Tag Archives: Wayne Kinsey

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:

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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House that Hammer Built

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Back in the late 90s, there was a magazine put out by Wayne Kinsey called The House That Hammer Built, with each issue devoted to all things Hammer Films. Because these were put out in England, they were not the cheapest or easiest to find. But now that Kinsey is one of the guys behind Peveril Publishing, starting in 2022, he has been taking all the info from those magazines, plus plenty more gathered in the years since then, and is putting them out in a series of books, appropriately titled The House That Hammer Built. Peveril has already published the first 3 volumes, covering the studio’s work from 1934 to 1958, but have now released the cover of Volume 4, which will cover from 1959 to 1962, and will be released hopefully this year.

I know I’ve posted before about these, and yes, they are not cheap, especially if you’re in the US, shipping from the UK is not cheap. But each volume is incredible, filled with some amazing photos, both black and white and in blazing color, and filled with so much information about the famous Studio that Dripped Blood, that if you are a serious fan of movie reference books, this on-going set are a must. Even if you don’t get the Scrapbooks they put out, I would consider this series as essential. Thankfully, all volumes are still currently available, but I wouldn’t hold out if you have any inclination of getting them. Each one has a run of only 750 copies, so that is not a lot. You can get all the information by heading over to Peveril’s site HERE.

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Severin Celebrates Sangster!

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Jimmy Sangster is one name that is partially responsible for what Hammer Films is known for. While he may not think that what he did was all that special, he was an essential part of the mechanism that help give birth to a new generation of gothic horror films, resurrecting famous monsters that were not only long-thought passé, but giving them to fans like we’d never seen before.

Sangster had started in the industry, like most, at the bottom, as a third assistant director on the film Third Time Lucky (1949) for producer Mario Zampi. That same year, when Zampi was asked to produce the film Dick Barton Strikes Back for Hammer, he brought a lot of his crew to work on the film, including Sangster, who would now make his Hammer debut as Second Assistant director! At the age of 21, he became Britain’s youngest Assistant Director!

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The House that Hammer Built: Vol. 3

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Soon to be released by Peveril Publishing will be the 3rd volume in their series of The House that Hammer Built – The Complete Hinds/Carreras Years (1934-79), with this volume covering 1955 to 1958. Years ago, Wayne Kinsey put out a magazine called The House that Hammer Built, so these massive volumes really are like historical documents, giving fans their own Hammer History books to be used for years to come, keeping all that history and information, facts, stories, and plenty of photos, alive and well for fans that grew up with them, to the new ones that discover the famous Studio that Dripped Blood!

This volume covers the years when it got really interesting for Hammer, and started their rise to fame and fortune, so to speak. With the release of The Quatermass Xperiement and moving into The Curse of Frankenstein, there seemed to be no stopping them!

If you go to Peveril’s website (just click HERE) and sign up for their newsletter, you’ll be notified when the book goes on sale. The cover price is £40, which is about $53 here in the states, and not including the postage, which I can assume isn’t going to be cheap. But having bought most of Peveril’s books over the years, I will say they are worth every penny or pound! Gorgeously laid out, with tons of amazing photos and jammed packed up of information, they truly are beautiful pieces of work, and a must for seriously collectors of horror reference books. But they are an investment, so be warned.

Curse of Frankenstein on 4K

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This is something Hammer fans have been waiting a long, long time since the new owners of the studio started releasing some amazing 4K editions. They have finally has announced the next title getting their all-star treatment is none other than The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), the film that really put them in the big league. While they started to get attention with their two Quatermass films, once Curse hit the theaters, including the US, it just exploded. And now, the wait is over. Sort of.

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Peveril’s Hammer Scrapbook Available

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Peveril Publishing has released their sixth volume in their Scrapbook series, and it is now available to order! This volume deals with the four Mummy movies that Hammer produced: The Mummy (1959), The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964), The Mummy’s Shroud (1966), and Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971).

Like all of their scrapbooks, it contains rare images, FOH stills, lobby cards, posters, press material, letters, set designs, call sheets, censor notes and documents, makeup designs and so much more. It also includes a 100-page day-by-day production diary of the making of Hammer’s Blood from Mummy’s Tomb film, using daily progress reports, parts of actress Valerie Leon’s annotated script, and a ton of images and rare photos and images, all within the 368 full color pages, and limited to only 800 signed copies.

The books are priced at £40, which is just under $50, but then will cost you another $20 to get it shipped over here to the US. So yeah, it is pricy, but when you look at all the other scrapbook volumes they’ve put out and see all of those have sold out. These are limited editions and when they are gone, they are gone, and then become collector items, or just really nice volumes for your Hammer Library!

For all the information, just click HERE.

Know Your Hammer?

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While there are plenty of books out there on Hammer Studios, and trust me, I know since I probably have most of them, this multiple volume book series that Peveril Publishing has been putting out is a set that would probably answer many, if not all, of your Hammer question. The first 2 volumes of their series The House that Hammer Built have been released, volume 1 covers the years between 1934 to 1949, while volume 2 covers 1950 to 1954. And they have just released the cover for the 3rd volume, which will cover the years 1955 to 1959, which is when the studio really exploded all over the world with their remake of Dracula in 1957.

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New Books from the U.K.

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As a book collector, it is so tough to get books from across the pond because of the postage. But I still do it for a few of reasons. The titles I’m buying are more than worth it for the content. It also helps support the smaller publishers in continuing to put out such fantastic books. Oh yeah, and I’m a sucker when it comes to these kinds of titles!

The first one is the latest from the We Belong Dead people, Unsung Horrors Has Risen from the Grave. I have started contributing to some of their books, not in this latest volume though, but it’s not stopping me from adding it to the library. I mean, I already have the previous two titles in their Unsung Horrors series, so I obviously need this one as well! As usual, the authors have selected titles they feel need a little more love, which I’m always in agreement of. With so many movies coming out every year, there are plenty that seem to be left in the shadows that are more than worth your time. This volume covers titles like Curse of the Vampires, Evil of Dracula, The Redeemer, Lake Mungo, Curse of the Black Widow, Rogue, The Phantom Carriage, Splinter, and so much more.

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More Hammer Books from Peveril

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I know there are a lot of books on Hammer Films out there. Trust me, I know. With 2 shelves of just book on the famous studio, I probably have most of them! So why do we need more? Well, for a collector, not sure I can give a real answer other than . . . just because. But the thing about the Hammer titles from Peveril, and this isn’t a knock on any of the other wonderful books out there, but Peveril’s titles are like the archival material you’d go to a library to find. You know, those huge, old books you have to wear gloves to page through and aren’t allowed to check out, but go to special room to view them? The kind that scholars that are investigating some sort of mystery, go to these places to look for some undiscovered clue. Okay . . . maybe that’s taking a bit far.

In all seriousness, these books are archival in that they are filled with so much information, both in text and photos, that these will be the ones that future scholars will want to go back to, time and time again. I know I do each and every time I work on a piece about Hammer, or those involved. With their latest series, The House that Hammer Built, going through the decades and detailing what the studio was doing, is just amazing and filled with so much information. Vol. 2, going through from 1950 to 1954 is off to the printers so should be available soon.

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