Runtime: 82 minutes
Directed by: Peter Graham Scott
Starring: Peter Cushing, Patrick Allen, Yvonne Romain, Oliver Reed, Michael Ripper
From: Hammer
Obviously, Rob Zombie is a fan of this picture.
A few days ago, I looked at the profile page of a mutual on Letterboxd, in order to return the favor and like one of their reviews. Their current favorites list has four Hammer horror movies with great poster art... at least I presume that's what they were going for there. This was one of those movies; as the film has quite a few bitchin' posters and somehow I never saw any Hammer during the last spooky season, this was a problem that needed to be rectified. In addition, this movie's existence was somehow a mystery to me until a few days ago.
Turns out, there isn't much horror in this film; no problem with me, though-it is still a tale that is a lot of fun. The setting is late 18th century England, in the real-life Romney Marsh area in the southeastern area of the country. A legendary pirate-the titular Clegg-is buried in a small village; many of the residents in the town are actually smugglers, a fact that has attracted the attention of the British government. Peter Cushing is the town's parson, leading everyone in church... yes he is part of the smuggling also; in fact, he says he knew Clegg right before he was hung for his crimes. There is also an aspect that attracted my attention even before I pressed play on Amazon: marsh phantoms! They resemble skeletons and even ride on skeleton horses. The few times they do appear, their visage is pretty incredible, and those moments are full of atmosphere.
Thank heavens that the crux of the movie is always intriguing even if it is not horror-related. Oliver Reed has a key role, not to mention a great head of hair... it doesn't compare to the hilarious wig that Cushing dons throughout. In addition, Hammer films typically have random beauties in the cast, and Yvonne Romain definitely filled that role. It is a rather enjoyable adventure picture which has the village attempting to thwart the efforts of the government to stop their smuggling of French booze, a romance involving Reed and Romain, & there's even a “mulatto mute” character that was formerly an underling of Clegg.
While some moments were obvious, overall this was a pretty good time. I referenced Rob Zombie as the shoe dropped last night when I streamed this on Amazon under its American release title of Night Creatures. This is why in Zombie's Halloween II, there is that psychobilly band which is named Captain Clegg & The Night Creatures.
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