Sir James Forbes (Andre Morell) receives a fanatic letter from one of his prize pupil, a Dr. Peter Thompson (Brook Williams), telling of a strange virus that is ravishing the small countryside community where he practices. Upon arriving in Cornwall, Sir James and his lovely daughter Sylvia (Diane Clarke) are greeted by superstitious townsfolk and arrogant aristocrats. As they make their way through the crowd and over to the Thompson home, they are met at the door by Peter’s seemingly sick wife, Alice (Jacqueline Pearce), an old school chum of Sylvia. When Peter gets home he is both surprised and happy to find that his mentor has come to help him in his plight.

Unable to gain public support to perform an autopsy, Sir James and Peter decide that night to dig up a fresh corpse by the light of the full moon. At the same time back home, Sylvia witnesses Alice sneaking out to the moors and decides to follow her. In the graveyard, the two doctors are shocked to find the casket empty, while out on the moor Sylvia observes a corpse-like figure carrying the limp body of Alice. Later the next day, Alice is found dead and an autopsy reveals that she isn’t suffer from rigor mortis and the blood in her body is no longer human.  That night their worst fears are realized as Alice crawls out of her grave. A quick decapitation puts an end to that, but still the question remains as to who is behind these vile acts. 

As James and Peter struggle to makes heads or tails from these bizarre events, the local Squire (John Carson) seems to have an unholy attraction to Sylvia. The plot continues to thicken when a quick survey reveals that  the graves are empty and all trails lead to voodoo. But who is enslaving the undead???

Principal cinematography on “The Plague of the Zombies” began a mere week after Hammer had wrapped work on “Rasputin—The Mad Monk”. Director John Gilling (“The Gorgon”, “Trog”) brought to life a moody atmospheric zombie-fest that relied more on storyline than gore.  Special Effects master Roy Ashton prepared the zombie makeup, which harkens back to the days of “White Zombie” and no doubt was an influence on George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”. This film proved to a huge success when it was double-billed with “Dracula—Prince of Darkness” in both the UK and the US, but unfortunately for fans around the world, Hammer never did make a return visit to the land of the undead