Thursday, October 19, 2017

The Reptile (1966)



Who's In It: Noel Willman (The Kiss of the Vampire), Ray Barrett (Thunderbirds), Jennifer Daniel (The Kiss of the Vampire), and Jacqueline Pearce (Blake's 7)

What It's About: A married couple (Barrett and Daniel) move into a quiet village after the husband's brother dies mysteriously and horribly, discolored and foaming at the mouth. They discover that he's not the only local to die that way and resolve to get to the bottom of it.

How It Is: I'm glad I didn't see the movie's poster before watching, because dang that spoils the big surprise. I quite enjoyed the mystery of Harry and Valerie's looking into the deaths and especially the cool tavern owner (Michael Ripper) who helps them because it's the right thing to do even though most of the village is looking the other way. And there are some creepy suspects like the sinister Dr Franklyn (Willman) who's way overprotective of his daughter (Pearce) and the Malay servant (Marne Maitland) who's always silently lurking around. Again, just reading the poster will let you know exactly what's going on, but not knowing makes it a fun story.

Unfortunately, once the mystery is solved the movie gets crazy and loses me, but up to then it's a great, atmospheric chiller.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stippled stiffs.



1 comment:

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

I thought you were going to say you were glad you didn't see the poster because it looks like The Reptile is giving us the "derp" face.

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