The dreaded curse of the Ourang Sancto
According the Hammer Production Studios a lot things go on in little Cornish villages. This is one of them. People have been dying of snake bites. The coroner has been writing them off as heart failure. The villagers think it’s a plague. The last one to die was Mr. Spalding. His brother Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett) and his wife Valerie (Jennifer Daniel) inherited the cottage. They move to the cottage intending to live there permanently.
The neighbor Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman) is rude. The town’s people shun them. And there is a strange man skulking around only known as The Malay (Marne Maitland). The only ones who are pleasant to them are Tom Bailey (Michael Ripper) the Barkeep at the local pub and Anna Franklyn (Jacqueline Pearce) the daughter of Dr. Franklyn.
There is another death. Mad Peter (John Laurie), the town eccentric. Harry enlists Tom’s help in trying to find out what is going on in this quiet little town and why his brother really died. It looks like it has something to do with Dr. Franklyn and his daughter. And The Malay. And the Ourang Sancto Curse.
As far as I could find there is no such thing as the Ourang Sancto Curse. Ourang does mean man in Malay but Sancto is Latin for Ghost not Malay. I also couldn’t find anything in the Borneo culture so if there is a secret cult called the Ourang Sancto it really is a secret. I’m beginning to believe that the only cult here is the “cult following” that the movie enjoys. And that’s just fine.
The movie has lots of eerie atmosphere and suspense. Good acting and the makeup effects were good. Especially the makeup for the people that got bitten. Those effects were actually gross. There are a lot of creepy parts and the movie moved along at a good pace. The one thing I noticed that was not creepy is that it’s OK for people to die, but not kittens. The story was also a little different. I think you’ll like it the most if you are either a Hammer fan or a 60’s horror movie fan. Being both I liked it.