After three films I can be comfortable in saying this: John Gilling is a great lost auteur. He's not a good horror director, he's just a plain good filmmaker, with a unique and compelling style that for some reason has never been adequately respected.
If you have to reduce his work down a genre, he's made two of the best horror movies ever made: The Plague of the Zombies (1966) and The Mummy's Shroud (1967). Almost is good is The Reptile, which is would be in the league of those film if it had cut about ten minutes out of its climax. Otherwise, this is a great movie.
The brother of Harry George Spalding (Ray Barrett) has just died, and he and his wife, Valarie (Jennifer Daniel) plan on moving into the deceased estate in 19th century Cornwell. Unfortunately, the town doesn't take kindly to strangers and they most definitely don't want to head out to the new couple's home. Spoilers ahead. A friendly bartender (Michael Ripper) tells them that the town has had a series of deaths from a strange plague of mysterious origins that no one is particularly keen on explaining. The couple soon discover that the townspeople are not actually avoiding the Spaldings but their neighbors. Aside from their servants, there are three, anthropologist Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman), his daughter Anna (Jacqueline Pearce) and an East Indian (Marne Maitland) who is mostly silent but seems to be overly interested in Anna. Indeed, everyone seems to overly interested in Anna, who turns out to be one of horror's most tragic characters.
With the possible exception of Karl Fruend, no horror director has better achieved the since of atmosphere that Gilling has. The filmmaker draws us into the world of the film and makes us believe in events that would have been ridiculous in the hands of others.
In addition to the wonderful director, there is Pearce's performance as Anna. Although her screen time is too short, she creates such a wonderfully likable and somewhat pathetic character that you can't help but really care about what happens to her.
I know that some people who are reading this are thinking that they don't like horror film, and that The Reptile is just another boring '60's B movie. While it is from the 60's, it is neither a B film nor boring. It is a movie that deserves to be recognized on its own merits without it entering into the genre gutter. To all movie fans: John Gilling is worth investigating.
The Reptile (1966)