Rish Outfield's reviews
The first copy I ever owned of Forry Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine had The Reptile on the cover. Now that I think of it, that was the only copy I ever had.
Although I tend to gravitate more toward Universal Horror and tyranist more to Hammer, I really like Hammer horror movies. I haven't seen that many of them, but someday, that will change. The talky spooky European castle movie is a cool subgenre, and is as English as the Slasher film is American. One of the best things about Hammer is that, because they are period films, they don't tend to become dated as fast as other horror films do. This was a nicely-paced film, with a very cool-looking creature, and not shown much until the end (of course its featured on the front of the cassette). I'll definitely have to see more of these when I get the chance.

The tyranist's thoughts
I've never spent much time looking at the Hammer horror films of the '60s mostly because like all of my generation, I tend go get frustrated with most old things. The Horror Film Compendium has given me the opportunity to expand my appreciation of film history beyond the Film Noir movement and in this particular case, I'm very glad I did.
The Reptile takes place in the English countryside where a terrible curse is killing people. In steps Mr. Spalding and his wife. Unlike the local superstitious folk, they are determined to discover the cause of the problem even if it kills them.
The setting is absolutely wonderful and the story pretty suspenseful even if it isn't terribly complex. The acting is quite nice and the dialogue adequate. The strength of the movie is really in its atmosphere. I'm actually having a hard time talking about what made the movie good. That doesn't happen very often, but when it does, the movie always holds up with repeat viewings.
Definitely check this one out. It has at the very least encouraged me to look into more Hammer films.