Tag Archives: Hammer Films

Happy Halloween!

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It has been one hell of a month, one filled with movie screenings, conventions, lectures, and so much more. I know I am sheer exhausted by the time the month is over, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Wait… actually, I’d like to have even more time to see more movies, go to more different spooky and Halloween themed events, as well as spending more time with my other horror friends and family. With all the crap going on in the world, these are the things where you can sit back and still see the beauty in the world, even when it’s covered in spiderwebs and has fog encircling it! There are times when I start to lose hope for humanity, but then I have a passionate conversation about an old black and white movie that they have just seen. Or even just two complete strangers talking about movies together as they wait in line for a film. It not only still shows me the power of film, but it seems that more and more people are “getting it”.

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House that Hammer Built Volume 4 Available!

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The latest volume of Wayne Kinsey’s incredible series, The House that Hammer Built – the Complete Hinds/Carreras Years (1934-79): Volume 4 (1959-62), is NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER!!! Keep in mind, that while yes, it is a bit pricy, especially with the postage from the UK, there is only 750 copies being produced. That means if you’re interested, you may just want to get your copy now. These really are some of the best books out there on the history of Hammer Films, as well as the people that worked there. So much information to learn about the Studio that Dripped Blood all within the pages, each packed full of full color photos.

Each volume covers a different era of Hammer Films, from their very beginning in 1934 to the end in 1979, when it was run by the Hinds and Carreras families. This volume continues the story after their huge explosion into the market with their revivals of the classic monsters, with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Horror of Dracula (1958).

The price is £40 ($53.42) + £24.00 ($32.05) Airmail Shipping, which will then run your about $85 in total. But for the size of the book, not to mention all the photos and information in it, I still feel it is well worth it. I have all previous volumes and will continue to buy each one that Kinsey and Peveril publishes. Just click HERE to get to the site to place your order.

To further entice you, here are some of the pages from the latest volume:

Horror of Dracula at the Music Box

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On October 28th, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, fans will have the opportunity to witness one of the reasons that Hammer Films, along with actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, become international stars in the movie world. While their previous film Curse of Frankenstein broke the ice, Horror of Dracula showed it wasn’t a fluke. 

But now, not only is it just being screened on the big screen, this is a version nobody has seen before, recently restored in 4K that also has footage that had been believed lost for more than half a century! You will get to see all of the Count, blood and all, in glorious color like you’ve never seen before! All on the big screen at the Music Box.

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Music Box Celebrates Horror in October!

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This year’s Music Box of Horrors, their annual 24-hour horror movie marathon, as we know sold-out in record time this year. Literally within minutes. Just crazy. But honestly, it shouldn’t be a surprise with what the Music Box has been programming, with plenty of stuff to keep us horror fiends excited all year long. They have announced a few more titles for this year’s marathon, which we have everything they have listed on their website below, or you can just click HERE to right to their page.

  • Amityville II: The Possession (1982) with Diane Franklin in person for a post-film Q&A
  • Attack the Block (2011)
  • Black Magic with Buddha (1983)
  • Danse Macabre (2011)
  • The German Chainsaw Massacre (1990)
  • The Haunted House (1921)
  • I Saw the Devil (2010)
  • The Leopard Man (1943) – Val Lewton!!!
  • Suspiria (1977) – Ultra-rare IB Tech 35mm print English-language, original UK release version

But it is the rest of October that is just jar-droppingly stunning with the number of amazing features, Q&As, and everything else they have listed. This isn’t the full list, but just a few titles that I think are pretty special or have a special guest attending! For the entire lineup, just click HERE.

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Hammer Unleashes Dracula Uncut

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We all knew it was coming, but I don’t think we had a clue to the massive extent this release would be giving us. And yes, it is going to cost you over $100. But for 7 discs (!!!) worth of material, including a 4K restored version that has footage believed to be missing since its original release??? Honestly, as exciting it is going to be to see the missing footage, the massive amount of extras on this set is just mind-boggling. I know it’s been posted several times on Facebook and other places, but I’m going to list them below because it takes a while to go through them! Not only do you get almost 15 hours of new and archival content, but there is also a 200-page book, a 60-page House of Hammer comic reprint, a double-sided poster, and 8 replica lobby cards.

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WBD Presents Christopher Lee

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The fine folks at We Belong Dead has their latest book out, this time celebrating the one and only Christopher Lee. It’s called Christopher Lee: Cinema’s Prince of Darkness. Whether you know him from Lord Summerisle, Saruman, Count Dooku, Duc de Richleau, Fu Manchu, or of course, as Count Dracula, the point is you know him. With a career that ran well over six decades, working in just about every genre out there, it is of course, his roles in the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy roles that he is known for. And the bigger roles later in his life, working with Peter Jackson, George Lucas, and Tim Burton, were all due to the fact that they all grew up watching his horror films! No matter what genre, he always had a screen presence that was unmistakable.

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Hammer Script Books

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Because Hammer Films isn’t satisfied enough with me spending all of my money on their incredible movie releases, so now they are putting out books of un-made movie scripts, in what looks like just gorgeous editions!!! They will be releasing an Official Script Collection, “exploring Hammer’s films through the original scripts, drafts and production documents that reveal what happened behind the scenes.”

The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula was a script written by Hammer producer / writer Anthony Hinds that never saw the light of day. I can’t say I’ve heard of that title before, but I know there were a couple of unmade scripts that were based in India, so maybe this is one of them. The book also contains the screenplay for Dracula: High Priest of Vampires, yet another unmade Dracula script. From the photos posted on Hammer Films’ website, this looks like quite the treat to those that not only collect Hammer Films memorabilia, but also for unproduced scripts.

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Movie Review: The House of Hammer: Volume 1

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For decades, Hammer fans would get excited when the famous studio would get a new owner and we’d hear promises of a return of the name of Hammer. And then we’d wait. And wait. And nothing. Then another new owner, and the same would follow. But ever since John Gore bought Hammer Films, those promises has not only happened but have gone way beyond any fans’ dream. It started with the glorious 4K restorations of not only some of their most famous classic titles, but even some more obscure and non-horror titles that started Hammer on their path years before the gothic revival they started in 1957. And they continued on.

Then they started to announce titles that were not from the Hammer catalog but other British titles, acquiring licenses from studios like Tyburn, AIP, United Artists, and others. They are giving these films the same treatment and restorations as their own titles, giving movie fans a chance to see them like never before. Not to mention the extras included in the releases.

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The Hammer Story: Revised and Expanded Edition

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Time to update the library! A new version of The Hammer Story is set to be published on September 15th, adding over 30 pagers of new material. It was originally published in 1997 and then revised in 2007. And now, almost two decades later, we’re getting a new edition with more content, updating the volume to add all that has been going on with Hammer Films, now that it really has risen from the grave and continues to bring the history of the famous “studio that dripped blood” back to life, to a whole new generation of film fans. While making us older fans giddy with excitement with all the new re-mastered and polished releases that have been coming out.

This version has gone from the past editions with 192 pages to 224 pages, delving into Hammer’s restoration programs, which includes the remastering of the studios classics films, as well as some other British titles, in the gorgeous looking 4K prints.

Released by Titan Books and priced at only $39.95 for this new hardcover edition, I would say without seeing it, that it is probably going to worth getting it, even if own the previous edition, even if this amazing new cover with both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing on it. Written by Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes, these guys definitely know their Hammer history. And if by chance you never owned one of the previous editions, then now is the perfect chance to correct that error!

If you’re not sure if you own a previous edition, below are the last two covers.

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Horror of Dracula in 4K and UNCUT!

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We kind of figured that a 4K release of Hammer’s Horror of Dracula (1958) would be coming out at some point, after the huge release of The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), not to mention several other titles. But what most fans didn’t expect was that it would contain footage never seen before, thought to lost for over six decades! I know when the Blu-ray came out a few years ago, which had a few seconds of long thought lost footage, of the Count’s demise, everyone was pretty excited about that. Those were some extra seconds, but now they are talking about 3 minutes of footage that is being restored into the film.

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