Hammer horror

WARNING:MOST OF THE FILMS ARE QUITE GRAPHIC AND ARE FOR MATURE AUDIENCES.
Discuss the films here.

I have always admired their style of film making - particularly the period-based films. The costumes, sets, scenery and such are always so rich and beautiful. The casts are excellent with their great character actors like Thorley Walters and Michael Ripper, beautiful "Hammer girls" like Barbara Shelley and Veronica Carlson, and stars like Francis Matthews and Andrew Keir - not to mention the incomparable Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The direction of folks like Terence Fisher and Freddie Francis and writers like Anthony Hinds and Jimmy Sangster make them exciting to watch.

I have around 70 Hammer Films in my collection - most of which are horror.

I always liked the Frankenstein cycle of films from Hammer. The creature is different each time as he progresses his experiments, and he himself is a more sympathetic mad scientist. You understand his reasons for what he does, even though it is somewhat unethical. Well, mostly. I greatly enjoyed Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed because in that one, he is just plain evil.

As far as the Dracula cycle, Christopher Lee rose above the largely mediocre films to make him the definitive Dracula for me. Not a great cycle of films - except for Horror of Dracula and Dracula Prince of Darkness (and maybe Scars of Dracula), but he was always great in them.

But Hammer is more than just these two series, there are lots more to enjoy. I watched some 30-40 of them this last October and thrilled to them all over again.

Horror of Dracula is a different variation in which that Jonathan Harker dies and they swapped Lucy and Mina around. Even though Peter Cushing's Van Helsing isn't accurate considering he had a German accent and it took him months to figure out Mina was a vampire, he will always be the first face I think of when I think Van Helsing. There's a good film called Fright Night (1985) which is quite the tribute to the Dracula series.

Curse of Frankenstein isn't like the original Mary Shelley, either. I didn't mind the different takes on the source material, myself.

And I agree. Peter Cushing is the definitive Van Helsing to me. And Baron Frankenstein.

The only Hammer Horror film I've seen is The Woman In Black which I thought was really good but is only a film you can watch once.

The Woman in Black is the only good modern Hammer film so far. Why could you only watch it once?

Oh, I don't know...I really liked Let Me In...

Campion wrote:The Woman in Black is the only good modern Hammer film so far. Why could you only watch it once?

You would already know all of the bits which would make you jump and really I find horror films are films which lose their touch once you've seen them.

tombaker64 wrote:

Campion wrote:The Woman in Black is the only good modern Hammer film so far. Why could you only watch it once?

You would already know all of the bits which would make you jump and really I find horror films are films which lose their touch once you've seen them.

Horror films aren't just about scares, they can be about plot and sometimes even the idea can frighten you.

...or as I said, films like these are so beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted that I enjoy watching them over and over to experience how well they are crafted.

My Dad's quite a fan of these, and I've seen a few of them. On the whole, I think they're pretty good, solid, British films. Admittedly some of them were a bit low-budget and suffered consequentially, but no more than say Doctor Who did in those days. In a similar way, it's really the stories that made the films what they are