Not the best Hammer Horror film, but certainly not the worst either.
The film is very atmospheric just like most of the Hammer movies made at the time during the '60s.
The creature itself is very average and not very scary to be honest and the make-up is a bit weak also.
Michael Ripper turns in an excellent performance and has plenty of screen time in this one.

Now, the transfer on this Optimum/Studio Canal release is a disgrace. It has terrible picture quality with washed out colours and soft focus.
It really is worse than a third generation VHS tape. There is also very bad compression and noise in the dark areas of scenes.

This disc is also part of the ULTIMATE HAMMER COLLECTION 21 disc boxset released by Optimum. All the other discs in this collection seem to be okay with mostly very good transfers so it leaves me to believe that there is a possible fault in production of this title.
I think Optimum should re-press the disc and offer a… more »

Not the best Hammer Horror film, but certainly not the worst either.
The film is very atmospheric just like most of the Hammer movies made at the time during the '60s.
The creature itself is very average and not very scary to be honest and the make-up is a bit weak also.
Michael Ripper turns in an excellent performance and has plenty of screen time in this one.

Now, the transfer on this Optimum/Studio Canal release is a disgrace. It has terrible picture quality with washed out colours and soft focus.
It really is worse than a third generation VHS tape. There is also very bad compression and noise in the dark areas of scenes.

This disc is also part of the ULTIMATE HAMMER COLLECTION 21 disc boxset released by Optimum. All the other discs in this collection seem to be okay with mostly very good transfers so it leaves me to believe that there is a possible fault in production of this title.
I think Optimum should re-press the disc and offer a re-placement programme.
The Region (0) U.S. release from Anchor Bay which came out in 1999 is by far the superior edition and I recommend you hunt this down instead.

Avoid this Optimum disc like the plaque!!!

This barely scraped that overall 3*, as it should be 1* for picture quality and 1* for extras but that isn't possible on the rating system unfortunately.

Originally the supporting film to "Rasputin the Mad Monk", "The Reptile" is a poor Hammer film currently existing only with an appalling picture quality. One of two set in Cornwall, it was shot back-to-back with the other "The Plague of the Zombies".

The picture quality is an absolute disgrace, being the worst I've ever seen on an official DVD release. It's exactly the same in the recent 21-disc Hammer box. At the start there's a yellow cast and the image is soft and blurry with some damage evident, whilst colours are weak. It looks like salvage from the cutting room floor or an old 3rd generation bootleg VHS tape. The credits say "Colour by Deluxe", which is a joke. Initial titles have side-bars whereas the film doesn't. Sparklies abound throughout. I can't understand this inferior quality as "The Plague of the Zombies"… more »

This barely scraped that overall 3*, as it should be 1* for picture quality and 1* for extras but that isn't possible on the rating system unfortunately.

Originally the supporting film to "Rasputin the Mad Monk", "The Reptile" is a poor Hammer film currently existing only with an appalling picture quality. One of two set in Cornwall, it was shot back-to-back with the other "The Plague of the Zombies".

The picture quality is an absolute disgrace, being the worst I've ever seen on an official DVD release. It's exactly the same in the recent 21-disc Hammer box. At the start there's a yellow cast and the image is soft and blurry with some damage evident, whilst colours are weak. It looks like salvage from the cutting room floor or an old 3rd generation bootleg VHS tape. The credits say "Colour by Deluxe", which is a joke. Initial titles have side-bars whereas the film doesn't. Sparklies abound throughout. I can't understand this inferior quality as "The Plague of the Zombies" shot with it is near-perfect.

In the Hammer box booklet it's stated that there were difficulties perfecting Roy Ashton's makeup on Jacqueline Pearce as the reptile and subdued lighting and judicious editing saved the day. Not really. Whilst the reptile's face make-up was just about passable, the eyes look like a couple of fried eggs stuck on as an afterthought (Roy: "oops - we forgot the eyes - go and find something quick and cheap we can use - there's some leftovers in the kitchen next door") and the mouth area with it's two little snake-fangs and flicking human tongue looks like part of a gimp mask with some pervert behind it trying to scare people. Say no more - the makeup and whole facial effect failed pretty miserably.

It's also stated that Pearce was recalled for a number of re-shoots as a result of the makeup problems - perhaps she should have been shot, re-shot to make sure she was dead and a better, more believable creature created. Pearce could have been kept as Anna, as she is even more strikingly beautiful than Jennifer Daniel who plays Valerie Spalding.

John Laurie as Mad Peter is virtually indistinguishable from his character in "Dad's Army" except there's no "We're doomed I tell ye, doomed".

Also there are anachronisms in the film. Bearing in mind that it appears to be set in the late 1800s/early 1900s (pony and trap time - hehe - like "The Plague of the Zombies"), the most serious of these is the type of locomotive in the railway scene. They didn't exist at that time, nor did the weird blue coach and guard's van in tow.

You'll also notice some sets from "The Plague of the Zombies" being re-used, most notably the graveyard. Actors and actresses like Jacqueline Pearce are also recycled.

Don't waste your money on this film unless you buy the Hammer 21-disc box in which you get it anyway (for just over 1.50 GBP). Don't get me wrong - it's worth watching; it's just that the picture quality is so poor it isn't worth paying to watch it.

The fact that there are no extras whatsoever on the disc I watched doesn't help matters, making it an absolute shoddy disgrace in every sense of the word. It should have at least been sorted for the Hammer box or, if that were impossible, dropped in favour of another film of better quality.