has returned from a trip to Haiti armed with voodoo secrets, which he is using to resurrect his victims as living dead zombies to work in his tin mine.
Novelization
A novelization of the film was written by John Burke as part of his 1967 book The Second Hammer Horror Film Omnibus.
References
Rigby, Jonathan, (2000). English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN1-903111-01-3.
