About this episode

The episode explores the classic Hammer horror film 'The Plague of the Zombies' and its impact on British horror cinema.

Hammer horror reaches peak gothic chills with The Plague of the Zombies (1966), a Hammer Film Productions classic that defines British horror cinema. Shot at Bray Studios from 28 July 1965 and filmed back-to-back with Hammer’s The Reptile (see episode 19), it used the same eerie Cornish village set designed by Hammer’s celebrated production designer Bernard Robinson. Director John Gilling – the so-called “gentleman pig farmer” behind The Shadow of the Cat and The Mummy’s Shroud – stages a story of graveyards, curses and the undead that became a template for Hammer zombie horror. Writer Peter Bryan, who joined Hammer Film Productions in 1948 as a camera operator before turning to screenwriting, provided the script and left the studio shortly after completing A Challenge for Robin Hood in 1967. When The Plague of the Zombies was submitted to the BBFC it was heavily trimmed: André Morell’s Sir James Forbes originally decapitated a zombie with four shovel blows in the graveyard sequence, reduced to one for the censors. Heatherden Hall at Pinewood Studios doubles as the Forbes mansion, better known to James Bond fans as SPECTRE Island from From Russia With Love . Diane Clare, cast as…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ross, Jon, James

Topics covered

• Hammer Horror
• British cinema
• zombie films
• gothic horror
• film history

Keywords

• Hammer Horror
• The Plague of the Zombies
• John Gilling
• Peter Bryan
• zombie horror
• British cinema
• gothic chills

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hammer Film Productions

Books & works: The Plague of the Zombies, The Reptile, The Shadow of the Cat, The Mummy’s Shroud, A Challenge for Robin Hood, From Russia With Love, The Ghosts of Berkeley Square, The Silver Fleet, The Haunting, Witchcraft

Places: Cornish village, Heatherden Hall, Pinewood Studios

More episodes of General Witchfinders: The British Horror Podcast

• 69: General Witchfinders LIVE: Folk Horror, M.R. James & Nigel Kneale · May 8, 2026 · 1h 17m
• 67: Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) – Hammer Horror – Dir. Terence Fisher – Peter Cushing, Susan Denberg & Thorley Walters · March 2, 2026 · 1h 38m
• 66: The Asphyx (aka Spirit of the Dead) (aka The Horror of Death) (1972) – Glendale Film – Dir. Peter Newbrook – Robert Stephens, Robert Powell & Jane Lapotaire – Freddie Young Shot · February 6, 2026 · 1h 33m
• 65b: K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend (1981) – BBC – Writer Terence Dudley – Elisabeth Sladen, John Leeson & Bill Cole – Doctor Who Spinoff Special · December 30, 2025 · 1h 26m
• 65a: The Ice House (1978) – BBC – Dir. Derek Lister, Writer John Bowen – John Stride, Elizabeth Romilly & Ewan Hooper – BBC Ghost Story for Christmas · December 23, 2025 · 1h 20m
• 64: Psychomania (aka The Death Wheelers) (1973) – Benmar Productions – Dir. Don Sharp – Beryl Reid, George Sanders & Nicky Henson · December 12, 2025 · 2h 15m

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