1966
Who’s in this?
Noel Willman as Dr. Franklin a man who once travelled and explored other cultures, but is now being punished for that. Willman was quite a few shows and movies including playing the leader of a blood sucking cult in Hammer’s Kiss of the vampire. He played a cold person as good as anyone.
Jacqueline Pearce as Anna daughter of Dr. Franklin and the title monster. She began acting in the mid 60’s and has been in a number of British tv shows with her most recent credit coming in 2006.
Ray Barrett as Harry Spalding. His brother has just died and he has inherited the house so he and his new wife come there to leave. Too bad there is evil abound. Australian actor who had tons of credits including doing voices for the Thuderbirds characters.
Jennifer Daniel as Valerie wife of Harry. She was in a number of British tv shows between the late 50’s and the mid-90’s. She was also in Hammer’s Kiss of the vampire.
Marne Maitland as the Malay a meanie who ensures the curse stays on the Franklins. Maitland was born in India but educated in the UK so he was frequently cast in foreignors in the manys shows and movies he was in during the 40 plus years he was in acting. Bond fans will recognize him as Lazar in The man with the golden gun.
Michael Ripper as Tom Bailey the owner of the local pub and he helps Harry and Valerie when things turn strange. Ripper was in over 200 things (!), but is perhaps most known for being a character actor in quite a few Hammer films frequently playing bartenders, policman and can drivers.
John Laurie as Mad Peter the local nutcase who suspects strange things are going on and he may be right. He was in everything from 39 steps to Hamlet to Treasure Island.
What’s this about? Harry and his wife inherit a house when Harry’s brother dies from heart failure. It seems like a lot of people are dying from that around these parts. The Spalding’s house gets ripped apart, Dr. Franklin goes around acting odd as he searches for his daughter and a strange Indian guys stands in the background frowning at everyone. The Spaldings become friends with the level headed bar owner Tom and the not so level headed Mad Peter. Mad Peter soon shows up at the Spalding changing color and foaming all over. Eventually Tom and Harry realize that Mad Peter and Harry’s brother both had bite marks on their necks like those from a snake. Since Dr. Franklin is acting like he has a corncob up his but and Anna is a little bizarre signs seemed to point to their place as the source of evil which is a good guess. Seems that Anna is cursed turn into a snake woman and go around biting people while she and her stiff dad can’t leave because the skinny dark skin guy that lives with them says they need to suffer to intruding on his people’s territory during Franklin’s studies. Anyone eventually everyone ends up at the Franklin place in a big old freeforall that involves fights, fire and a snake woman hisisng and trying to keep her plastic. fangs in place. The bad and the cursed die while the Spaldings and Tom look on at the burning house. Roll the credits.
The negatives? A little slow at the beginning and somewhat similar to the Gorgon made two years earlier by Hammer.
The positives? I first saw this one around Halloween on AMC in 1998 when Tim Burton was hosting them showing a bunch of old horror films. This is a very atmospheric Hammer film with solid performances from all involved. Be patient and it will warm up. Tends to get overlooked a little due to the lack of name stars like Cushing and Lee, but it’s a very solid little monster film.
Lasers, monsters and barbarians oh, my! 