The Plague of the Zombies
Britain in 1966 seemed like a rather unlikely rebirth of zombie cinema, however, it was from these shores that helped bring the moribund genre back from the grave. It was no surprise that Hammer, one of the most significant British horror movie studios of the time would produce the most influential British zombie film of the decade. Director John Gilling’s The Plague of the zombies may not be one of Hammer’s best-known films but it’s an accomplished piece of living dead cinema. Breaking with the zombie’s American history it’s set in nineteenth century Cornwall where a country squire is zombifying the local villagers and using them as cheap labour in his tin mine, (a bit like employment agencies are responsible for in the twenty-first century).
Given this distinctly British setting, it’s ironic that the production’ original treatment owed a fair deal to The Magic I
