Hammer Horror and others (1 Viewer)

[keenwatcher]

Hey out there,

I originally posted a similar thread last Feb. here or in the movies section, and just tried posting a reply and could not get it to post, it said invalid thread, maybe too old?

So, I will try to retype my thread here:

I am a big Hammer Studios horror fan.

Every Oct and Feb i watch my Hammer dvd's (this time I will be starting in Sept. in prep for Oct.), its the change of seasons and weather that gets me in the mood for staying indoors and watching t.v. These films have very atmospheric and gothic romantic themes, the wind blowing, the leaves blowing, wind howling, the rain falling, the thunder clapping, the lightning striking, etc, special effects, monster makeup etc

Since my collection of Hammer dvd's is sitting in storage thousands of miles away (i recently moved), I will be ordering some new ones I have yet to see or own.

The old ones I enjoyed were:

Curse of Frankenstein
Frankenstein Must Die
Horror of Dracula
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
Scars of Dracula
Dracula A.D. 1972
Satanic Rites of Dracula
The Mummy
Vampire's Kiss
Brides of Dracula
Curse of the Werewolf
Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter
Quatermass and the Pit
Quatermass II

The new Hammer dvd's I will be ordering (some on R2/UK now that i have a region free player and not yet avail in R1/US), of which most I have never seen yet are:

Dracula Prince of Darkness (the 2nd in the Chris Lee series)
Hound of the Baskervilles
Quatermass Experiment
X the Unknown
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
Frankenstein Created Woman
Revenge of Frankenstein
Horror of Frankenstein
The Reptile
Rasputin the Mad Monk
The Devil Rides Out
To the Devil a Daughter
Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
and some others (lesser known)

I will also be ordering (split up between Sept, Oct, Feb) the Universal Monster Legacy Collections (The Wolf Man, Invisble Man, Dracula, Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein).

I recently saw some Vincent Price (and Roger Corman directed) movies on TCM tv channel-- which someday I will order on dvd too:

Abominable Dr Phibes
House of Usher
Pit and Pendulum
Tales of Terror
House of Wax
Masque of the Red Death
Tomb of Leigia
and a few others (there is a Vincent Price box set for reasonable amount coming out soon)

I also like some more recent decades stuff (but no slasher flicks except the original John Carpenter's Halloween) like:

Hellboy
Blade I, II, III
Interview with the Vampire
The Hunger
Lifeforce
Near Dark
The Hitcher
Sleepy Hollow
Nightmare Before Christmas
and a some others (cant recall right this moment)

Anyone out there have a passion for old Hammer horror, or Amicus, or American Pictures Intl., or more recent horror movies?

 

[Richard--W]

Buy as many of the Hammer films on Anchor Bay as you can. The Anchor Bay editions are the best editions of Hammer's films, although some other labels are releasing them in region 2. Anchor Bay did a splendid job with the Hammer titles in the USA, but they are mostly out of print now, or on the verge of going out of print, and then of course the prices go up. Way up. So I recommend that you gather as many of the Anchor Bay editions as you can find, used or new.

 

[mdnitoil]

Wow, I think I've got every film on your list that's ever been available in region 1, except for the more recent stuff. Somewhere around 1975 is my cutoff for this kind of stuff. The only two that I'm missing are the two Quatermass flicks that Anchor Bay put out. I came a little late to the party and those were already fetching ridiculous prices by that time.

 

[MielR]

I love old horror films- especially those made in the 1970s (which is my favorite decade for film overall). The horror films made in the last 10-15 years just aren't as good, IMO. The older ones are creepier, more atmospheric (like you said), better soundtracks, etc. Autumn is my favorite season, and I also get the urge to watch scary movies when the weather starts getting cooler.

I also get the urge to watch funnier "scary" movies that I don't think to watch the rest of the year, like Rocky Horror, Phantom of the Paradise, Murder By Death.
HTF had a harddrive crash the other day- maybe that's why you couldn't find your thread.

You'll like 'Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde'. I saw that one for the first time a few yrs ago. Captian Kronos is probably my favorite Hammer film out of the ones I've seen. I'm primarily Vincent Price fan: Dr. Phibes (I & II), Theatre of Blood, Madhouse, Haunted Palace, House of Usher (the latter 2 played at a Saturday double-feature that my Mom took me to see in the late-1970s. I maybe was a little too young because it freaked me out for weeks afterwards! LOL!)

 

[R-T-C Tim]

I love the Hammer horror films, and it is a real pity that all of the ABUS discs were going OOP as I started to collect them. Fortunately there have been releases in other countries, but some titles like 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' are simply no longer available anywhere on good looking DVDs and I don't want to buy the cheapo PD versions. Sadly, the recently announced selection of Columbia owned Hammer titles has also stalled (the releasing company in the UK went bust), so we might still have a long time to wait before we can get 'The Gorgon' or 'Taste of Fear' on DVD.

If you want to learn some more about the studio, I've got a detailed page on my site about this history of Hammer, with 38 film/DVD reviews, including some of their very obscure early films: Hammer Films.

 

[Bryan^H]

I feel Frankenstein Created Woman is one of the best Hammer horror films that I have seen. I also want to pick up Dracula Prince of Darkness(very expensive) because it will complete my Dracula Hammer films.

 

[keenwatcher]

Thanks for the interest everyone,

I think Hammer Studios and their films will always have a fan base and admiration for them (as is noted by the response to this thread).

I think the reason my first post would not work is because I had originally posted it in the "Movies" section/forum instead of this one, "HT software".
I clicked on my username and the previous post came up and I tried to bump it (from last Feb) to bring it to attention again, with its previous responses/replies so we could add to it, but it would not work, oh well.

Hammer films were generally made from mid fifties to mid seventies.

Yes, my favourite season is Fall/Autumn, because of the cooler temps and fall foliage on the ground.

Yes, some of these films are now hard to get on dvd at a decent price, but since i invested in a region free dvd player, i think i will be able to find some on UK R2 discs.

I have not yet seen Frankenstein Created Woman and look forward to seeing all the Frankenstein movies with Peter Cushing.

I am sure I will also like Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde, as you mention.

I recently caught a marathon of Vincent Price movies on TCM tv chan and if felt like I was already back in Autumn again, the feel of these movies is one of Autumn and Winter. I can now say Im a fan of Vincent too and many of his movies are avail on dvd at low rates. I think Chris Lee, Peter Cushing, and Vincent were all friends and colleagues.

The Quatermass films are entertaining and they show them sometimes on TCM tv chan., I was lucky to get them a few yrs ago, I dont know how hard they are to get now or how much they fetch.

I forgot to mention a couple of films of note from the seventies(?), made by director Dario Argento or Mario Bava from Italy, Suspiria (part of a trilogy of really creepy atmospheric flicks which two only were made, and which i saw on the IFC tv chan. with a rock score by The Goblins- again really creepy music), and The Wicker Man starring Chris Lee, a sinister film about paganism on a Scottish Isle. It was remade last year with Nic Cage.

There are some horror films I refuse to buy or own, because they disturb me too much, these are:

The Omen films
The Exorcist films
Suspiria (about modern witches)
Slasher films (all the way up to today's like The Grudge, Scream, Hostel and many others of today's teenage crowd)

There are others which I cant think of for now.

Well, that's my reply to everyone, feel free to add more if you like.

 

[R-T-C Tim]

Some people are asking silly money for the ABUS "Dracula: Prince of Darkness" - especially since it is a non-anamorphic print. I recommend the recent Optimum R2 disc - no bonus features but a much better print. The German DVD is also anamorphic and has some bonus features, but the print quality is very low.

See image comparison: Dracula Prince of Darkness.

 

[keenwatcher]

Thanks Tim,

for the link to your Hammer site, its well done and interesting to read with abundant links and info, just finished scanning it, and will book mark it to read more fully later,

Oh yes, Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, was probably the first Hammer film that came to my attention (on t.v. on Autumn day), which got me interested in other Hammer films... I really wish they could have made more Kronos films, I especially enjoyed the added swashbuckling theme and the samurai sword he uses and its melding with horror/vampires (of a different sort).

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Be careful buying FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN; the original pressing was one of the handful that had faulty materials and it rotted away (ditto for the original release of THE WITCHES, but IIRC those were the only Hammer titles this affected). Anchor Bay did a replacement program but that's long over since they lost the licenses.

 

[MielR]

Have you seen 'Deep Red' with David Hemmings?

 

[JulianK]

Sean, you might find my Hammer DVD Guide useful:

http://www.zetaminor.com/dvd/hammer_dvd_guide.htm

 

[Richard_Gregory]

The single release, which was the affected one, is almost impossible to find. The re-release where they paired it up with LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES (probably the strangest title even to emanate from Hammer), will be just fine.

You could also consider the new r2 release of WOMAN which is widely available. Optimum has re-released most of the Hammer titles previously released by Warner here, but one they haven't is GOLDEN VAMPIRES. However, it is so bad that the old Warner edition is still easily found (on sale on Amazon.co.uk now for less than £3 and in stock), whereas the better ones have vanished.

 

[JulianK]

GOLDEN VAMPIRES isn't a Studio Canal title, so it's very unlikely that Optimum will ever release it. IIRC, the film was produced as a co-production between 7 Arts and Warner Bros, and I think that WB owns the film (at least, in the US and the UK) outright.

 

[keenwatcher]

MielR,

I remember catching some sort of horror movie on the IFC tv chan starring David Hemmings, dont know if it was Deep Red or not. I do remember Hemmings from Blow Up and Gladiator. What was this movie about?

JulianK,

Thanks for the Hammer link, i bookmarked it and find it useful, i will read it in more depth later, i do like the top ten lists you have on the site...

Looks like HTF has some dedicated Hammer fans!

 

[Tim-H.]

About 6 months ago I started playing catch-up with the AB Hammers. I kept checking eBay & half.com and eventually found a reasonable Prince of Darkness, about $20-25. I was astounded at some of the asking prices though!

Still haven't found a reasonable Quatermass 2. Luckily Quatermass & the Pit was one of the first dvds I bought; one of my all-time favorites, sci-fi, Hammer, or otherwise.

 

[MielR]

I saw the DVD about 4 years ago, but it was made in 1975. It's an Italian-made film ("Profundo Rosso") directed by Dario Argento. It's about a musician (Hemmings) who witnesses the hatchet-murder of a psychic. He teams up with a journalist to try and find the murderer. The DVD I saw re-introduced some footage that had originally been cut from the English-speaking versions (the restored footage is in Italian).

It's kind of gory in parts, but it's also very stylish. My favorite part is when Hemmings goes wandering through an abandoned Art-Nouveau mansion. The film also has plenty of comic-relief, as well.

I saw the Anchor Bay DVD, but I think that DVD is OOP and has been re-released by another company. I don't know how the 2 DVDs compare, although I'm sure someone here does.

 

[R-T-C Tim]

I do
It has recently been re-released in the US by Blue Underground. The discs are identical with regards to content, so either you can find will do.

There was some slight controversy because Anchor Bay chose to end the film with a freeze-frame and newly created English credits, rather than letting the Italian credits play out over the final shot (a character walking away). Although hardly ruining the film, it is rather annoying for fans, and despite some hopes, was not corrected for the Blue Underground re-issue, but the disc is still the best available. (see DVD Rewind for more info).

 

[MielR]

Thanks for the info! I noticed they changed the cover with the newer release, and oddly enough, I prefer the old one better (with the skeleton) even though the newer one gives a more accurate impression of the film (I guess).

 

[JonZ]

Im not really familiar with the Hammer stuff. Ive seen a few, but have been meaning to see more.

What would you guys recommend as the best of the series to see?