Customer Reviews

Reptile

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have a thing for Horror, especially for the 60's, 70's stuff. This here is a truely great one, one of the best Hammer films I've ever seen. It's like a much better version of "The Golem" which exposes similar themes. A man moves with his wife to the village where his Brother lived and died ( he died mysteriously ). They inherit his House and soon enough, People start dying. The Townsfolk is scared and bullies the couple, exept for the Barkeeper, who is trying to help them solve the mystery. Could it be that Dr. Franklin has a secret? And who is that creepy servant in his house? And why does he do anything to keep his Daughter at Home?
Everything you want is there : Moors, Spooky Graveyards, A really cool looking Creature ( It would be way cooler if it wasn't on the Box ).

The Acting by everybody is great, nobody hams it up here, which is a good thing. Especially Jacqueline Pearce, I wonder what she's doing now. Her performance shines all around she really makes you feel for her. Hail Jacqueline! Her performance alone makes this movie worth watching. Her performance would make "Grim" worth watching.

One Thing most Monster Movies try but horribly fail is to make us feel for the Monster. This movie doesn't try and I nearly cried at The Reptile's final words. The "Mad Peter" Character was funny, his line "I don't take part in some things that people take so serious these days, for example..." is hiliarous.

If you're in the Mood for some good ol'fashion Horror, check out the Reptile, it's perfect stuff. Sure there are a lot of plot holes and the suspense doesn't always hold up but still, this is one great movie and shouldn't be forgotten.

so it doesn't have lee, cushing or morrel. But, it has beautiful photography, skillful direction, fine characterisation and classy supporting actors inhabiting those charasters, John Laurie and Michael Ripper put in some of their best work on film. It also has a very good score, sorry, composers name excapes me at the moment but its very subtle compared to the usual james Bernards rising chords (don't get me wrong though, i like them too). Make up for once is excellent, good comparing with that in the gorgon which is not so good. The victims die in convincing and fairly horrible fashion, and even the creature itself is better than usual for hammer. A quiet classic for hammer fans and fans of movies that achieve alot on a small budget and little time

I was so glad when on a whim one day I noticed that old Hammer horror titles previously released by Anchor Bay Entertainment appeared to be getting a re-release. Boy, was I wrong about that! Don't be fooled. DVD-R's are no substitute for a real factory manufactured product. The pictures appear murky, bleeding and washed out even though its obviously a direct burn from a genuine Anchor Bay DVD. The sound drops in and out. I played each disc on 3 different players manufactured by 3 different companies. In all I wasted $20 dollars a piece on 3 of these pathetic knock offs. Originally when I purchased these titles there was NO mention of them being bootleg quality DVD-R's. I don't know who's ingenious idea it was to propose such a gross misuse of wasted effort. Either shame on Anchor Bay or shame on Amazon for perpetuating such poor quality knock offs at such an absurd price. They even use the original Anchor Bay DVD's cover art printed by a laser printer however most of the special features listed will not appear.

I.E. - The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires does not include the U.S. cut of the film as mentioned.

What a crime in itself either release the film correctly or don't bother at all. What a tease. What a waste of my money and time.

The movie had this been a genuine product released through Anchor Bay would've received 5 stars.

I threw my money away on:

Dracula Prince Of Darkness

Frankenstein Created Woman

The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires

Save your money until somebody with half a brain decides to do the right things with the old deleted Hammer titles. I'm still very dissatisfied with this scenario.

Hammer was a class act. They gave us great films, with lush attention to settings, costumes and location shooting. They gave you incisive writing, witty dialog (well, most of the time) and they are unsurpassed for creating atmosphere. They made screen legends out of Lee and Cushing, and brought old horror tells into vivid color, with plenty of sexy-babes around to please the lads. For some reason, The Reptile, one of their better efforts works, tends to go unnoticed or dismissed. Could it be because of the "creature" was a mere female instead of the tall dashing Lee?

Well, now that time has passed, people can rediscover this classy Hammer tale. The Reptile (like the old grade C class The Alligator People) rather lets the cat out of the bag as soon as the title is flashed. However, stick with the tale and enjoy
Hammer's gorgeous lensing, and excellent location work. Directed by John Gilling (who directed Lee in Hammer's Pirated of Blood River and a pairing of Lee and Cushing in The Gorgon - two other overlook great films) and written by Anthony Hinds, who pens such other stylish Hammer classics (The Brides of Dracula, the Curse of the Werewolf, Kiss of the Vampire), The Reptile is a moody film. Ray Barrett and Jennifer Daniel play Harry George Spalding and his wife Valerie, a young couple who inherits the husband's cottage in Cornwall, England after his uncle's mysterious death. Michael Ripper, the perpetual also ran of Horror, does a fine character role as the tavern owner who helps them. No sooner than they unpack, they learn a serial killer has been murdering villagers and likely killed Harry's uncle. The film suffers from the obvious, we know there is a Reptile, so the impact is blunted from the start.

Shot back-to-back with the Plague of the Zombies, if you are familiar with one film, and watch the other, you will recognize the same village for the shoot. It builds suspense in an understated fashion, creating really spooky atmosphere. I think this leisurely pace causing some to dismiss this worthwhile film, while those with a more discerning taste will enjoy the non-hysterical approach.

An original premise, great atmosphere, good cast - this has all the elements we've come to expect from a Hammer gothic horror. There are no stars, but the cast is excellent anyway, especially Noel Willman, Jacqueline Pearce and Hammer veteran Michael Ripper, in one of his finest roles.

The makeup and effects are memorable, even if the Reptile's occasionally shoddy appearance has caused a bit of mirth over the years.

In any discussion of this 1966 Hammer production mention almost always is made of the fact that this film was made almost along side Hammer's other big effort of that time "The Plague of the Zombies", using alot of the same sets and cast and employing the same director, John Gilling. "The Reptile", usually comes off the worse when the two are compared but I've always had a great fondness for this film which incorporates a very sinister premise with great photography and an extremely interesting and I might add quite, frightening central creature of the title. Hammer's seemingly favourite locale for their films, the moors of Cornwall, serves ideally as the backdrop for this tale of far eastern curses and underlying menace. The slow build up to what is really happpening also adds greatly to the tension as a number of red herrings are put in place to distract the viewer from finding out why things are happening. The eventual full appearance of the "reptile" of the title comes well into the running time and certainly comes off as one of Hammer's most effective horror creations.

"The Reptile", begins with the strange death of Charles Spalding a newish resident of a small Cornwall village. He is attacked by an unknown creature while in the home of the mysterious Dr. Franklyn. As his funeral is quickly conducted in the village graveyard we find out that he is not the first resident to die a horrible death in recent times. Charles' brother Harry (Ray Barrett) inherits all of his property including his small cottage on the edge of the moor and along with his wife Valerie (Jennifer Daniel) decides to travel down to Cornwall and set up residence there. Their arrival in the village however produces some strange reactions among the locals and only the local innkeeper Tom Bailey (Hammer veteran Michael Ripper), befriends the couple and tries to warn them of what might be in store for them in the village. Harry and Valerie make the acquaintance of "Mad Peter", the local eccentric who soon after dies a horrible death with the same symptons, always passed off simply as "heart failure", that Charles had. Each victim has the same strange wound on the neck and blackened face that seemingly comes from some fanged animal and spreads a strange poison throughout the body causing almost instant death. Harry suspects their very strange and inhospitable neighbour Dr. Franklyn is behind the mysterious deaths and his curiosity is further aroused when the doctor's heavily dominated daughter Anna (Jacqueline Pearce),is seemingly kept away from contact with others. The presense in the doctor's house of a mysterious man servant (Marne Maitland) who seems to have an unexplained hold over the household adds further to the Harry's suspicions about the doctor. After investigating Dr. Franklyn's house late at night for clues Harry is attacked and nearly dies from the same wound as the earlier victims. While Harry is recovering Valerie is lured to the house by a note from Anna asking for help. It is revealed that Dr. Franklyn is not the guilty party afterall as he is the one cursed by an ancient religious cult from South East Asia that worships snakes and has turned his daughter into a half woman, half reptile as punishment for him interfering in their secret society. Anna now awakens from her reptilian slumber and attacks Valerie in the house after she has already killed her father. However in the fight with her father a fire begins which destroys not only the house but Anna as well.

John Gilling reveals a sure hand in his direction of "The Reptile", and wisely doesn't allow the audience to see clearly the creature in question till well into the film's running time. The film has a most suitable air of anticipation and uncertainity about it and about who actually is doing the murders. The whole scenerio of the secret snake worshipping cult taking revenge on outsiders by turning them into part reptiles is certainly an intriguing one and is well employed in this story set in Victorian England. Special effects wise the film may not be as spectacular as Gillings other effort "The Plague of the Zombies", however the reptile's makeup created by Hammer's resident makeup artist Roy Ashton is really first class for the time and makes for one of Hammer's more memorable creature creations. The vivid use of half light and strange far away music usually heard just before one of the horrific murders is eerily appropiate. Performances are all first rate with Ray Barrett who was not a regular Hammer productions regular a stand out in the pivotal role of Harry Spalding. Noel Willman as the supposedly sinister Dr. Franklyn is excellent and his character is one of the most interesting in the cast changing as it does from being the villian to being a man trying to save others from the curse that has wreaked his family. The always reliable Michael Ripper a veteran of countless Hammer Studio productions, for once is given a role of some substance as the innkeeper who helps Harry solve the mystery of who is committing the murders in the village. As with all Hammer efforts the strong period flavour is first rate and use of actual locations in the moors and in the stately but sinister looking mansion adds hugely to the horror element in the story.

If Gothic horror of the old school is your forte then "The Reptile", is a perfect piece of viewing. Hammer studios had a way with bringing these types of stories to the big screen and this film in particular allows the viewer to guess for quite awhile about what actually is going to happen before revealing all. This 1960's type of horror story telling sadly is a definite thing of the past and stories like that of "The Reptile", would possibly appear too slow moving for most modern audiences. I however feel this is a most interesting horror tale enlivened but sincere performances by a professional cast. Enjoy Hammer's excursion into curses and secret religious intrigues in John Gilling's "The Reptile".

Very good Hammer horror film about a wealthy man who keeps his beautiful daughter locked away from other people. He also has a sinister Indian servant who seems to have a strange hold over him as well. A young couple rents a cottage near the estate and discover the countryside is plagued with weird murders that leave the victims disfigured and foaming at the mouth. It turns out the girl is under a bizarre Indian curse incurred by the father on a visit to India that causes her to turn into a hideous reptile creature. The cellar of the estate has been converted into a "natural habitat" environment replete with steaming sulphur springs so that the snake-woman can writhe and shed her skin. The servant is there to keep the curse active. Very creepy outing with Jacqueline Pierce memorable as the unfortunate snake-girl. Good cast also includes Jennifer Daniel ("Kiss of the Vampire") as the wife-half of the neighboring couple who attempts to befriend Pierce. Most watchable and a good companion piece to "Plague of the Zombies" for collectors.

Ray Barrett and wife Jennifer Daniels inherit his brother's Cornish cottage, after the brother's unusual demise by the mysterious "Black Death." The locals aren't too friendly, especially austere neighbor Noel Willman, a reclusive gentleman famous for writing about obscure religious cults around the world. Willman's lovely daughter, the inexplicably shy and subdued Jacqueline Pearce, is as friendly to Barrett and his wife as her father is hostile, and inadvertently engages them in what rapidly becomes an ugly murder plot - the same one that claimed Barrett's late brother.

This is one of Hammer's better low-budgeters, which suffers from a few flaws: it's slow moving and a bit padded; the music (as in many films from the same studio in the same period) is overly melodramatic; and the suspense is half-shot from the opening teaser, by explicitly showing precisely the mystery Barrett and Daniels are attempting to solve (though not quite all of its details). It plays like a turn-of-the-century supernatural murder mystery, which is essentially what it is.

However, it's splendidly acted by all involved, especially Willman and Pearce, who suffer from a guilty secret and a resultant family curse beyond their ability to explain to outsiders. The sets and props are gorgeous, the scenery beautiful, the atmosphere heavy. Pearce's makeup is magnificent, even if the papier-mache shows - it's a truly striking effect, and properly underused. There are some very creepy and highly memorable scenes, most notably the finale and one in which Pearce - in a genuinely unspeakable condition - writhes around on her bed while an insidious Malaysian manservant chants over her body.

Anyone enjoying this film should also check out Plague of the Zombies, made by the same production team and many of the same cast members.

Filmed back-to-back with the bracing PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, this is the more delirious and sexual of Gilling's Cornish duo. As the estimable David Pirie has pointed out in his essential A HERITAGE OF HORROR, THE REPTILE works on a more imagistic level. Although, I would add that it does seem on this recent reviewing to be as thematically layered as its companion. The brief, atmospheric and suspensful precredit sequence sets up a sort of paradigm which will structure the rest of the film. A high-angle view of the desolate landscape of Cornwall, in the immediate foreground the stark branches of a tree reach down into the frame like threatening tentacles of some offscreen menace. A beckoning sounds of a flute playing a vaguely Asian enchantment wafts through the evening. We pan from left to right and pick up on a man walking toward an imposing manor house, the windows are lit up and the man continues in. As he wanders upstairs we are led to expect a sort of Romantic assignation as our well appointed invader is obviously in the mood. Suddenly, a shout, our intruder turns toward an older man behind him. A door opens and he starts to turn again as a green skinned thing in a slinky wrap is upon him striking into his throat with its long fangs. It withdraws into the room (tilted angle) the door closing it in as our man now staggers out of the house, face blackened and mouth foaming, finally dropping onto a tomb in the family graveyard. High angle of his body draped on the cross. Roll credits. It's a masterful opening. Hammer was usually adept at grabbers and this is one of the very best. The judicious camera set-ups, use of sound to establish suspense, tight editing, and paucity of dialogue all combine to create an admirably filmic overture. Both of the Cornish films deal with an alien plague devastating an isolated are in Britian. The use of the same sets from PLAGUE, and sometimes the same set-ups on those self-same sets, gives one a sense of interface and continuance. Of course, the class structure is as dominant a theme in THE REPTILE, only the rotter of PLAGUE, is replaced by the distinguised, now tormented and quite erratic Doctor. The manor, Oakley Court, according to the liner notes is now a luxury hotel. couldn't be a more appropriate facade. Besides being a familiar location near Bray studios, it here functions as kind of ornate class barrier, even moreso, perhaps, than in PLAGUE> The rest of the town is distinctly working class to merchant class, typified by the estimable Michael Ripper in one of his very best turns as the wily innkeeper who is helpful in finally ridding the area of the pestilence. There are only two murders and an exhumation until the climax which doubtless frustrates some who need constant "action" if not gore on the menu. But for the patient and discerning the film holds multitiered rewards of a more subtle kind. Perhaps most subtle of all is the quiet interplay of glances and eyes between the superb Jacqueline Pearce and Noel Willman's fallen man. Seeking out a snake-cult in Malaysia he found his goal only to be pursued back to England with a curse hanging over his daughter. Anna turns into a lunging, fanged, green skinned, yellow eyed reptile which agressively goes after anything which gets near it. Death is assured, hideous and painful. Locals call it the Black Death. Erotic currents eddy between daughter and father, and by implication, toward the other men lured into the manor. The subterranean grotto where it retreats to shed is built around a steaming pit of magma, which resonates as kind of a matter dissolving pit where sexual desire and the ancient fluids which will fuel a raging return of the repressed seethe. The performances are superlative here, especially Pearce, Willman and Ripper. The metaphor is a potent one, and elucidated with considerable elegance and suspense, given the set-up, the recycling, the shared cast members and obviously rushed circumstances.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Grade: B+ 91%

A small village is plagued by a black death that is brought on by a mysterious creature that strikes in the night, and it is up to a newcomer and the town's barkeep to drive out the poison that is quickly diminishing the town's population. This tale is one of two films (PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES being the second) that served as a critical response to British colonialism in to India, with the creature's attacks serving as a form of retribution for the social and political influence that was forced upon the eastern world. While it is much smaller in scope to many of Hammer's other productions, the dimly lit sets, atmospheric exteriors, and brooding score make for a sinister mood. The creature design is impressive for the time outside of a pair of googly eyes, but it is made all the more frightening by Pearce's serpentine figure and movements. THE REPTILE also lacks the star power of the other Hammer greats, but this actually acts in its advantage, with the small cast offering believable low-profile performances that suit the cramped village setting. This entry is an atypical creature feature with unusually high production values for the B-Movie plot.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies