The Plague of the Zombies

My daughter and I caught a fun movie at theMusee D'Orsay. This is the last weekend of Dans la nuit de la Hammer Festival de cinema and it is dedicated to monsters. Last week was "Under the Devil Moon" and the first week was "The Return of Dracula." Being a lover of all things zombie I opted for a showing of The Plague of the Zombies from 1966.
The Plague of the Zombies is from the less hollywood side of the zombie myth, the VooDoo zombie. A zombie created by a voodoo priest is basically a slave to its creator, so you don't get the classic flesh-eating, brain-loving zombie. But this mindless workforce is fun nonetheless.

The film kicks off with a bang, Haitian drummers who have apparently been imported to England and kept underground just to rock a mean drum circle in native dress every few days. A well respected doctor and his cheeky daughter get a letter from a former student asking advice about a plague in Cornwall. Sir James immediatly heads off to help and mayhem ensues. We get treated to fox hunts, near rape, blood theft, doll making, tin mining, grave desecration, decapitation, and everything else a horror fan might want. Several part had the entire audience laughing. Over all the film holds up really well, there isn't hardly any blood and not much overt violence but it's still creepy.
I'll leave you with one thing. What's scarier than a zombie? A zombie on fire!
I rate it five out of five nails.

The Mark of Satan: Hammer Horror

I watched another great Hammer House of Horror episode, The Mark of Satan. I usually prefer scary movies with a good classic monster but this one hit it out of the ball park without one.

Check out that sweet hairdo.

The ending was quite a surprise which is pretty rare for older horror pieces, having seen so many it's hard to sneak one past me. The descent into madness trick isn't new but they did it quite well.

Don't even think about it.

All in all a great episode, I give it five of five nails.

Children of the Full Moon: Hammer Horror

I happened across eight of the thirteen episodes of Hammer House of Horror, the television series made by the British horror institution in the eighties. The best part is that my daughter loves them, and if you can believe it, I just found out that there is a Hammer Horror Film Festival her in Paris over the next two weeks.
I watched Children of the Full Moon last night and it was awesome. The picture above is from my favorite scene, the couple has just seen a werewolf at the window and the man says, "I'm a lawyer, a logical man," and then jumps out the window in pursuit. What kind of logic is that? He besmirched the good name of lawyers everywhere with that move.
Those creepy children are a pain in the ass from the very beginning.
This scene was obviously going to end up like from the very outset. There is something about faintly cheesy special effects that just make me feel good.
I'd rate this episode four out of five nails.