The Reptile (1966)
“Dad, what’s a reptile?” asked the boy curiously as they were getting ready to go to the movies. “Oh, it’s a cold-blooded scaly animal that crawls on the ground, lays eggs including turtles, snakes, and lizards”, replied his father. He was happy with himself with the thought that movie will backup the response he’s just given. He was in for a shock.
Thapson
Things that go “Hiss” in the night
“So, I guess the movie’s going to be a boring science documentary,” the boy thought to himself. Not exactly, as he was about get a lesson that would be hard to forget.
“but suffice it to say there was no reptile in the conventional sense to be seen in the movie”
Later that evening, they were seated in the Air Force Movie Club’s outdoor theater. The movie was a British “Hammer Films” production. But it was no documentary. Even before the credits came on, our young friend was squirming in his seat as someone killed by something extremely horrible. Something that slipped out from behind the curtains in the darkness accompanied by a hiss so eerie, it sent a gasp in the audience. The kid glanced at the audience and his parents to snap back to reality. However, the comfort was short lived as things in the movie took a more ominous turn. For starters, the environment was dark and foreboding. I won’t go into details here but suffice it to say there was no reptile in the conventional sense to be seen in the movie.
Synopsis
Instead it involved a professorial type, living in an English village, with his daughter who, when not playing Sitar, turns into a hideous creature creepier than anything the boy had ever seen in his life. The skin scaly as a lizard’s, eyes resembling a chameleon’s, and a forked tongue slithered in and out of its mouth. If this was not enough, the thing had teeth that could sink deep into anyone’s neck, and claws that could tear skin open with the slightest of effort. Anything that entered the house unannounced received “a treatment” that sent the boy into absolute panic mode. Needless to say, our young friend looked down and away from the screen every time the music turned sinister hinting “the reptile” was about unleash its murderous rampage in the vilest, most despicable manner possible.
The After Effects of the Movie
Somehow, the boy ‘braved’ the movie as he was the proverbial “captive audience”. He was shaking, shivering, and jumpy by the time he went home with his parents. Every dark corner, shadow, object, heck every human being seemed menacing. The boy expected the evil reptilian creature to leap out at him from behind the curtains, closed doors, the darkness, the closet, ceiling, or window and slash him in that murderous and merciless manner with that absolutely horrifying hiss.
The Fear Sets In
Mom accused dad of not researching the movie properly. Dad made unconvincing excuses. After failing to sleep, their son picked up his pillow and decided to sleep between his parents that night sharing their blanket. But sleep was still hard in coming, as he continued seeing the hideous creature from the movie staring at him. Be it from the ceiling, behind objects, and dark corners. He lay wide awake as his parents snored away. Their snoring threatened to turn into that hideous hiss of the reptilian creature from the movie. He ran his hand over his mother’s face as she slept to confirm it was she and not some creature sleeping next to him. She mumbled in her sleep and he, satisfied, apologized. He gave his dad a similar feel with the same result.
Trapped in a Nightmare
Daytime was no better as curtains, statues, and paintings took on a sinister vibe. His favorite encyclopedia with images of Greek theater masks and other similar photos “creeped” him out. As day turned into evening, and into night, the boy’s fear factor slowly wound back to that highly strung level. He stayed close to his parents, and plonked right in between them again at bed time. His father encouraged him to return to his bedroom, with no luck. This sleep pattern followed that of the previous night, and so on with no discernible change for the boy. He continued sleeping between them in the night and on edge during the day. Mom placed a piece of metal under his pillow in the night to reduce his nightmares (as per her superstitious belief). It helped somewhat, or maybe it was just the ‘placebo effect’.
No End in Sight?
And so, the petrified child suffered for who knows how long as all the pep talk failed to bring him out of his shell. The next movie offer involved the robbery of an expensive item from a museum which was impossible to pull off. Two guys succeeded by hanging down by rope from the roof and out that way – much like Tom Cruise does 30 years later in “Mission Impossible”. However, it didn’t pull the boy out of his shell as even here, he feared evil jumps out of the shadows in the movie and spent half the time (the night scenes) looking down and away from the screen. Then came the movie “Around the World under the Sea”. The scary underwater scenes failed to do any good. But then appeared a light of hope.
Help at Last
Help finally came in the form of another movie: “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines“. This was the proverbial pill that finally turned things around for our little friend. A slapstick comedy, it involved an air race between London and Paris, wherein the participants go through all manner of hilarious situations during the race. This movie had the kid laughing uncontrollably. The movie was like rays of bright sunshine into his dark evil world. He finally learned to enjoy things around him and slowly moved away from his parents’ bed back to his bedroom. There would be some relapses, but very infrequent ones.
Our little friend was none other than yours truly who accidentally watched this classic British thriller “The Reptile” by accident.
Major Cast
My Take
This whole story/review may sound corny, but believe me, in order to truly get a sense how eerie this movie was, you need to transport yourself back to that era. Not just the era in the movie, but also the time when this movie was made. The dark and foreboding atmosphere along with the superstitions of the Cornish village this movie was set in takes fear to another level. So if you fail to feel the dread, then you’ve likely missed the whole point. This movie is indeed a classic on some levels however unsophisticated it may seem in this era of sophisticated CGI and special effects – which in my opinion are taking all the fun and spookiness of the horror genre. Moreover, I’ve kept the stills from this movie to the minimum to avoid revealing too much and taking away the horror factor.
YouTube / Hammer
So if you want to enjoy a Hammer Films’ scary movie, with that wonderfully British feel, then check this one out. But keep your children out of it – unless they are made of different stuff.
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