George Romero might have breathed life back into the zombie sub-genre with his classic 'Night Of The Living Dead' (1968), but I think he possibly owes a debt to Hammer's 1966 movie 'Plague Of The Zombies': his infamous flesh-eating cadavers bear a remarkable resemblance to Plague's (admittedly less ravenous) mouldy, shuffling corpses.
In Hammer's effective little shocker, André Morell is Sir James Forbes, a professor of medicine who travels to Cornwall (in the company of his daughter, Sylvia, played by Diane Clare) after receiving a strange missive from ex-student Peter Tompson. Now working as a GP in a remote part of the West country, Peter is completely baffled as to why his patients have suddenly started dropping like flies.
After investigating matters in the Cornish town, Sir James discovers that the victims are being killed and returned to life (through the power of voodoo) by nasty landed gent Squire Hamilton (John Carson), who is using the rotting automatons to work his supposedly abandoned tin mine.
Although it was originally released as a support feature for 'Dracula, Prince Of Darkness', Plague Of The Zombies is easily one of Hammer's finest efforts and essential viewing for fans of the living dead. The talented cast give some excellent performances (Morell, in particular, is great as the open-minded man of science who is quite prepared to embrace the notion of witchcraft), whilst director John Gilling ensures that the film rattles along at a fair pace, managing some pretty chilling set-pieces in the process: a creepy dream-sequence that sets the standards for corpses crawling from their graves; a shocking scene in which we meet our first walking dead; and a truly memorable moment that features the decapitation of a zombie by spade (come to think of it, maybe Mr. Raimi also owes a little of his success to this film).
In Hammer's effective little shocker, André Morell is Sir James Forbes, a professor of medicine who travels to Cornwall (in the company of his daughter, Sylvia, played by Diane Clare) after receiving a strange missive from ex-student Peter Tompson. Now working as a GP in a remote part of the West country, Peter is completely baffled as to why his patients have suddenly started dropping like flies.
After investigating matters in the Cornish town, Sir James discovers that the victims are being killed and returned to life (through the power of voodoo) by nasty landed gent Squire Hamilton (John Carson), who is using the rotting automatons to work his supposedly abandoned tin mine.
Although it was originally released as a support feature for 'Dracula, Prince Of Darkness', Plague Of The Zombies is easily one of Hammer's finest efforts and essential viewing for fans of the living dead. The talented cast give some excellent performances (Morell, in particular, is great as the open-minded man of science who is quite prepared to embrace the notion of witchcraft), whilst director John Gilling ensures that the film rattles along at a fair pace, managing some pretty chilling set-pieces in the process: a creepy dream-sequence that sets the standards for corpses crawling from their graves; a shocking scene in which we meet our first walking dead; and a truly memorable moment that features the decapitation of a zombie by spade (come to think of it, maybe Mr. Raimi also owes a little of his success to this film).