Hammer Films: The Ultimate Collection

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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. What it does mean is we'll probably have to wait for titles like Vengeance of She and Viking Queen to be done before we may see something like Kiss of the Vampire. Sadly, Kiss just got a new release in the UK but DVD only. 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.

The BEHP Interview with Freddie Francis (1994, 83 mins): career-spanning audio interview, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring Francis in conversation with Alan Lawson and Syd Wilson Hammer Volume Six: Night Shadows revives four consummate Hammer classics from the early sixties, exemplifying some of Hammer Films' best work in the horror and thriller genres. Edgar Allan Poe looms large in The Shadow of the Cat, a macabre ‘old dark house’ tale of feline revenge, starring André Morell ( Cash on Demand) and Barbara Shelley ( The Camp on Blood Island); Peter Cushing ( The Gorgon, Corruption) and Oliver Reed ( The Scarlet Blade) star in Captain Clegg, which sees Hammer fuse horror and adventure in an eighteenth-century-set tale of smugglers and marsh phantoms; Herbert Lom ( Mysterious Island) stars as The Phantom of the Opera in Hammer’s acclaimed production of Gaston Leroux’s Gothic classic, whilst Freddie Francis ( Torture Garden) directs Nightmare, a spooky psychological thriller in the Les Diaboliques vein, which benefits from full-blooded central performances by Moira Redmond ( Jigsaw) and Jennie Linden ( A Severed Head). Main feature presented in original UK theatrical aspect ratio 1.66:1 and alternative full frame1.37:1

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Airing on ITV in Britain in the fall of 1980 and later gaining even further notice in syndication, Hammer House of Horror took what was being done on the big screen and re-created it for home-based consumption. Hammer Studios was foundering at the box office in the late 1970s as Gothic horror was not bringing in audiences like it had in the past. The plan was to head to television for a horror anthology program with big stars, but at almost half the length of a major motion picture. The show was a hit, but it never made it past a single season. The BEHP Interview with Peter Graham Scott (2004, 201 mins): career-spanning filmed interview, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring Graham Scott in conversation with Darrol Blake and John Sealey When the Blu-ray market was starting out Hammer fans waited impatiently, hoping for some of the studio’s horror titles to start hitting the new format. It took several years. This was the first, released in the U.K. by Eureka. A middling entry in the sub-genre of Psycho- inspired movies Hammer cranked out in the mid sixties, it was an odd choice to be the first of their horror entries to hit HD. The film’s detriments are offset by the fantastic transfer however, which is razor sharp with a great grayscale. It’s an exciting peek at the promise the new format could provide the Hammer library, a promise displayed only intermittently with the releases that followed. Note about Frame Grabs: They were captured in the VLC media player program, and were not adjusted in any way except for size. They are not intended as anything more than a general example of some of the points I brought up. How these Blu-rays will look on your monitor in a home viewing environment can of course be significantly different.

Kim Newman Introduces ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ (2021, 13 mins): appreciation by the critic and author The last I read in their blog is the 4k scan of Curse of Frankenstein has been completed and is being examined. The Men Who Made Hammer: Anthony Hinds (2020, 28 mins): Richard Klemensen, editor and publisher of Little Shoppe of Horrors journal, revisits the career of one of Hammer’s most renowned screenwriters and producersThe company’s direct sequel to Horror of Dracula has never fared very well on home video. Anchor Bay’s early DVD was dull, with muddy colors and fading on the edges of the frame. Subsequent U.K. and Italian releases were a little better but had issues of their own. This was the first Blu-ray release from the new Hammer company (unless we count Quatermass and the Pit; it’s unclear if that was completely under their banner). Most fans give it an unenthusiastic passing grade, but for my taste it’s one of the least watchable Hammer BDs. This is due to the green /yellow- hued color grading. I have seen several early theatrical screenings of DPOD from good quality prints, as well as numerous TV broadcasts through the years. While it was never going to match the sumptuous look of either of the first two entries in the Hammer Dracula series, it still had a ‘normal’ color palate. Hammer’s Women: Liane Aukin (2021, 7 mins): profile of the actor, writer and director by the academic Rachel Knightley