The Hammer Horror Thread

[Silver Nemesis]

This is the all-purpose Hammer Horror thread. If anyone wants to create separate threads about individual movies made by Hammer Studios, such as The Mummy thread we've already got, then that's fine. Otherwise, post any random Hammer-related thoughts, reviews or discussion here.

In order to provide an introduction for those not familiar with these films, or a nostalgic retrospective for those who are, I thought I'd post short reviews of my top ten favourite Hammer horror films. I'll note some trivia for each, illustrating how they connect with other Hammer movies and how they influenced later filmmakers. For anyone who's interested in getting into these films, this might be a helpful guide on where to start.

So here are my personal top ten:

10: THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES (1974)

This one was a coproduction between Hammer Studios and Honk Kong's Shaw Brothers Studios, who were the leading makers of martial arts movies at the time. It's essentially a vampire-themed variation on the old Seven Samurai formula. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing is recruited by seven siblings to help defend their Chinese village against the titular kung fu vampires and their undead army of zombie-skeletons. What Van Helsing doesn't realise is that his old arch nemesis Dracula has also journeyed to China to assume command of the 7 Golden Vampires.

This film marked Cushing's final appearance as Van Helsing and was Hammer's last movie to feature Dracula. Christopher Lee did not want to reprise his role as the count and so another actor replaced him, which makes this the only Hammer Dracula movie not to feature Lee. Considering the main selling point of this film is its fight scenes, I have to say that the final showdown between Van Helsing and Dracula feels very anticlimactic. Dracula just punches Van Helsing a couple of times before the latter stabs him through the chest with a spear. This was the last time these two characters faced off against each other in a Hammer production, and their final battle doesn't measure up to their earlier screen bouts.

Even so, it's a fun action horror movie with lots of kung fu. Not a great film by any stretch, but a very entertaining one. Audiences nowadays are accustomed to seeing martial arts combined with horror, particularly when it comes to vampire movies, but this was one of the first films – if not the first – to hybridise the two genres.

If you enjoy this one, then you should also check out Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) and Shatter (1974). The eponymous hero in Captain Kronos also uses martial arts against vampires (specifically the Japanese martial art Iaido mixed with European fencing), while Shatter is another kung-fu co-production between Hammer and the Shaw Brothers featuring Cushing (in his final Hammer film) and shot on location in Hong Kong.

9: THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961)

Oliver Reed appeared in nine Hammer films and also narrated a documentary series about the studio during the early nineties, but The Curse of the Werewolf marked the first time he starred as the lead character in one of their productions. It was also Hammer's only cinematic excursion into the werewolf genre, though they did also make a werewolf-themed episode of their eighties TV show, Hammer House of Horror: 'Children of the Full Moon'.

The makeup effects are good, Reed's performance is suitably intense, and the sets evoke a reasonably effective approximation of the Spanish setting. I don't think it's as good as The Wolf Man (1941), but it's still a minor classic worth seeing.

Just make sure you watch the uncut version.

8: THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES (1966)

George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) is usually credited as the first modern zombie film and the one that ushered in the depiction of zombies as flesh-eating corpses. Earlier zombie films had generally portrayed them as mindless slaves controlled by voodoo magic. The Plague of the Zombies bridges the gap between the two interpretations and foreshadows Romero's movie in several key aspects.

To my knowledge, it was the first film to show zombies clawing their way out of their graves, as well as the first to depict them as shuffling, decaying corpses with bluish-grey skin and white eyes. It was also one of the first zombie films to feature graphic gore and to be shot in colour.

The Hammer zombies aren't explicitly flesh eaters, but other than that they're more or less consistent with what modern audiences expect from the living dead. The film also retains a connection with the earlier zombies of Haitian folklore by having its main villain resurrect a horde of the living dead with voodoo so he can use them as slave labour in his mine. This one's an overlooked gem that occupies an important place in the history of zombie cinema, and it came out two years before Night of the Living Dead.

7) THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)

Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster admitted that he never actually read Mary Shelley's novel, and it shows in the finished film. The characterisation of Peter Cushing's Frankenstein has less in common with his literary namesake than with H. P. Lovecraft's Herbert West. He lacks the sympathetic qualities of the former and shares the latter's amoral single-mindedness and willingness to do terrible things in the service of his experiments. Whereas the Universal Studios Frankenstein series focused on the creature, the Hammer series instead focused on the doctor himself as he continued creating new monsters in each movie.

Christopher Lee portrays the creature in this first film, which makes this the first of the many Hammer collaborations between him and Cushing. This was also the first gothic horror film that Hammer produced, as well as the first film of theirs to feature graphic gore in colour. It really pushed the boundaries of screen violence for that time.

The second film in the series is The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), which picks up exactly where The Curse of Frankenstein ended. Three more sequels followed – The Evil of Frankenstein (1964), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) – though the continuity between them is sketchy. Hammer then attempted to reboot the series with The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) starring Ralph Bates, but when this proved unpopular they went back to the original series and made one final film starring Cushing: Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974).

6: THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960)

Despite the misleading title, Dracula does not appear in this film. It does however feature Peter Cushing in the second of his five appearances as Professor Van Helsing. In place of Dracula, the main antagonist in this movie is a new character named Baron Meinster, played by David Peel, who is said to have been a nobleman corrupted by the cult of vampirism. Dracula's brides were among the many elements from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel that were downplayed in Hammer's first Dracula film, and this movie attempts to address that oversight.

The highlight of the film is the final showdown between Van Helsing and Baron Meinster, which takes place in a burning windmill. This sequence influenced the windmill scene in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999), and specifically the moment where the hero (Van Helsing/Ichabod Crane) exits the burning structure by leaping onto one of the sails and riding it to safety.

The Brides of Dracula was also referenced in The Matrix Reloaded (2003), where it can be glimpsed in the background during the scene where Persephone introduces Morpheus, Trinity and Neo to the vampires.

The Brides of Dracula was also the film that inspired Italian director Jesús Franco to get into the horror genre, and the villain Baron Meinster inspired the character of the same name in the Vampire Hunter D manga by Hideyuki Kikuchi. So this film's legacy is far reaching.

5: THE QUATERMASS TRILOGY (1955-1967)

Quatermass influenced numerous movies and TV shows, ranging from Doctor Who to Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and several of John Carpenter's films (Carpenter even used the pseudonym 'Quatermass' on the credits for Prince of Darkness). The cinematic trilogy, adapted from the original BBC drama serials, includes the films The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Quatermass II (1957) and Quartermass and the Pit (1967). All three are science fiction horror films involving extraterrestrial threats to Earth.

The plot of the first movie concerns a rocket that returns from space containing only one of the three astronauts who departed in it. The surviving astronaut soon escapes from hospital and begins transforming into a hideous monster.

In Quatermass II Professor Quatermass discovers a moon base he designed has been secretly constructed outside a small town. Meteorites have been falling in the area with alarming regularity, and the locals are acting strangely, as though possessed by an alien force. Quatermass II was clearly a major influence on several Pertwee-era Doctor Who serials, and the scenes of the alien parasites exploding from the meteorites to infect people foreshadow the scene in Alien where the facehugger leaps out of the egg and attaches itself to Kane.

Quatermass and the Pit is generally regarded as the best of the trilogy, and with good reason. The plot kicks off when construction workers digging a new tunnel on the London Underground exhume a skull belonging to a missing link in human evolution. Adjacent to this they also discover what appears to be an unexploded bomb, but is later revealed to be an alien spacecraft. Ghostly and demonic apparitions abound as the unearthed ship exudes a psychic influence over the people of London, and chaos ensues.

This is one of those rare trilogies where each entry improves upon its predecessor. The first film is decent, but very slow and dated. The second film is better. But if you can only watch one, I recommend the third film, Quatermass and the Pit.

4: DRACULA (1958)

Released in America as Horror of Dracula, this film follows The Curse of Frankenstein's example of only loosely adapting the source material. Christopher Lee's Dracula is portrayed in a somewhat demystified manner in this first film. He would display more traditional vampire powers in the sequels, but in the 1958 movie his abilities are limited to superhuman strength and mind control.

Michael Gough appears alongside Cushing's Van Helsing in the role of Arthur Holmwood, the only one of Lucy's three suitors from the novel to be included in the film. Only in this version of the story, Arthur is Lucy's brother and Mina's husband. Mina's fiancé in the book is Jonathan Harker, but in the Hammer version Jonathan is engaged to Lucy. Moreover, the Hammer Jonathan is a vampire hunter acting on Van Helsing's orders when he first travels to Transylvania. So this is not a faithful adaptation.

Despite all that, the 1958 film remains one of the most entertaining screen versions of Dracula, and it was the first adaptation of Stoker's novel to utilise graphic colour gore. The plot, while deviating significantly from the book, is pacy and intense. Lee's Dracula doesn't need lots of special effects to frighten people. His commanding presence is enough to intimidate.

The Dracula Hammer series also includes the following sequels, all of which starred Christopher Lee: Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), Scars of Dracula (1970), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). Brides of Dracula and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires also take place in the same continuity, though neither of them features Lee. Tim Burton has often cited Dracula A.D. 1972 as one of his favourite films. Both that and its sequel, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, take place in the modern day. But to my mind, the 1958 original is still the best in the series.

3: THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959)

The Hound of the Baskervilles is tied with The Lost World as my favourite novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This adaptation, while taking some liberties, nevertheless adheres more closely to the source material than Hammer's Frankenstein or Dracula films did. The book takes place in October and has an autumnal atmosphere that is usually absent from screen adaptations, but the Hammer film comes closer to capturing that Halloween ambience than most other versions.

Peter Cushing plays Sherlock Holmes, while André Morell, who starred in The Plague of the Zombies, portrays Watson. Christopher Lee gets a rare non-villainous role as Sir Henry Baskerville, and it's nice to see him and Cushing on the same side for once. They were close friends in real, yet nearly always ended up killing one another on screen.

This is another Hammer film that appears to have influenced Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, this time with regards to the plot twist concerning the identity and motive of the human villain that controls the monstrous killer. Cushing would go on to portray Holmes again in several non-Hammer productions: firstly a BBC television series in 1968 (which included a two-part adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles), a 1971 series of audiobooks, and a 1984 TV movie titled The Masks of Death. But the 1959 version of The Hound of the Baskervilles was Hammer Studios' only excursion into Holmesian territory. They could have made equally gothic adaptations of other Holmes stories, but the one they did make was superb.

2: THE MUMMY (1959)

I've come to realise that a major reason why Hammer's The Mummy (1959) is so good is that it takes the best pieces from the Universal Mummy movies and combines them into a single superior film.

The flashback scene depicting the back story of Kharis in the Hammer film is clearly based on the similar flashback scene depicting Imhotep's back story in The Mummy (1932).

The opening act of the Hammer film is a remake of The Mummy's Hand (1940), with the character of Steven Banning searching for the Princess Ananka's tomb in Egypt and unwittingly awakening the mummy Kharis.

The middle act of the Hammer film is a remake of The Mummy's Tomb (1942), with an evil Egyptian priest taking Kharis to Steven Banning's home country so he can kill the surviving members of the expedition. The scene where Kharis enters Steven's room through his window and strangles him, as well as the later scenes of Steven's son, John Banning (played by Cushing in the Hammer version), doing battle with the mummy, are based on The Mummy's Tomb.

The final act of the Hammer film, with the subplot about the female love interest resembling Ananka and the last scene in the swamp, is largely taken from The Mummy's Ghost (1944).

The Universal Mummy series is fun, but in my opinion Hammer's 1959 film is superior.

Hammer made three other mummy films: The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964), The Mummy's Shroud (1967) and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971). Each of these is a standalone film featuring a different mummy, so there's no continuity between them.

1: THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (1968)

This is a rare example of a screen adaptation that is superior to the book on which it's based. The script was written by American author Richard Matheson, who managed to retain all the important elements from Dennis Wheatley's 1934 bestseller while streamlining the narrative and improving both the pacing and tension. Christopher Lee stars as the heroic Duke de Richleau who tries to protect his godson from a cult of Satanists. The leader of the cult is the sinister Mocata, played by future Blofed actor Charles Gray

The best sequence in the film comes after Mocata visits the country house of two of the protagonists and warns them that "something" will be coming to their home that night to claim the souls of their friends. It's a chilling moment that leads to an excellent set piece where Lee's Duke de Richleau draws a protective circle on the ground and urges his allies to remain with him inside it, no matter what they might see or hear during the night. I won't spoil it by revealing what happens next, but it's a great scene that still conjures a feeling of dread over fifty years later.

Christopher Lee had hoped to adapt more books in the Duke de Richleau series, but for some reason Hammer never produced any more. They did however adapt another Dennis Wheatley novel for their final feature film, To the Devil a Daughter (1976), but it ended up being one of the worst films they ever made. Wheatley, who had approved of their adaptation of The Devil Rides Out, wrote the studio an angry letter condemning To the Devil a Daughter, and Lee, who had starred in it, wrote back with a personal letter of apology.

Hammer's only other foray into Wheatley's work was an episode of the Hammer House of Horror TV series titled 'Guardian of the Abyss'. This was basically an inferior TV remake of The Devil Rides Out, and the female lead was played by Rosalyn Landor, who appeared as a child in the 1968 film version.

The Devil Rides Out is one of my favourite horror films, and to my mind it's the best movie Hammer ever produced. If you can only watch one Hammer film, or if you're new to the brand and are looking for an accessible place to start, then I strongly recommend this film. It's a corker.


There are many other Hammer classics I haven't mentioned here, but I'll come back and highlight them later. What about everyone else? Are there any other Hammer fans on the site? Do you have a favourite Hammer movie or series of films? How would you rank the Frankenstein, Dracula and Mummy series? Who are your favourite Hammer stars, directors, monsters and scream queens?

[thecolorsblend]

I don't have a complete collection of Hammer films. Not even close, honestly. But I've got a few of them. And in the aggregate, I find them all largely to be enjoyable. Not all of them. But most of them. In the main, they're quality productions that broke a lot of new ground in their time. For that alone, they deserve respect.

The ones I own and have seen are as follows:

-- The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957)
To piggyback on SN's comments, Cushing plays Victor as an amoral (borderline sociopathic) scientist. He's the embodiment of so preoccupied with whether he could, he didn't stop to think if he should. The creature is not the first moral abomination that Victor is guilty of. Neither will he be the last.

We can say what we want about how faithful this film is or isn't to the source material. But the story and the characters succeed on their own merits. And I think that's worth something.

-- The Revenge Of Frankenstein (1958)
A worthy follow up. You would hope that Victor had learned his lesson. But all he took from his experiences in the first film is why he should keep going, try harder, be more careful to avoid detection, etc. There are continuity issues going on with the Hammer Frankenstein series. But apparently, a lot of that is due to behind the scenes goofiness that isn't necessarily anyone's fault. Still, it is occasionally pretty noticeable. And intrusive.

-- Horror Of Dracula (1958)
Christopher Lee is my favorite live action Dracula. And the reason for that goes back to this movie. Bela Lugosi played the character well. He's my second favorite. But other actors seemed to lose the balance of the character. But Lee captured the balance perfectly. There's some sex appeal to the character, yes. But at the same time, he lives with a tremendous amount of pain. I think the best Dracula portrayals find a balance between the character's charisma and his suffering. And Lee absolutely nailed it.

As far as Cushing is concerned, I like the college professor approach to the character. This Van Helsing is not necessarily a man of action. Rather, he's a scholar who spends most of his vampire-hunting time reading in libraries or interviewing subjects/witnesses in the field. Here again, this is my preferred version of the character. Cushing plays Van Helsing as a man of unswerving morals and superior intellect. He's not hopeless in an actual confrontation with a vampire. But that's also not really where he shines either. I enjoy this approach to the material.

-- The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1959)
I've seen this one a few times now. Gets better every time. I enjoy Cushing's aloof approach to the character. I have nothing against other portrayals of Holmes. But this one is my favorite. It's a pity that Cushing didn't play the character on more occasions. I've always been interested to see where he would've gone with it.

-- The Mummy (1959)
To again echo SN's remarks, this version of the story combines the best of what Universal achieved and creates something that is particularly... well, I can't use the word "original". But it is entertaining. It's almost like a summary of Universal's films in a sense. It seems like Hammer didn't prioritize this franchise beyond the first entry. But there was potential in continuing the storyline set out in this film. A pity.

-- Brides Of Dracula (1960)
I don't get as much out of this movie as others seem to. It's enjoyable. But I just don't think it compares to the original. Lee's absence is felt here.

-- The Curse Of The Werewolf (1961)
More sacrilege. But I just didn't get into this one at all when I watched it years ago. I kept waiting for the good part. And it never came.

-- Night Creatures (otherwise known as Captain Clegg) (1962)
I still haven't made time to watch this. But I'll report back on this eventually.

-- The Kiss Of The Vampire (1963)
I'm not a huge expert on censorship standards of this time. But you watch how the vampire cult members are all dispatched in this movie and it's kind of amazing to think this was allowed to be showed publicly. I guess I would've thought this was too much for audiences in 1963. But I guess it wasn't.

-- The Evil Of Frankenstein (1964)
Another day, another enjoyable entry in this series. Again, we can mention the discontinuity. But I would prefer to simply enjoy the story and the characters.

[Silver Nemesis]

I've always liked The Revenge of Frankenstein. That almost made my top ten, but The Curse of Frankenstein edged it out.

The Evil of Frankenstein is the Hammer film that most closely resembles the Universal series, and they clearly tried to make the creature look like Karloff's version.

I rate it as an average entry in the series, but certainly not the worst.

The Curse of the Werewolf is admittedly a generic specimen of its type, but I like it for the novelty factor of it being Hammer's only werewolf movie. There are however many superior werewolf films out there.

I've only seen Kiss of the Vampire once and I don't remember it very well. I need to watch it again to jog my memory.

Here are some other notable Hammer movies I'd like to comment on. Some of these almost made my top ten.

X the Unknown (1956) is a science fiction horror film in the vein of the Quatermass trilogy. It stars Dean Jagger, just a couple of years after he made White Christmas, as a Quatermass-like scientist battling a radioactive slime monster in Scotland. The thing that always stands out in my memory about this movie is a graphic body horror scene in which someone's face is melted by the monster. You can see it in the following clip from the 1:40 mark onwards. Take into account this was released in 1956.

Vampire Circus (1972) is another good one that almost made my top ten. It was one of Hammer's seventies films, which means the gore and nudity quotient is higher, but it's contains a decent well-paced plot and some genuinely creepy visuals. The titular circus is full of weird and memorable characters, including an evil clown dwarf...

...a cat woman...

...and a strongman played by Darth Vader himself, Dave Prowse.

Prowse also appeared in The Horror of Frankenstein and Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell, and in the early nineties he had a stake in a company that made official Hammer merchandise. That business venture didn't end well for him, as he recounts in his autobiography Straight From the Force's Mouth.

Prowse's best performance in a Hammer film is as the title creature in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, but his best Hammer film overall is definitely Vampire Circus. It's worth a watch.

The Reptile (1966) isn't bad. It was made at the same time as The Plague of the Zombies and utilised some of the same sets and cast members. I don't think it's as good a TPOTZ, but it's ok.

The Gorgon (1964) is quite similar to The Reptile. It's another one to file under the 'not bad, not great' category.

The Abominable Snowman (1957) is one of those early black and white sci-fi horror Hammer films in the vein of X the Unknown and The Quatermass Xperiment. Like the Quatermass films, it was adapted from a BBC TV serial. Peter Cushing starred in the original TV version and reprised his role in the movie. The screenplay was written by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale.

Kneale also wrote The Witches (1966) starring Joan Fontaine. This is another of those Hammer movies that I've only seen once and can't remember very well. But from what I recollect it wasn't bad. Kneale's script foreshadows his work on Halloween III: Season of the Witch in certain regards.

I should mention for those new to Hammer that the studio didn't just make horror films. They dabbled in practically every genre, including war, comedy, drama, action, pirate, sci-fi and fantasy. Some of their science fiction and fantasy films are worth mentioning in this thread, even though they don't fall under the banner of horror.

To start with, there's She (1965) based on the novel by H. Rider Haggard. This one's a fantasy adventure starring Ursula Andress, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. It's not a horror movie, but it's reasonably entertaining. Christopher Lee held the record for the most number of cinematic sword fights, and he performs one of those duels during the climax of this film.

Hammer made a terrible sequel to She titled Vengeance of She (1968), but I recommend avoiding that one.

They produced a number of prehistoric adventure films featuring dinosaurs, the most famous of which is One Million Years B.C. (1966). This movie has stop-motion effects by legendary FX artist Ray Harryhausen (who, coincidentally, died exactly ten years ago yesterday), and the poster showing Raquel Welch in her cave-girl bikini featured memorably in The Shawshank Redemption.

Another prehistoric movie Hammer made is When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970). This time the stop-motion effects were created by Jim Danforth, who received an Academy Award nomination for his work but lost out to Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I think this must be the only Hammer movie to be nominated for an Oscar, but I could be wrong.

On the trivia front, Spielberg referenced When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth in the first Jurassic Park film.

The Lost Continent (1968) is one I've never seen right the way through. I watched the first half on TV once, but never saw the rest. It's a sci-fi adventure film about sea monsters. I don't know if it's any good.

One of Hammer's oddest films is a sci-fi action thriller called Moon Zero Two (1969). The animated opening credits make it look like a comedy, but it isn't. I watched it on YouTube for the first time last year and didn't quite know what to make of it. Apparently it was Hammer's most expensive production at the time, and the sets and special effects are generally good. Unfortunately the plot and characters are not as interesting as the visuals, and the whole first half of the movie meanders rather tediously. Things pick up in the second half, when the plot gets in gear, and then it becomes more interesting. On the whole, it's a middling sci-fi flick. I don't think it's as terrible as some people say, but nor is it very good.

But to repeat what I wrote in my previous post, if there's anyone reading this who wants to get into Hammer Horror then the best place to start is The Devil Rides Out.

[Silver Nemesis]

The Lost Continent (1968) is one I've never seen right the way through. I watched the first half on TV once, but never saw the rest. It's a sci-fi adventure film about sea monsters. I don't know if it's any good.

I watched The Lost Continent on TV last night.

The last thirty minutes or so is entertaining, but the first hour is a drag. It takes far too long for the protagonists to reach the titular continent, and the narrative's bogged down with too many unlikeable characters whose individual subplots fail to intersect in a satisfying way. The movie ends abruptly too, with all but one of the main storylines left unresolved.

On the plus side, there are some interesting sets and miniatures.

And some amusing giant monsters.

Dana Gillespie's easy on the eyes.

But for the most part, The Lost Continent's a dud. I'd forgotten it was based on a Dennis Wheatley novel. This was the same year Hammer adapted Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out. Needless to say one film turned out a lot better than the other.

Is The Lost Continent a horror film or a fantasy movie? It's both, though it excels as neither. I don't recommend it.

If anyone wants to see a far more entertaining fantasy film starring the buxom Dana Gillespie, then I recommend The People That Time Forgot (1977), which was made by Hammer rivals Amicus Productions. That film's a blast.