Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1) & (1.85:1)
Director: John Gilling
Cast: Noel Willman, Ray Barrett, Jennifer Daniel, Jacqueline Pearce
Hammer horror The Reptile (1966) is set in the rural Cornish village of Clagmoor Heath, a quiet community where people are found dead foaming at the mouth with strange wounds on their necks, their faces having turned black from some sort of venom. Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett, Terror From Under The House) arrives in the village along with his wife (Jennifer Daniel, The Kiss of the Vampire) to investigate his brother’s mysterious death, a recent victim of what's become known as the black death.
Spalding as an outsider is shunned by the local folks but is befriended by a kindly bar owner, Tom Bailey (Michael Ripper, The Plague of the Zombies), and together the pair begin to sleuth the mystery of the black death that's befallen the village. The clues leading them to neighbor Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman, The Vengeance Of She), who lives in the mansion next door with his daughter (Jacqueline Pearce, Doctor Who), both who seem to me under the influence of a strange foreigner (Marne Maitland).
The film is a wonderful rural village shocker along the lines of The Plague of the Zombies, a film which was also directed by John Gilling and starred Michael Ripper and the lovely Jacqueline Pearce. It was great to see Hammer regular Ripper get a meatier role in this film, this being one of my favorites of his, and Pearce is wonderful as the cursed young woman. The film is well-made and moves at a good clip with plenty of classic Hammer atmosphere, plus the make-up effects of the reptilian woman are still pretty cool-looking to me.
This is a totally solid Hammer shocker set in a rural village, lots to love for the vintage Brit-horror fans who are looking for something not starring icons Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
Audio/Video: the Reptile (1966) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in both 1.66:1 and 1.85:1 widescreen presentations in 1080p HD. The image is solid with well-saturated colors, and natural looking film grain throughout. Fine detail is also pleasing and the black levels are deep and inky. Notably, the film starts off a bit rough-looking during the opening title sequence but improves quickly from there.
Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono with optional English subtitles. It sounds excellent for a track of it's vintage, with no issues with distortion or hiss, and the score from Don Banks (Torture Garden) sounds terrific.
Extras include yet another excellent audio commentary by film historians Steve Haberman, Constantine Nasr and Ted Newsom. It's an in-depth and highly enjoyable track that gets not just into the scene-specifics but also into the nitty-gritty of the film. Also new is a 21-min interview with 1st assistant director William P. Cartlidge, plus an archival making of that appeared on the UK Blu-ray of the film, featuring Hammer Film Historian Marcus Hearn, actor and writer Mark Gatiss, plus writers Jonathan Rigby, David Huckvale, and Wayne Kinsey, who give their own appreciation of the film.
We also get a 25-min episode of The World of Hammer focusing on wicked women, double-feature trailers and TV spots pairing the film with Rasputin the Mad Monk, and a still gallery.
The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring an original movie poster illustration, the reverse side also featuring a striking black and yellow illustration also sourced from a vintage poster, with the disc itself featuring an excerpt of the a-side artwork.
Special Features:
- Presented in two aspect ratios – 1.66:1 and 1.85:1
- NEW audio commentary by film historians Steve Haberman, Constantine Nasr and Ted Newsom
- NEW interview with 1st assistant director William P. Cartlidge (21 min)
- The Serpent’s Tale – The Making of The Reptile (18 min)
- World of Hammer – Wicked Women (25 min)
- Theatrical Trailers (6 min)
- TV Spot (1 min)
- Still Galleries
This is another exceptional release of a vintage Hammer horror from Scream Factory, offering both a solid A/V presentation and a typically terrific set of extras to go along with it.
