The Plague of the Zombies | 3 January, 1966

 

The Plague of the Zombies is a 1966 British horror film directed by John Gilling, starring André Morell, John Carson, Jacqueline Pearce, Brooke Williams, and Michael Ripper. The film’s imagery has influenced many subsequent films in the zombie genre.

The Plague of the Zombies

In August 1860, a village in Cornwall is plagued by a rapidly spreading mysterious disease that causes death among the villagers. Local doctor Peter Thompson is unable to combat the illness. Alarmed, Thompson seeks external help from his friend and former mentor, Sir James Forbes. Accompanying Sir James is his daughter Sylvia, a childhood friend of Peter's wife Alice. Upon arriving in the village, Sylvia stops a group of rowdy fox hunters from killing a fox. Shortly after, Sir James and Sylvia encounter a funeral procession in the village, and the fox hunters obstruct it, claiming Sylvia deliberately misled them. In the scuffle, the bearers accidentally drop the coffin, revealing the body of the recently deceased John Martinus.

To investigate the disease further, Sir James and Peter dig up recently buried bodies and find the coffins empty, which frightens them. Meanwhile, Sylvia is harassed by the fox hunters while walking in the woods and is forced to take refuge in a mansion owned by Squire Clive Hamilton. The hunters attempt to sexually assault Sylvia, but Squire Hamilton intervenes, claiming the hunters had wronged her. After leaving the mansion, Sylvia encounters a grey-skinned man near an abandoned tin mine headframe, who horrifies her by throwing Alice's lifeless body onto the ground. The next morning, Sylvia leads her father and Peter to the site to find Alice's body.

Police accuse Tom, John Martinus's brother, of murdering Alice after finding him drunk and sleeping near Alice's body. Tom denies involvement, claiming to have seen his dead brother walking near the mine. Alice's autopsy shows no signs of rigor mortis, and strangely, the blood on her face is determined to be from an animal. Sir James discovers a bandaged wound on her wrist, which Peter says was caused by a broken glass several days prior. That evening, Squire Hamilton visits Sylvia, intentionally shattering a wine glass. Sylvia cuts her finger on the sharp edge of the glass. Squire Hamilton secretly pockets the blood-stained glass shard and leaves.