The Reptile starts as Harry George Spalding (Ray Barrett) & his new wife Valerie (Jennifer Daniel) inherit his brother's cottage after his sudden death put down to heart failure. The couple decide to move into the cottage near a small village in Cornwall & live there, however when they reach the village the locals are less than friendly & after trying to find out more about his brother's untimely death Harry becomes convinced that something strange is going on, the other mysterious death's, a lack of any sort of investigation & the ramblings of a local drunk known as Mad Peter (John Laurie) all point to the sinister Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman). Harry & the local landlord Tom Bailey (Michael Ripper) discover that all the victims had bite marks on their necks made by some sort of Snake. All the clues point back to Dr. Franklyn & his innocent looking young daughter Anna (Jacqueline Pearce) but when Harry is called to see Anna he is attacked & bitten by some creature...

This British production was directed by John Gilling for Hammer studios & was made at the peak of their popularity, after having filmed versions of Dracula, Frankenstein & The Mummy I guess Hammer were looking to make horror films with some different monsters in which is probably why the likes of The Gorgon (1964), The Plague of the Zombies (1966), Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966), The Witches (1966) & One Million Years B.C. (1966) were all produced by Hammer in a short space of time. While none of these film has gone on to be as famous as Hammer's Dracula & Frankenstein films they are worth watching & The Reptle is still a very good horror film, maybe a bit slow for modern audiences but if you have the patience & like a sustained build-up, a nice atmosphere & good storytelling then The Reptile delivers. The script starts off very well with the death of Edward Spalding, his brother turning up & investigating his death despite hostility from the locals with some horrible unseen menace lurking in the background that is only hinted at & a nice set of character's that go against expectation by the end. It's just a shame that the climax is weak, I mean the Reptile is defeated by breaking a window? Also the explanations behind the Reptile itself are a little weak too, why does this Reptile want to kill people anyway? For what reason? Why does Anna turn into the Reptile every so often? What triggers her transformation? Despite a few shortcomings in the plot I still liked The reptile & thought it was a solid & satisfying horror suspense film that kept my interest even though I did feel a little shortchanged at the end.

Filmed back to back with Hammers The Plague of the Zombies this reused many of the same sets, cast & crew to good effect in order to save money. I certainly recognised the graveyard & local village sets, while The Plague of the Zombies is the better film both films make for a good double feature & are remarkably similar. Despite wanting to move away from Dracula the effect of the Reptile biting it's victims is two fang wounds in their neck just like a Vampire bite so I guess it's not that different. There's no real blood or gore here, the one big effect is when the Reptile creature is finally revealed towards the end & it doesn't look that bad but probably won't convince many people today. I think the big stationary Bug like eyes really kill the effect. The Reptile drips atmosphere, there's plenty of foggy nights in the small English village where this takes place.

Probably shot on a budget of next to nothing The Reptile looks good & is well made, the acting is pretty good from an unfamiliar looking Hammer cast.

The Reptile is a good solid horror mystery from Hammer that could have done with a little bit more plot but the first hour or so is terrific stuff, it's a just a shame when the Reptile show's up & things are ended in rather weak, lazy & abrupt fashion.

"The Reptile" is a competently produced and watchable horror entry from Hammer productions but offers little new to the genre. Once again we have new-comers to a district that harbours a deadly secret, who must deal with hostile locals before getting get sucked into events, while ominous music and the classic 'moors' setting establishes tone. The generic characters don't present much of a challenge to the actors (exceptions being John Laurie, whose Mad Peter manages to avoid the usual town-drunk shtick and Jacqueline Pearce, who is very good as the mysterious girl). Sadly, while the movie effectively builds to a climax, the final scenes are marred by the appearance of the titular creature and its sudden anticlimactic death. A fair amount of suspension of belief is required (especially to the 'basement' of the Franklyn home) and there are some plot-driven inconsistencies (e.g. venom works a lot faster on secondary characters than on primary characters), but otherwise, 'The Reptile' is a pretty good example of mid-sixties British horror (other than the absence of Hammer perennials Cushing and Lee).