The Reptile

1966
15
1h 31m

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

4.2K

YOUR RATING

In a Cornish village, various locals die from mysterious snake bites, but the coroner rules the deaths as heart attacks, until a family of newcomers starts an investigation.

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Monster Horror Horror

In a Cornish village, various locals die from mysterious snake bites, but the coroner rules the deaths as heart attacks, until a family of newcomers starts an investigation.In a Cornish village, various locals die from mysterious snake bites, but the coroner rules the deaths as heart attacks, until a family of newcomers starts an investigation.In a Cornish village, various locals die from mysterious snake bites, but the coroner rules the deaths as heart attacks, until a family of newcomers starts an investigation.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

4.2K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

User reviews65

Featured review

7/10

Sssssmashing fun!

Made back-to-back with Plague of the Zombies, and using many of the locations, the same director, and some of the cast from that film, The Reptile isn't quite as good as Hammer's only zombie movie, but is still splendid fun nonetheless.

Ray Barrett plays Harry Spalding, an ex-soldier who moves to Cornwall with his wife Valerie (Jennifer Daniel), after he inherits a country cottage from his recently deceased brother.

Unfortunately, the Spaldings' new life in the West country is far from idyllic: the locals are less than friendly (with the exception of Tom Bailey, the pub landlord, played by Hammer regular Michael Ripper); their new neighboursDr. Franklyn (Noel Willman), his beautiful daughter Anna, and their manservantare more than a little creepy; and some kind of extremely venomous creature is on the loose and claiming victims right, left and centre.

Don't expect too much in the way of blood and boobs in this offering from Hammer: there is very little of both. What you do get, however, is a decent cast giving some fine performances (Michael Ripper, in particular, gets a chance to shine), some suitably atmospheric direction from John Gilling, and a memorable monster which, despite being kinda silly looking, is still pretty freaky.

And that's good enough for me!

Trivia
Roy Ashton's makeup for the creature included appliances created from a mold taken of real snakeskin.

Goofs
At the start, the publican sluices down the pub's front steps with water in a plastic bucket.

Quotes
Dr. Franklyn: I could kill you!
The Malay: Possibly, but you could never be free then, could you?

Alternate versions
When originally released theatrically in the UK, the BBFC made cuts to secure a 'X' rating. It is believed all cuts were waived in 1994 when the film was granted a '15' certificate for home video. However, Hammer has put out a call trying to locate lost or censored footage from the following scene: An extended knife in neck/snake bite scene (this is thought to exist, but there is no known evidence). This rather suggests that this is the footage censored from the 1966 cinema release and that it is still missing from home video releases. The BBFC cut was described in The DarkSide magazine as: "A gloating close-up during the lancing of a snake bite."