Hammer Movies was based in 1934, however it took an eleven 12 months hiatus on the way in which to the ‘50s, the decade when the company entered the era it’s greatest identified for. In 1955, the sci-fi horror movie The Quatermass Xperiment grew to become their first main worldwide success, inspiring Hammer to begin constructing towards turning into one of the well-liked style firms of all time. Since this 12 months marks the ninetieth anniversary of Hammer Movies, we determined it was time to place collectively an inventory of a few of The Finest Hammer Horror Films. Right here we go:
HORROR OF DRACULA (1958)
Positive, that is one more adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula; a re-telling of the story that any horror watcher will see roughly fifty variations of over the course of their fandom. However director Terence Fisher and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster introduced some twists to this one that aren’t current in others and shuffled among the characters. As common, it begins with a younger man named Jonathan Harker coming to Rely Dracula’s fort on enterprise – however then we get the twist that Harker is definitely a vampire hunter, in league with skilled vampire killer Physician Van Helsing. He is aware of what Rely Dracula is and has come to destroy him. After all, that doesn’t work very effectively for him, and Van Helsing has to spend the remainder of the film making an attempt to cease Dracula, who has his evil sights set on Harker’s fiancée. Horror of Dracula is an exhilarating reimagining of Stoker’s story that strikes alongside at a surprisingly quick tempo, telling its story in a brisk 81 minutes. Because it’s so nice, it’s no shock that it spawned a franchise. Film-goers couldn’t get sufficient of Christopher Lee’s efficiency as Dracula, and he got here again for six sequels (Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Style the Blood of Dracula, Scars of Dracula, Dracula A.D. 1972, and The Satanic Rites of Dracula). Peter Cushing, the good Van Helsing ever, got here again to share the display screen with Lee in a few these sequels, and likewise returned for 2 adventures with out Lee (The Brides of Dracula and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a martial arts / horror mash-up that noticed Hammer collaborating with Shaw Brothers Studios) – which are literally extra entertaining than among the Lee Dracula sequels.
QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (1967)
Hammer’s Quatermass trilogy is the uncommon franchise that will get higher with every installment. The primary movie, The Quatermass Xperiment (a.ok.a. The Creeping Unknown) is a nice story about an astronaut who’s a bit totally different when he returns from a visit into house. Seems, he has been taken over by an alien entity and is mutating. Quatermass 2 (a.ok.a. Enemy from House) has extra happening, coping with a village that has fallen beneath the management of aliens, and has parts paying homage to Halloween III: Season of the Witch – which is sensible since these tales originate from the identical particular person, Nigel Kneale. Directed by Roy Ward Baker and scripted by Kneale, Quatermass and the Pit begins when employees extending the London Underground unearth an odd cranium and a mysterious metallic. Investigating the scenario, the character on the middle of this collection, Professor Bernard Quatermass (performed on this movie by Andrew Keir and within the earlier movies by Brian Donlevy) finds himself coping with Martians that resemble the Satan, could also be answerable for rumors of a haunting within the space, and have lethal telekinetic talents. You may see reflections of Quatermass and the Pit in a few of John Carpenter’s work, particularly Prince of Darkness.
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote concerning the detective character Sherlock Holmes and his pal / biographer Dr. John H. Watson in 4 novels and fifty-six quick tales – however as a horror fan, the one I’ve at all times been drawn to is The Hound of the Baskervilles. And, after all, this story that includes a curse and a demonic beast was additionally the one that the majority appealed to Hammer Movies. That they had director Terence Fisher carry it to the display screen with Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes and Christopher Lee as the person who might be the most recent sufferer of the curse. This isn’t precisely a horror story; it’s a thriller that occurs to have some bizarre, creepy stuff happening in it, and enjoyable scenes involving the man-eating hound, a lethal tarantula, and a visit into an outdated mine. It’s an entertaining film that left me wishing Hammer had made extra Sherlock Holmes films with Cushing within the lead. Cushing would go on to play the character once more (and Lee would play him as effectively), however not for Hammer.
THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (1968)
A Hammer movie that was written by creator Richard Matheson however primarily based on the work of a distinct one other (a novel by Dennis Wheatley, on this case), The Satan Rides Out is among the many classics that have been directed by Terence Fisher. Christopher Lee is the hero this time round, bringing to life Nicholas, Duc de Richleau, a personality Wheatley wrote about many occasions. The Duc is out to carry down a devil-worshipping cult headed up by Lee’s fellow Bond film villain Charles Grey, an endeavor that takes loads of effort. The movie strikes alongside at a fast tempo and has loads of creepy motion, together with possession, black magic assaults, an enormous spider, the conjuring of the Angel of Dying, and an look by Devil himself within the type of the Goat of Mendes. If solely Hammer had made extra Duc de Richleau films with Lee because the character… They made loads of franchises, however in addition they left loads of promising alternatives on the desk.
THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)
One franchise alternative they didn’t fail to pursue was the possibility to make a collection of Frankenstein films – the truth is, they made practically as many Frankenstein films as Common did again within the day! It begins with The Curse of Frankenstein, a director Terence Fisher / author Jimmy Sangster collaboration that tells a variation on the traditional Mary Shelley story, this time with Peter Cushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as his monstrous creation. It’s a fantastic tackle the very acquainted story and opened the door to a number of sequels, with Cushing returning for monster-making, brain-swapping, and soul-transferring adventures in The Revenge of Frankenstein, The Evil of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Created Girl, Frankenstein Should Be Destroyed, and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell. Within the midst of this, Hammer additionally produced a tongue-in-cheek remake of The Curse of Frankenstein known as The Horror of Frankenstein, which starred Ralph Bates as Victor Frankenstein. However the folks needed extra Cushing, so Hammer gave them extra Cushing.
THE MUMMY (1959)
Hammer handled among the similar characters as Common’s traditional monster films, however their Dracula and Frankenstein movies don’t have anything to do with those Common made about these characters. The Mummy is a distinct scenario. For this one, they secured the remake rights from Common and proceeded to cherry-pick parts from the studio’s whole Mummy franchise, mixing collectively concepts, characters, and scenes from all the films (besides Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy). Directed by Terence Fisher and written by Jimmy Sangster, The Mummy 1959 has Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee dealing with off once more, this time with Lee because the silent, bandage-wrapped, mud-caked title character and Cushing as archaeologist John Banning… whose spouse has a powerful resemblance to the good love the mum misplaced in historic Egypt. Mixing bits and items of all of the Common Mummy tales labored effectively, leading to a superb movie. This additionally sparked a franchise and was adopted by The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Shroud, and Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, all of that are stand-alone mummy tales.
NIGHT CREATURES (1962)
Night time Creatures, a.ok.a. Captain Clegg, is an odd one, as a result of this a film I might by no means assume to name a horror film if not for the truth that it’s historically thought-about a horror film. For probably the most half, it’s a kind of journey movie / drama, with Royal Navy troopers coming to the small village of Dymchurch to research studies of an alcohol smuggling operation. Peter Cushing stars as native parson Dr. Blyss, who might have some connection to the legendary pirate captain Nathaniel Clegg, a person who was supposedly hanged for his crimes. The locals are certainly smuggling alcohol, and we watch how they attempt to keep away from getting caught. Horror parts solely enter the image in a few scenes that contain the Marsh Phantoms; males on horseback, sporting glow-in-the-dark skeleton costumes. I don’t actually assume these moments are sufficient to make this a horror flick, however it’s a superb film nonetheless.
DIE! DIE! MY DARLING! (1965)
This one is also called Fanatic, however Die! Die! My Darling! is a a lot better and extra attention-grabbing title. Directed by Silvio Narizzano from a screenplay written by legendary creator Richard Matheson and primarily based on the novel Nightmare by Anne Blaisdell, the movie manages to be a fascinating, partaking thriller even though the lead character is among the most pathetic, ineffectual heroines you’ll ever hope to not see; the stereotypical damsel in misery. Performed by Stefanie Powers, that character is Patricia Carroll, an American girl who decides to satisfy with the mom of her late British fiancé throughout a visit to England – and finds that her almost-mother-in-law, performed by Tallulah Bankhead in her last display screen position, is a non secular fanatic with some excessive beliefs. So excessive that she locks Patricia within the attic of her residence so she will attempt to save the lady’s soul. Die! Die! My Darling is one among a number of nice psycho-thrillers that have been made by Hammer. Different standouts embrace Worry within the Night time, The Nanny, The Snorkel, and Nightmare (which had nothing to do with Anne Blaisdell’s novel).
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1962)
Following within the footsteps of Common once more, Hammer despatched their very own tackle the Gaston Leroux novel The Phantom of the Opera out into the world in 1962 – and it is a enjoyable model of the story, should you can tolerate the quantity of opera singing that director Terence Fisher included in its 84 minute working time. Herbert Lom performs the Phantom that lurks across the opera home, abducting refrain lady Christine (Heather Sears) and taking her down into his sewer lair with the assistance of his dwarf assistant (Ian Wilson). Edward de Souza is Christine’s love curiosity Harry – and there’s some confusion as as to if the position of the Phantom or Harry was initially meant for Cary Grant, who had expressed curiosity in engaged on a Hammer horror film. Grant didn’t find yourself taking part in both character… however the film would have been even higher if he had. As it’s, it’s nonetheless a superb time.
THE GORGON (1964) / THE REPTILE (1966)
Right here we’ve a two-for-one particular, as director Terence Fisher’s The Gorgon and director John Gilling’s The Reptile are two related films which might be each effectively value testing. The Gorgon is about in a village that has been the positioning of a number of unusual murders in recent times, with victims having been turned to stone. This all hyperlinks again to historic mythology, the tales of Medusa and her sisters, and it’s as much as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to place a cease to all of this. In The Reptile, residents of a village are falling sufferer to a mysterious ailment known as the Black Dying… and it seems that one of many native folks transforms right into a reptile creature with a deadly chew. These are enjoyable monster films that may be paired for an entertaining double characteristic.
What do you consider this listing of The Finest Hammer Horror Films? How would you rank the movies, and the place would you place a few of their different classics, like The Curse of the Werewolf, The Plague of the Zombies, or Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde? Tell us by leaving a remark under.
