Hammer horror
Vampires, mummies, maniacs and more
released OUT NOW! 1963-1971 | 15 | Blu-ray Directors Various Cast Tallulah Bankhead, Peter Cushing, Christopher lee, Valerie leon, Kerwin Mathews, dennis Waterman
Blu-Ray deBut Hammer Films completists may be staying in and eating beans on toast this month once they’ve splurged on Blu-rays of eight of the studio’s movies.
Powerhouse Films box set Hammer Volume One: Fear Warning ( ) combines four mid-’60s releases. Reuniting Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee with Dracula director Terence Fisher, 1964’s The Gorgon introduces a new monster to the Hammer canon. Romantic and talky, it ultimately falls flat. With its immobile serpentine hair, the titular threat is unimpressive. And with two women to choose from, guessing who’s transforming, werewolf-like, into the Gorgon ain’t exactly a challenge. Deeply trad, The Curse Of The Mummy’s Tomb (1964) is enlivened by an entertaining performance from Fred Clark as a PT Barnum-style American showman, a bonkers twist ending, and a gasp-inducing moment where the bandaged avenger crushes a supplicant’s skull with a single stamp.
You also get examples of two other Hammer templates. Set in Provence, Maniac (1963) is one of Dracula writer Jimmy Sangster’s many riffs on French thriller Les Diaboliques. The plotting is preposterous, but attractive location work compensates. And Fanatic (1965) does for Tallulah Bankhead what The Nanny did for Bette Davis – let an ageing Hollywood star off the leash. Starting off as black comedy, it snowballs disturbingly, with Bankhead gloriously OTT as a Bible-basher who locks up her dead son’s “sinful” ex.
StudioCanal, meanwhile, has released four titles; they include Demons Of The Mind and Fear In The Night, but it’s the gothic horrors that concern us. Featuring face-chewing bats, red-hot poker torture and a brutal stabbing, Scars Of Dracula ( ) is the goriest of Hammer’s seven outings for the vamp. It’s a rote affair, but after three films where he did little more than point and hiss, it’s pleasing to see Lee playing a more urbane, talkative Dracula.
Finally, Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb ( ) adapts Bram Stoker novel The Jewel Of Seven Stars. A mummy-less mummy movie, it sees an Egyptologist’s daughter possessed by an evil queen. Composed more imaginatively than your average Hammer and featuring purple dialogue, it’s a little confusing, but deserves credit for trying something different. And star Valerie Leon’s statuesque beauty has the awe-inspiring impact of a million-dollar special effect.
Extras Scars and Blood ( ) come with short retrospectives featuring the usual Hammer mavens, along with Valerie Leon and Scars star Jenny Hanley. All four films in the Fear Warning box set ( ) get similar treatment, plus “Hammer’s Women” featurettes focusing on a specific star – kudos to Powerhouse for enlisting female horror experts to front these – interviews, galleries and trailers. Other treats include commentary on The Gorgon, an appreciation of it by Garth Marenghi’s Matthew Holness, and a short Super-8 version of Blood.