The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1966
Running Times: 90 mins
Format: Technicolor     35mm
Ratio:
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Hammer Films / Associated British Pathe Limited / Seven Arts Productions
Producer: Anthony Nelson Keys
Production Manager: George Fowler

SCRIPT
Script: Peter Bryan

DIRECTION
Director: John Gilling
Assistant Director: Bert Batt

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Arthur Grant
Camera Operator: Moray Grant
Colour: DeLuxe

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Supervising Editor: James Needs
Editor: Chris Barnes

MUSIC
Musical Supervisor: Philip Martell
Music: James Bernard

SOUND
Sound Recording: Ken Rawkins
Sound Editor: Roy Baker
Sound System: RCA Sound Recording

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Roy Ashton
Hair: Frieda Steiger
Wardrobe: Rosemary Burrows

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Bowie Films Ltd

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Bernard Robinson
Art Director: Don Mingaye

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Lorna Selwyn

LOCATIONS
Locations: Bray Studios, Berkshire, England, UK

CAST
Andre Morell (Sir James Forbes)
John Carson (Clive Hamilton)
Diane Clare (Sylvia Forbes)
Jacqueline Pearce (Alice Thompson)
Brook Williams (Dr Peter Thompson)
Alex Davion (Denver)
Marcus Hammond (Martinus)
Michael Ripper (Sergeant Swift)
Dennis Chinnery (Constable Christian)
Louis Mahoney (manservant)
Ben Aris (John Martinus)
Roy Royston (vicar)
Tim Condron, Bernard Egan, Norman Mann, Francis Willey (young bloods)
Jerry Verno (landlord)
Jolyan Booth (coach driver - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

In a small Cornish village, a mystery virus is killing the locals. The cause is Clive Hamilton, the local squire who's holding voodoo rituals and raising armies of the dead to work in his tin mine. When the daughter of Sir James Forbes, Sylvia, falls into Hamilton's clutches, Forbes and a former pupil, Dr Peter Thompson, set out to get her back and destroy Hamilton's slave army of zombies.

One of Hammer's very best, Plague of the Zombies boasts an intelligent script that sets out to tackle the ever present problems of the British class structure as best as was possible could within the strictures of Hammer's house format. Right from the start, the battle lines are drawn when rampaging huntsmen callously disrupt a funeral procession; the same hunt later pursues Sylvia across the countryside. Director John Gilling and writer Peter Bryan subsequently adopt a healthy socialist stance with a cogent attack on the exploitation of the working class by the industrial barons. It's stunning and justly famous dream sequence has become one of the most indelible images from Hammer's long and illustrious career, and was to be restaged time and again in subsequent films from all over the world. With this and many other wholly remarkable scenes, Gilling both proved himself a more than capable director and created an eerie and atmospheric chiller. An altogether very impressive film.

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Warner-Pathe Distributors Limited

USA
Theatrical Distributor: 20th Century Fox Film Corporation
Video Distributor: Anchor Bay Entertainment Inc
Laserdisc Distributor: Elite (EE 7524 - includes: theatrical trailers)
DVD Distributor: Anchor Bay (DV 10678 - includes: the World of Hammer episode Mummies, Werewolves and the Living Dead; 5in x 7in reproduction of the theatrical poster for Dracula - Prince Of Darkness and The Plague of the Zombies double bill)

Finland
Rating: banned in 1966

Norway
Rating: 15; 18 (in 1970)

1966
January
9: UK - theatrical release
12: USA - theatrical release

1970
October
5: Norway - theatrical release

1996
August
7: UK - shown at the Barbican, London as part of the Hammer at the Barbican season

1997
June
25: USA - laserdisc release (Elite (EE 7524))

1999
November
2: USA - DVD release (Anchor Bay (DV 10678))

Im Bann des Voodoo-Priesters - German title
La lunga notte dell'orrore - Italian title
Nächte des Grauens - German title
La plaga de los Zombies - Spanish title
The Zombies - shooting title

KEYWORDS

zombies, tin mines, mining, class system, hypnotism, cornwall, villages, the occult, voodoo, slavery

Last Updated: 11 April, 2010