ARTICLES
Plague of the
Zombies
introduction to
screening, Carnglaze Cavern, Friday 13 October 2006
As a prelude to
the Cornwall Film Festival 2006, a special screening of Hammer's Plague of the
Zombies was organised for Friday 13th October 2006, in the unusual setting of
the former slate mine at Carnglaze Cavern. Fans were encouraged to dress as
zombie tin miners for the evening, for which they'd be rewarded with a free
pint. After the screening Marcus Hearn and Robert Simpson took questions from
the floor about the film and Hammer generally (the original plan had been for
Robert to interview Marcus, followed by an audience Q&A, this was changed at the
last minute in consultation with the organisers). To the best of our knowledge the
q&a was not recorded.
Here we reproduce the text for the introduction to the screening which was given
by Robert Simpson...
Good evening.
Its a pleasure to have been invited to this unique viewing experience, in this
fantastic setting in the former slate mines here at Carnglaze. As we've already
heard this evening, this is the first time that the cavern has been used for a
film screening and I am delighted that Hammer's 1966 horror Plague of the
Zombies has been chosen for the honour. I can't think of a more appropriate
film, or indeed a more appropriate venue because Plague of the Zombies
takes place in and around a Cornish tin mine. The screen shows the industrial
workings of the mine towering sinisterly as the zombie plague spreads out. The
shafts and caverns of the mine resonate with the beating of the voodoo drums as
this space will tonight.
Of course this
being Hammer, I'm sorry to have to tell you that its not
actually Cornwall on screen, but rather a convincing
substitute in the form of a set on the backlot of Hammer's
Bray Studios near Windsor. Beyond the walls of the graveyard
lies the Thames, not the Neot.
Hammer horrors
were in their time something of a taboo. The critics
despised them, the censors viewed them as nasty exploitation
pictures. On reading the script for Plague of the Zombies
the censor declared it "insane rubbish" (but don't let that
prejudice you). Despite the condemnation Hammer's horror
films had an audience. They appealed to the young, and at
least at this point in Hammer's history, were morality plays
dressed up with ghoulish effects.
In Hammer
Horror good will (nearly) always triumph over evil - and it
is evil that is presented. The age old concept
of good and evil is equated with a battle of almost Biblical
proportions. Frankenstein fails always because he is
tampering with God's right alone to give life. Dracula
himself is equated with the devil - Dracula: Prince of
Darkness was in fact the title of the picture which
headed the original theatrical double bill with tonight's
(in my opinion superior) film.
* * *
Today Hammer,
despite it being many years since their last film
production, is back in vogue. Perhaps part of the ongoing
nostalgia boom. The films are largely available on dvd, you
can wear an image of Christopher Lee as Dracula on your
t-shirt, dress up as Countess Dracula or the Werewolf for
Halloween - I'm sporting a rather nice Hammer tie which you
can purchase shortly - and the company is even studied in
university courses as a model of the British film industry.
As British as Bond or the Carry Ons.
Just this
morning I was asked once again about how I ended up
interested in these films from an age before I was born.
Just as many grew up on Universal and Hammer horror via tv
in the 70's, I came to Hammer and Plague of the Zombies
itself via the late-night screenings on BBC1 and Ch4 of the
early 1990's. Sitting up into the wee hours on a Friday
night I got sucked in by the exciting narrative
storytelling, the leading performances of Peter Cushing and
Christopher Lee, beautiful aesthetics in camerawork, sets
and costumes, the economy of the special effects. Substance
over style unlike much of contemporary horror cinema.
The Hammer
film company started life as a small theatrical distributor
and sometime production company in the 30's, building
themselves a success by adapting BBC radio thrillers and
comedies for film. IN the 1950's they introduced colour to
horror with The Curse of Frankenstein, making
household names out of Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and
director Terence Fisher in the process. After that the
Hammer name would become synonymous with horror, as it
remains today.
Plague of
the Zombies would be one of the last films made by
Hammer at Bray Studios and would coincide with a turning
point in the direction and style of Hammer horror. The
horror in Plague of the Zombies is brought out of
Eastern Europe closer to home (although Cornwall to a
Londoner probably still seemed fairly exotic). Rather than
the old Hammer staple of vampires and mad scientists
inherited from the Universal horrors, the film harkened back
to a relatively obscure 1932 Bela Lugosi vehicle White
Zombie.
From the
Lugosi picture Hammer took the idea of zombies as an
unwitting slave workforce, under the control of one master.
The social commentary perhaps builds on a latent racism, a
1960's fear of the unknown as personified in the immigrant.
The voodoo beliefs and Haitian influences are here something
to be feared, a device similarly picked up contemporaneously
in other films such as Amicus' Dr Terror's House of
Horrors and more recently in the superb London Voodoo.
* * *
John Gilling
here proves a worthy substitute for Terence Fisher in the
director's chair, providing a fast-paced, thrilling and
dramatic production, aided by James Bernard's pounding
voodoo score and a strong performance from André Morelle -
who had been chilling in the BBC's controversial version of
Nineteen Eighty-Four and had played a superb Watson
in Hammer's Hound of the Baskervilles.
Also in the
cast is a young Jacqueline Pearce as the doomed Alice -
Pearce is perhaps best known for her role as Servalan in
Blake's 7, and lived in Cornwall herself for many years
until recently.
The sets show
great sense of economy with designer Bernard Robinson
working his magic once again on the tiny space at Bray,
transforming the moat for the Dracula picture into a
sunken graveyard and village - which itself would be reused
in The Reptile, the second of Hammer's Cornish
horrors.
I don't want
to say too much about the film for fear of spoiling the
excellent picture for those who haven't seen it before but I
feel duty bound to draw your attention to Plague of the
Zombies' influence on an entire horror subgenre of the
1970's. Roy Ashton's zombie make-up - and particularly it in
combination with the visuals during the justly famous
graveyard dream sequence would be a major contributing
influence on George A Romero's seminal Night of the
Living Dead trilogy, now quadrology, which began the
following year.
* * *
Ladies,
Gentlemen... Zombie Tin Miners!.... all that remains for me
now is to ask you to sit back and let the rythymn of the
drums take you into Hammer's world, and brace yourselves
for... The Plague of the Zombies!
text © RJE Simpson 2006
Page posted 17th October 2006
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