Hammer Horror and others (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

I'll recommend my 5 favorite Hammer films:

1. The Curse of Frankenstein

2. Horror of Dracula

3. Frankenstein Created Woman

4. Scars of Dracula

5. Taste the Blood of Dracula

 

[JonZ]

Thank you

 

[Billy Fogerty]

Check NetFlix,they have them all.

 

[R-T-C Tim]

#3 and #4, oh no.... :frowning:

What you REALLY want to see are:

Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969)
The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
The Mummy (1959)
and Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

Conveniently, all are available on DVD, and reviewed on my site!

 

[keenwatcher]

Yeah, MielR,

I did see Deep Red on IFC tv chan, when they were showing Dario Argento films, maybe I'll catch it again on IFC as they show them in October.

The second of the Argento horror trilogy (only two were completed) was Inferno, and the first, the disturbing Suspiria.

My favourites (that I have seen so far) Hammer films are:

Taste the Blood of Dracula (hypocritical decadent Victorian Londeners and an amazing performance by Ralph Bates and the great character actor and recurring star Michael Ripper)

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (again good performances and atmosphere)

Kronos Vampire Hunter (again great atmosphere and performances as well as an unusual melding of swashbuckling and horror and a different take on vampires)

Horror of Dracula (great Cushing as Van Helsing and great Lee and supporting cast and atmosphere)

Quatermass and the Pit (intriguing sci-fi and plot)

 

[Bryan^H]

Scars of Dracula, and Frankenstein created Woman are wonderfully eerie, and great horror films. When it comes to Hammer films of course everyone has their favorites, but.....how could you put Frankenstein and the monster from Hell on your must see list? I'd watch The Evil of Frankenstein before that one. Your other picks are great though.

 

[MielR]

My favorite Hammer film is Captian Kronos.

 

[James Phillips]

Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell is a terrific little film. Easily the best of the Hammer Frankenstein series, in my opinion.

Terence Fisher's direction, and Brian Probyn's lighting, are superb, and Peter Cushing's performance is absolutely fantastic.

Frankenstein Created Woman's another good one, though.

 

[Bryan^H]

No argument about the direction, and certainly nothing against the amazing talent of Cushing. Of all the Hammer horror films I've seen, this is the only one that I couldn't get into,(story, setting) but again, different people, different tastes. I'd still gladly watch it over most any horror film made today.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Of the Frankensteins, Curse of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed are the best as far as I'm concerned.

The top Draculas are Horror of Dracula and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave.

Some people have a fondness for Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas but I've never been able to get beyond Forrest Tucker as the lead; I keep expecting Larry Storch to show up.

The first Quatermass movie (only on R2 so far as I know) is an intriguing sci-fi; I don't much care for Q and the Pit--giant Martian crickets don't strike me as too interesting. Four-Sided Triangle is a bit talky but has a nifty concept that's well-realized and fairly dark for 50s sci-fi.

The Reptile is a moody little piece that's pretty underestimated. The Nanny is a wonderful piece of loopy suspense though not exactly horror. Hammer did a bunch of Les Diaboliques knockoffs in the early 1960s that are intermittently interesting.

I undertook a project (stalled at the moment) to go through all of Hammer's horror/sci-fi/adventure output, while reading a history of the Hammer studios last year. I got up to about 1971, but it was pretty fascinating watching the development of the studio. I need to finish that.

 

[James Phillips]

Hammer are back, from Beyond The Rave.

 

[R-T-C Tim]

I felt that 'Monster from Hell' had a fantastic atmosphere in the asylum, with a real claustrophobic feel to it. In my opinion 'Scars of Dracula' was a poorly conceived attempt to restart the franchise, and there was simply nothing original about it, while 'Frankenstein Created Woman' was a good film, I just felt it lacked some of the excitement of titles like 'Devil Rides Out' and 'Frankenstein Must be Destroyed' - but then I havn't watched it for a while.

As for 'Evil of Frankenstein', don't go there!

 

[Richard_Gregory]

As an aside, if you want to watch Monster From Hell, you need to get the German release from Anolis. The other editions are cut. The Anolis isn't - or, at least, it is the least cut, simply because some original footage could not be found apparently.

Nonetheless, it has a fair amount missing from the others; the r2 release from DD claimed to be uncut, but in fact it was. They released a second edition, that was less cut, but nonetheless, still inferior to the Anolis one.

 

[JonZ]

How much is cut? Are the cuts painful and worth seeking out a uncut version?

I am region free and can look outside R1 if it means better presentations.

 

[James Phillips]

A list of the cuts here:

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0071519/alternateversions

 

[JonZ]

Thanks and looking at Tims sites, I guess those are the version he reviewed or recommends.

Will look into it. Thanks all.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

What are the chances that all the Anchor Bay releases will be re-released and hopefully remastered to DVD again?

 

[R-T-C Tim]

If you want the German disc, Xploited have it in stock for $21. I can't really say if it is better to watch than the US disc since I only own the German release, and you do also lose the audio commentary from the R1 disc. Depends how much you value the fully uncut status of the German disc.


As for Anchor Bay titles - there have been rumours circling for a while of re-releases (with HD releases?), but no confirmed news, or even confirmation of which titles would be getting the treatment. WB have also suggested that they might revisit their titles (eg. 'Curse of Frankenstein') but nothing announced this year.

As for upcoming releases, DDHE in the UK announced that they were planning to release several ex. Columbia titles (title list) but they have since gone bust and been brought out, and there is no word yet on whether the titles are still coming. There have been suggestions that these titles might eventually get US releases by Sony themselves. Nothing else has been announced so we certainly shouldn't expect any new Hammer titles coming to DVD this year.

 

[James Phillips]

I think there's still a possibility that Warners will release the new edition of 'Dracula' later this year.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

My understanding is that after Anchor Bay's rights to their Hammers expired, they went to Bill Lustig of Blue Underground. He was going to rerelease them, but decided that AB had already pretty well saturated the market and he changed his mind, at least for the time being. So I wouldn't look for them any time soon.