Hammer Films: The Ultimate Collection

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Down in the Sewers (2020, 6 mins): special effects artist Brian Johnson fondly recalls the production Nightmare’ in the Making (2016, 28 mins): documentary with film historian Wayne Kinsey, featuring interviews with actor Jennie Linden, screenwriter Jimmy Sangster and art director Don Mingaye In Countess Dracula (released on a double bill with Vampire Circus), 17th century Hungarian Countess Elisabeth Nadasdy (Ingrid Pitt) discovers that by bathing in the blood of young virgin girls she can revitalize her appearance—turning her from an old crone into a beautiful young woman. Attempting to hide her transformation, she sends her daughter into the woods to be held captive while she poses as her, but as the bodies pile up and the Countess’ sanity begins to collapse, suspicion about her private bloodletting activities draws closer and closer. For its new box set Hammer Films: The Ultimate Collection, Mill Creek Entertainment gathers twenty of the Columbia released titles (spread across ten discs), spanning the years 1957 – 1970, including: Any release of Hammer House of Horror is worth owning, and the addition of the audio commentaries on this set gives it the clear edge over the others. However, if you have the Synapse Films DVD release, you may want to hold onto it for the introductions. Otherwise, this is a fine release of the show in high definition, and it comes recommended for fans new and old.

Scream Factory has released so many Hammer Horror movies in recent years that we have a whole column dedicated to them – Paul Farrell’s endlessly informative and insightful series Hammer Factory– and they’ve just announced a brand new upcoming release today.

Hammer Horror Merchandise

NEW Satanic Decadence & The Legacy of Sheridan Le Fanu in Hammer’s Twins of Evil – A Visual Essay by Kat Ellinger (2021) Val Guest, director of The Quatermass Xperiment, reteamed with that film's original scribe, Nigel Kneale, for this top-notch yeti thriller. A team of explorers — led by Dr. John Rollason (Cushing) and his wife Helen (Maureen Connell) — on an expedition to the Himalayas with members of a local monastery collide with a second team of explorers who are searching for the abominable snowman. One of the most charming facets of Onyx the Fortuitous is its commitment to practical effects, specifically its use of puppets to bring demons, ghouls, and creatures to life. AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY: HERE https://diaboliquefilms.com/product/hammer-horror-the-warner-bros-years-blu-ray/

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Retrospective (8 minutes) features an audio essay with Hammer historian Richard Klemense discussing the production of the film. Here, he joins Bartok and his mysterious delegation to raise the spirit of an ancient demon for a once-in-a-lifetime ritual. Kim Newman Introduces ‘The Shadow of the Cat’ (2021, 11 mins): appreciation by the critic and author Because of the anthology format, there are variety of stories and situations, many of them tried and true formulas and tropes, but done well with decent budgets and name actors. Among them were Peter Cushing, Jon Finch, Denholm Elliott, Diana Dors, Patricia Quinn, Brian Cox, Lucy Gutteridge, Sian Phillips, Barbara Ewing, and Pierce Brosnan, among others. The show’s directors included Peter Sasdy, Don Sharp, Tom Clegg, and Alan Gibson. As for the stories themselves, they’re all successful, but some are more hard-hitting than others. Fan favorite episodes include The Silent Scream, The House that Bled to Death, Children of the Full Moon, Witching Time, and Rude Awakening. With 13 one-hour episodes to choose from, Hammer House of Horror is short but fruitful, predating the TV anthology boom of the 1980s. Hammer at Columbia Pictures: An eleven-minute featurette in which Author/Historian C. Courtney Joyner takes you through Hammer’s early success and how Columbia provided a new home that allowed the company to expand its genre focus. This offers a worthwhile spotlight on several features from this set and even includes clips from trailers not provided elsewhere on this set. This is very well produced and informative.Gallery of Grotesqueries: A Brief History of Circus Horrors featurette with British author/film historian Philip Nutman Has there ever been a more tantalizing-sounding sub-genre than "martial arts horror"? Cushing's Dr. Van Helsing is recruited to fight the seven vampires of the title, who have menaced a remote Chinese village for generations, in this Hammer and Shaw brothers co-production, filmed in 1973 at the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong. The video and audio presentations of these films have all been apparently sourced from the same masters used for the individual Synapse Films Blu-ray releases, though there are sometimes obvious differences. The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll Retrospective (10 minutes) finds Klemense sharing details on the history of this Hammer film in a thoughtful audio essay.

Though known primarily for their Gothic horror features, Hammer Films’ released a number of high-quality dramas and psychological thrillers. Never Take Candy from a Stranger is a dark tale involving a young girl’s accusations of pedophilia involving a respected town elder. The story examines the lengths to which lawyers will go to discredit a child and protect the wealthy, no matter their guilt. The subject matter is uncomfortable and the ending is devastating, which lends this picture a haunting quality. The anti-war drama Yesterday’s Enemies spotlights the brutality of war through the actions of a depleted company of British soldiers in conflict with the Japanese army in a Burmese village and their struggle to maintain the moral high ground. This is a gripping tale full of tension and suspense. Taking a break from all of the doom and gloom, legendary director William Castle ( The Tingler) contributes a lighthearted haunted house movie, The Old Dark House, starring comedian Tom Poston ( Newhart).Peter Cushing: Perspectives (2021, 29 mins): documentary looking at the life and work of Peter Cushing, featuring contributions from actors Derek Fowlds, Judy Matheson and Madeline Smith Countess Dracula is an uneven film, but is ultimately driven by a terrific leading performance by Ingrid Pitt. The film borrows heavily from the exaggerated (and now considered mostly unsubstantiated) tales of serial murderer Countess Elizabeth Bathory in telling its story of a woman obsessed with her own youth and beauty, but with its own particular spin. Along with The Vampire Lovers, Countess Dracula essentially turned Ingrid Pitt into one of Hammer’s most beloved stars.