I first read about the Hammer films in the Crestwood House Monster series books. The books would principally be about whatever Universal Monster film the title of the book was taken from. The Dracula book, would tell the story of the original Dracula film starring Bela Lugosi. After it completed the retelling of the story of the movie complete with stills, it would then go on to give briefer summaries of the other films in the series from Universal. Then there would be a few pages devoted to film versions of the character that came after the universal Series, always giving a decent couple of pages to the Hammer cycle of films. The books described the Hammer films as being much more graphic and bloody than the Universal films were, which I guess they are, while still being pretty PG by today’s standards.
I was not a horror fan as a middle schooler, my friends were into the Friday the 13th movies and their like, but those were too graphic and scary for me. I stuck to my fascination with “The Monsters”, and their heightened world of horrors rather than the modern slasher films and their heightened sense of reality and violence. You see I liked the fantasy element, the heightened sense of visuals and the departure from reality in monster movies. I didn’t want to watch people the age of my older brother and sisters tortured and killed in what looks like our world, our reality, I still don’t. So the descriptions in the books of the Hammer series being in Color and full of blood, alternately made me anxious and afraid to see them. Unfortunately the Hammer films were not readily available to me growing up, I would from time to time look for them in the horror section of Blockbuster video, but if I ever saw them there, which I can’t remember ever doing so, I must have chickened out, even as a teenager. I do remember seeing one Hammer film with my Dad when I was younger it was the evil of Frankenstein, and I remember it being very boring. It was college before I ever saw another Hammer Monster film, The Horror of Dracula.
I remember as the lights went down in Weld Auditorium, being excited to finally see Christopher Lee in living color as Dracula. I also remember being slightly worried that it would be too much for me. Of course once again the imagination makes things much more intense than the film could ever have been. In fact while I love the film now and appreciate it’s production design and performances, at the time of the first screening in college my mind overcompensated for the relief that it wasn’t too much for me. I laughed at the film, I joked about it, I thought it was ridiculous, this was the reaction of a mind that was relieved it wasn’t terrified, and then disappointed that it wasn’t. Now that I have seen many more of these films I understand that my kids can watch them, there is nothing too terrifying in them. Now I appreciate them from an entirely different point of view. For me these are fantasy films. Films to be enjoyed for their atmospheric production designs and over the top performances and story elements. The moments I watch for in the Hammer films are those fleeting moments of actual terror or the shots that translate into stills that promise more than the film could ever deliver. Red Skies, black castles atop ridiculous mountains and gallons, well pints, of Hammer Blood.
Of the Hammer series, the Dracula films are my favorite. The Frankenstein series makes the mistake of following Dr. Frankenstein from film to film as opposed to the Monster as the Universal series does. As a result the films focus on the man, always making a new monster, thus less monster more people talking about making one. The Dracula films always bring Dracula back from the dead and give us multiple shots of Christopher Lee looking terrifying as the count, with bloodshot eyes and blood dripping from his fangs.
In college I was also introduced to my first real Poe picture, The Pit and the Pendulum Starring Vincent Price. This film I got right away and knew immediately that I need to own this film and the others of it’s kind. They share with the Hammer films a focus of design and mood, atmosphere over story, and wildly mannered and thrilling performances. The Poe pictures all seem to be variations on a couple of different themes; premature burial, cursed families, Inherited Insanity. Like many of the Hammer films too, there seem to be great story beats strung together by a lot of water treading. This is why many people don’t like these films today, some of these films run 87 minutes but it seems like 180 minutes. In order to appreciate these films you need to appreciate all the elements that go into the movies aside from story. The best of them have a story that is involving, but even the best of them probably seem slow if you can’t appreciate as well the production designs and performances. If forced to watch these films without either sound or Video, I’d choose losing the sound every time, because it is the visuals that make them special.
This brings us to the through line from the 30’s to today. The Universal films established the Monsters iconic looks and characterizations, it also established the series aspect of bringing the Monsters back to life from wherever the previous film left off. The Hammer films took the characters and refined them adding color and a more gothic visuals and design. The Poe pictures, while not utilizing the Monster characters, continued the established Atmospheric and production design elements that Hammer brought to the forefront. All of this leads us to one man, Tim Burton. Burton carries on the traditions set out by Hammer and the Poe pictures of design over story, of that heightened Gothic feel, of stone walls and Hammer blood. Sleepy Hollow is probably the clearest example of these traditions on display in a Burton film, to the extent that I shelve Sleepy Hollow with my Hammer films on the DVD shelf. Other films whose looks are clearly influenced by the Poe and Hammer pictures are Edward Scissorhands, Burton’s two Batman films, Sweeny Todd, and his most recent Dark Shadows. If one needed further proof of his love of those films just look at how he has peppered the stars of them throughout his films. He has used Michael Gough, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee all in multiple projects, all are veterans of the Poe and Hammer films.
Here, for your viewing enjoyment is a list of the Hammer films chronology of the Dracula series: The Horror of Dracula, The Brides of Dracula, Dracula, Prince of Darkness, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Scars of Dracula, Dracula A.D. 1972, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires.
The Hammer Frankenstein series:The Curse of Frankenstein, Revenge of Frankenstein, The Evil of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Created Woman, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The Horror of Frankenstein, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell,
And finally some of the Poe Pictures: The Pit and the Pendulum, The Haunted Palace, Tales of Terror, Twice told tales, The Tower of London, The Tomb of Ligela, The Raven, The Premature Burial, Masque of the Red Death, Fall of the House of Usher, and The Comedy of Terrors.
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