The Film (5/5)

    Plague of the Zombies opens with Doctor James Forbes (Andre Morrell) receiving a letter from his star pupil, Peter Tompson, alerting him of mysterious death in his village, and requesting Dr. Forbes assistance in revolving the matter. Forbes packs up himself, and his daughter and visits the Cornish village to see what is causing the mysterious deaths, however, soon after they arrive Squire Hamilton (John Carson) begins to set his sights on the Forbes’ daughter, Diane Clare, and uses everything at his disposal to make her her his including unleashing zombie slaves out to get her.

    Plague of the Zombies was the first Hammer Horror film I owned.  I picked up the clamshell VHS of the title alongside the Witches for about 2 bucks (total) at a Suncoast Video that was clearancing them out.  So needless to say that was an amazing 2 dollars spent, and I have a certain attachment to this film. The film itself takes it queues from earlier zombie fare like White Zombie and I Walked with a Zombie, in its use of voodoo as a reason for the dead to rise. However, the film is transplanted to a 19th century UK village, and injects themes of class relations into the subtext of the film.

    Like much of Hammer's output of the period, the film has a wonderful atmosphere present.  The performances are fantastic, and the zombies that are present in the film are quite memorable and actually reasonably scary. This came out 2 years before George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, and could rightly be considered the last great zombie film before Romero rewrote the genre. It could also easily be put on the list of greatest zombie horrors of all time.

Audio/Video (4/5)

    Plague of the Zombies comes to Blu in a very solid 1:66:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer that preserves the OAR of the film. It would appear at least at first glance that the transfer utilized here is the one Studio Canal used in 2012. That is not a complaint, 7 years after it's still a suitable transfer with lush colors, and solid detail throughout, while maintaining a natural film like presence.

   Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA audio track in English that serves is purpose quite well. Dialogue and score come through without apparent issue.

Extras (3.5/5)

    Extras include the featurettes from the prior edition including a World of Hammer episode, 35 minute making of, restoration demo, and trailers. We also get 2 new commentary tracks, the first featuring Constantine Nasr, Ted Newsom, and Steve Haberman, and the second featuring film historian Troy Howarth. The first is quite a solid commentary track with solid interaction and decent information, the 2nd I feel is less essential, but still a solid track.

Overall

    Plague of the Zombies is a fantastic classic zombie outing from Hammer. The Blu-ray looks and sounds excellent with some decent extras. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.