Scars of Dracula – German poster
It was quite an easy choice deciding on a Christopher Lee themed poster to feature today. This much maligned film that ushered Lee's Dracula into the 70s is my favourite of Hammer's series, and Germany's gruesome poster does its vicious streak justice.
Rasputin’s hands
It took me a while to decide what Christopher Lee clip to share today. I decided on a moment from Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966). This is not one of Hammer's best, but Lee's performance in the titular role is fantastic.
The Shadow of the Cat (1961)
The Shadow of the Cat is a breezy seventy minutes. It's nothing more than a slice of entertaining nonsense, but that's what I exactly wanted from it.
Hell Is a City (1960)
Some of the best Hammer productions sit outside their signature genre of period horror. What Hammer did as well as - or perhaps even better than - colourful Gothic horror was stark, stripped back, black and white crime-thrillers.
Longbarrow’s death in The Mummy’s Shroud
With limited screen time in The Mummy's Shroud, Ripper manages to create an incredibly sympathetic character in Longbarrow. Longbarrow's death at the hands of the Mummy is a shocking moment.
Tiger lady dance from Vampire Circus
Vampire Circus (1972) has got to be one of the oddest film’s in Hammer’s back catalogue. While it’s far from their best (mostly due to filming cut short due to budgetary constraints), it remains one of their more original and ambitious efforts from the 1970s. Here’s an especially fantastic scene…
Twins of Evil (1971)
There’s a school of thought that Hammer Film Productions were washed up by the late 60s. I love Hammer’s work from the late 50s and early 60s as much as any Hammer nut, but their latter day efforts entertain me just as much. In the late 60s, Hammer films started to lay on a significant...
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1973)
Without a doubt, Hammer’s most consistent and successful franchise was their series of Frankenstein movies. Of their seven Frankenstein films – beginning with The Curse of Frankenstein in 1958 and finishing in 1973 with the focus of this article – only a single entry is bad. Unfortunately, that one bad film, The Evil of Frankenstein...
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave – US poster
Tied with the German poster for Frankenstein Created Woman, this US one-sheet for Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) is first on my list of “Hammer Posters I Would Kill For”. I love everything about this poster from its minimalistic use of colour to its surprisingly cheeky sense of humour. The bracketed “(OBVIOUSLY)” and...
Greasepaint and Gore: The Hammer Monsters of Roy Ashton
I, like most horror nuts, am fascinated with the practical special effects process that goes into creating monsters, gore and general madness. So, unsurprisingly, I got pretty damned excited when, while strolling through the library of the school I work at, I stumbled across this: The centred image from one of my favourite Hammer...
The Secret of Blood Island (1964)
THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND 1964, Quentin Lawrence Hammer Film Productions produced a handful of war movies that quietly coexisted alongside their more boisterous horror output. These films were a strange lot. The two most easily available efforts are The Camp on Blood Island (1958) and Yesterday’s Enemy (1959). Despite both being directed by Val...
The Stranglers of Bombay (1959)
When you think of Hammer Film Productions, things that may spring to mind are Dracula or Frankenstein. You think of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Michael Ripper. Images of decadent locations, lavish costumes and tasteful stories appear. You might even be reminded of the cheese of productions like One Million Years B.C. (1966) or the...
