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The Plague of the Zombies depicts the nefarious machinations of local Squire Clive Hamilton, who uses Haitian voodoo rituals to raise the dead while two doctors, Peter Tompson and James Forbes, set out to investigate a spate of mysterious deaths in a Cornish village, including the death of Tompson's wife Alice. Gilling was offered the 'back-to-back' productions of The Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile in 1965 and agreed to take the director's chair on the condition that he had control of the scripts. His hopes to direct The Gorgon were also dashed in similar fashion to the rejection as director for another of his own scripts The Secret of Blood Island (1964) which was handed to Quentin Lawrence to direct. After Gilling wrote the script for The Gorgon (1964) - "one of the best scripts I ever did" he claimed in Little Shoppe of Horrors - he was rather miffed to discover that Tony Hinds (whom he often referred to, rather bitterly it seems, as "Mr Elder" - Hinds' pen name) had then proceeded to rewrite it. While the films were successful at the box office, making them with Gilling was considered a stressful experience for cast and crew. Gilling developed something of a 'difficult' reputation at Hammer and had several disagreements with writers, producers, crew and actors on a number of occasions after taking on the writing and directing of The Pirates of Blood River (1962), The Scarlet Blade (1964) and The Brigand of Kandahar (1965). His handling of both horror and period adventure would determine the nature of his work with Hammer when he returned to the company in 1960 to direct The Shadow of the Cat (1961).
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Between 19, he directed two films with Peter Cushing as the lead, the cult classic about Burke and Hare, The Flesh and the Fiends (1960) and period adventure Fury at Smugglers' Bay (1961). Director John Gilling's association with Hammer went back to 1949, primarily as a writer on such projects as The Man in Black (1949), Room to Let (1950) and, uncredited, on Whispering Smith Hits London (1952), and then directing and writing a gamut of variable films, including Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952), the Anthony Newley vehicle Idol on Parade (1959), and a number of television dramas during the 1950s. It later appeared as Horror of the Zombies as part of the Hammer programme for 1964. The Plague of the Zombies had been knocking about as an unfilmed property at Hammer for some years, originating from a Peter Bryan synopsis, The Zombie, in 1962, with further embellishments to it from producer Tony Hinds a year later, and announced as a forthcoming production in November 1963. This month we are treated to not one but two Blu-ray/DVD special editions and appropriately enough they are the back-to-back productions, directed by John Gilling, from 1965, The Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile.Īs previously noted in my review of Dracula Prince of Darkness, The Plague of the Zombies was released with that film as a double bill in early 1966, forming one half of their Cornwall located productions that utilised the same sets on the back lot at Bray and were produced as part of their contracts with Eliot Hyman's Seven-Arts, Fox and ABPC. StudioCanal release the latest of their high definition restorations of classic Hammer horror films on June 18th.