Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/08 (1 Viewer)

[John Hodson]

Blimey; God bless Grover Crisp...thank you Peter.

 

[Charles H]

Any word on Joseph Losey's THESE ARE THE DAMNED? It's certainly going to be difficult to "pigeon-hole" that one in a set.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Maybe a set of "Controversial Classics" with Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (wholly underrated and unjustly forgotten movie) and the Blood Island pictures? Doesn't Columbia have rights to those?

 

[Jim_K]

Looks like cover #2 is leading. Nothing wrong with it except it only shows one of the films.

Personally I prefer options #1 or #2



But whichever one it ends up being it'll be much more pleasing than.............

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[Richard--W]

I don't like any of the choices, to be honest. I wish they'd take an entirely different approach to cover art. For example:







Or they could do a photo-cover using a still from one of the films in the set, like this elegant shot from Terence Fisher's The Gorgon:



But Hammer fan that I am, I would buy the set in a white paper sleeve, because I know the transfers are going to be worth it.

 

[R-T-C Tim]

Forget that British stuff, lets get the artwork designer from E-M-S:

 

[WadeM]

#2 is by far the most attractive cover. The other ones may feature all of the movies, but they're ugly, although #1 is better than #3.

Anyway...I never even looked at this thread until now because of the bad date... I figured it was something I'd already looked at and decided against.
I'll be sure to pick this one up--sounds enjoyable!

 

[John Hodson]

And the winner is....

 

[Bradley-E]

How did I miss knowing this was being released. I just ordered in on Amazon. Can't wait! I love these films.



Icons of Horror - Hammer Films

Icons of Horror Collection - Hammer Films.


Icons of Horror - Hammer Films

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)

The Gorgon (1964) Scream of Fear (1961)

Though perhaps not as iconic as their Dracula and Frankenstein pictures, this quartet of fright flicks from England's Hammer Films deliver enough Saturday afternoon creature feature thrills to please devotees of the legendary studio's output and vintage horror fans alike. 1964's The Gorgon will be the title to attract the most immediate attention due to the presence of Hammer's biggest stars, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, in its cast, and its most celebrated director, Terence Fisher, behind the camera. It's an atmospheric and offbeat entry in the Hammer canon, with one of its most unusual villains: a snake-haired fiend from Greek mythology who turns men into stone. Cushing and Lee are typically fine (both are on the side of the angels for once), and the picture's sole stumbling block is the lackluster makeup for its monster. Lee is also present in supporting roles in two other films in the collection: Scream of Fear (1961), one of several competent psychological suspense features made by Hammer in the wake of Psycho, with Susan Strasberg as a fragile young woman plagued by terrible visions and a house full of suspicious types; and Fisher's The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960), a revamp of the Stevenson story with Paul Massie as the dour scientist whose personality experiments unleash a virile but unhinged alter ego. Hardcore Hammer aficionados will be thrilled to discover that the DVD version is uncut and preserves much of the (mildly) salacious material trimmed for its release in America under the title House of Fright. The final film on Icons of Horror is Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, with Hammer exec Michael Carreras (son of company founder James Carreras) behind the camera for a featherweight monster romp that doesn't hold a candle to Terence Fisher's Mummy in 1959. Unlike previous Icons of Horror DVDs, the supplemental features here are slim--just the theatrical trailers for each film--though they do offer their own degree of charm, especially the ballyhoo-heavy tone of Mummy and the oddly elegant and unnerving preview for Scream of Fear, which is centered solely around an image of Strasberg's face.

 

[JeffT.]

I justed picked up my set yesterday evening and I may sink in and watch them tonight!

I originally saw THE GORGON (1964) and CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1964) at a neighbourhood theatre in mid-January 1965 (what a crazy time to release a film) and loved them both.

It is interesting that all four films in the collection have been newly restored and digitally remastered from the original 35mm (?) source elements and I don't hear Columbia-Tristar Home Entertainment (or rather Sony) balking at the time and expense invested on what would (likely) be considered relatively insignificant films to produce a quality DVD release.

This is a commendable practice that the other major DVD distribution companies could learn and profit from.

Jeff T.

 

[John Hodson]

I've just watched 'Scream of Fear' - excellent presentation, clean with nice contrast - and 'The Gorgon' which is quite breathtaking with eye popping colours and not a mark on it. Superb work Sony.

 

[bob kaplan]

These ARE great!!....Hope to see more along this line of releases.

 

[MichaelEl]

Some of the close-ups of Susan Strasberg in SCREAM OF FEAR were very soft, but this may have been a choice on the part of the director. The movie plays well at 16x9 (like most TVs, my LCD unfortunately overscans a 1.66:1 frame to 16x9), unlike Seth Holt's other Hammer psycho-drama (THE NANNY).