List by HotDonkeyBear Patron
The Ever Changing Face Of (Hammer) Horror!
Here's my list of Hammer faves.
I grew up on this stuff.
Be warned... this list will often change. Into what, who knows!
If you ever find yourself in the small costal town of Whitstable in Kent (England), I suggest you visit the tiny museum there as it houses a small amount of Peter Cushing's personal effects. Loved the man. Love the town.
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I very much enjoyed Woman In Black and Wake Wood. Hated The Resident and thought the English language version on Let The Right One In was pointless. My only concern now is that Hammer are choosing to ride on the success of Woman In Black by fast tracking a sequel instead of working on unique and original works.
As I said, this list is likely to change over time, but for now I wanted to keep it strictly to the oldies.
The Man In Black (1949) is an entirely different beast. I'd be very surprised if hammer worked on any Dracula, Frankenstein or Mummy movies as they've been done to death recently. In fact, it saddens me to say, that with the popularity of supernatural horror and the complete saturation of Vampires and Werewolves, that monster movies are likely to stay in their crypts for a good long while yet.
I was very much a fan of Wake Wood. It tried to do something a little different and seemed tonally similar to The Hammer House Of Horror TV series from the 1980's.
Woman In Black was very taught and scary for a 12 rated movie.
The Resident was a complete misfire despite having Christopher Lee in it.
Let Me In added nothing to the Swedish original besides a rather well shot car crash. It was so similar in colour palette and overall design that it seemed entirely pointless overall. I hold David Fincher's version of Dragon Tattoo in the same regard.
Sadly, Christopher Lee is 47 million years old now (90), so I fear he's a little to close to the grave to be undead again.
The biggest issue we've had with regards to vampires is that Francis Ford Coppola directed a straight adaptation of the greatest literary vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula. It was a definitive statement in much the same way as Kenneth Branagh directed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
By leading people to the source and essentially giving them "everything", it's led to a peculiar mix of revisionist Monsters. Some great. Some good. and some... sparkly.
Even Hammer released some shit vampire films though.
Dracula 1972AD, I'm looking at you!
Do you remember Dracula 2001?
Picture that... set in the 1970's... but the film makers are all so old that they don't realise that kids don't party like it's the "swinging sixties" any more. It's like Austin Powers with Dracula and absolutely no humour whatsoever.
I think we need a decade where Vampires and Zombies (especially) get to take their foot off the gas. It's the same problem I have with sequels to horror franchises in general. The minute you start rooting for the antagonist instead of the protagonist then the villain turns into a corporate identity with traits, slogans and loses all intimidating features (e.g. Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers and hannibal Lektor are all as scary as Ronald McDonald)!
I'm so bored of seeing Zombies on TV, film and computer games that they've completely lost their bite.
Vampires can work for a variety of reasons in a number of exotic flavours. I loved Interview With A Vampire, but hated the "self knowing" Buffy. But when I tried to read some of Anne Rice's source novels I found they got really shit after the first 3 because the character of Lestat basically turned into some all-powerful super vampire. He lost all credibility. When you focus too intently on either a character or a monstrous species then it loses it's mystery and becomes less scary (See Aliens, Predators etc).
Funny you should say that. I've always been an advocate of "less is more". A perfect example of that is Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Leatherface is a human juggernaut, faceless at the same time... and you DON'T see much blood. It's all in the sounds and the creepy build up.
This is the first time I heard the term "Hammer Horror". What exactly does it mean?
Hammer are a British film studio founded close to a century ago. They successfully produced thrillers, drama and comedies predominantly up to the mid 1950's when they obtained the rights from Universal to remake Dracula and Frankenstein. It was also during this time they were creating adaptations of science fiction pieces like The Quatermass Xperiment and X The Unknown.
From the late 50's onwards Hammer Films became massively successful with a slew of horror films with very particular signifiers. Hammer films pretty much created the careers of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (Count Dooku and Grand Moff Tarkin).
By the mid 70's the public's interest in this particular brand of horror waned and by the 80's the company was producing a series for television only.
It wasn't until the early 2000's that the company was bought by a conglomerate who have since produced an english language remake of Let The Right One In (Let Me In), The Woman In Black, Wake Wood and The Resident.
Hammer films influenced all manner of film makers, most noticeably Tim Burton, who's Sleepy Hollow shared many similarities to the old Hammer classics.
Sorry for the essay :)
Oh, I was thinking genre. I know of Hammer Studios. It all makes sense now!
Thanks for the Star Wars references ;)