Kevin's Watch

This may be old news for some but Hammer Studios has a new incarnation:

Hammer

After collapsing in the '80s, one of Britain's most loved and most maligned film studios is coming back with some new feature films. The first major one even stars Christopher Lee (as well as Hilary Swank), and is titled The Resident. Following this, Hammer have secured the rights to do a remake of Let the Right One In (an excellent vampire film).

Just a few days ago I bought a compilation of three Hammer films - The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, and The Mummy - and I have spent the last few nights watching them. I wondered if this compilation should be retitled the Peter Cushing Collection, since he's the star of each, and he dominates half the dialogue.

Of the three, I think Curse is the best purely on the basis of a more polished script, and an absolutely brilliant portrayal of the Baron by Cushing. Dracula departs from the novel significantly, though most of the differences are superficial (i.e. setting the story in Karlstadt, rather than London). However, the film does come very close in portraying the animalistic side of the Count - after the film's opening, Lee has no dialogue, and plays the Count closer to a pure creature of the night than the sophisticated nobleman we often see. Personally, I prefer Dracula as he is in the novel, so Hammer's version is a very pleasing take for me. The Mummy suffers a little from some needless exposition, though it is not without some excellent moments.

I've always been a fan of the films, though many are quite terrible. Even the good Hammer films tend to have some serious shortcomings, though they always made up for these with an absolute earnestness of the performances and, often, a moody gothic tone.

There is a strong element of nostalgia in my appreciation of the Studio, as well as the fact that Cushing and Lee were probably the closest thing I had to boyhood idols, so I am always keen to see any of their films. This keen-ness often led to profound dissappointment as, staying up late at night, I became aware that many Hammer films were just not worth it. There are, however, many gems in the Studios filmography; and I always find faults more charming in independant low-budget productions than much of the vapid trash that comes out from major studios.

Anyway, that's my somewhat self-indulgent ramble out of the way. Anyone else a fan of the Studio, the actors etc?

Peter Cushing... wasn't he the Doctor in the Dalek movies?

Yes he was. He wasn't really meant to be the same Doctor from the series, more like a different take of the concept. Dalek Invasion of Earth 2150 AD is a pulp film favourite of mine. I never got into Doctor Who and the Daleks, though.

<- Honk me

Some of their soundtracks are receiving release on cd etc. The musi was almost always very good, including scores by some of the biggest names in British composers at the time (at least who did film music).

Personally, Twins of Evil was always my favourite Hammer film. It exists in the period of the Studio's history when they deliberately upped the violence and sex content of their films. Though quite tame by the standards of the Video-Nasty era, Hammer had the power to shock and cause controversy. Twins of Evil forms the last part to the Karnstein trilogy. I've seen the lesbian vampire film, the Vampire Lovers (a surprisingly influential picture), though I haven't seen Lust for a Vampire (most people tend to think it's quite awful).

Hammer films were a big part of my childhood - they were the only horror films I ever remember seeing. Can't remember many details - there's one sort of groundhog day film with a bloke in a house that's getting demolished, that for some reason i always think of first when I think of horror in general. (Think it was a Hammer anyway!)

I was just about to start a thread interrogating you about this, Montresor, but I see you've graciously saved me the trouble .

I was going to ask for a personal list of really worthwhile hammer films, as these compilation dvds are popping up at the local warehouse for bargain prices, but with a whole host of titles, most of which i'm unfamiliar with. As you point out, too many Hammer productions are subpar B movies, and while they're enjoyable for what they are, they can be hit and miss.

Dracula is excellent, though. Huge fan of Christopher Lees earlier work. The sequels get progressively sillier (I haven't seen all of them), until the awesomely titled Satanic Rites of Dracula! "Evil begets evil on the sabbath of the undead!" Ahahaha.

Very keen on checking out Twins of Evil.

Montresor wrote:Following this, Hammer have secured the rights to do a remake of Let the Right One In (an excellent vampire film).

As usual, the novel is even better than the film, I recommend you read it if you haven't. Lindqvist. His pseudo-followup Handling the Undead, covering zombies, is just as good. I must admit, I do have my doubts on immediate English film adaptions so soon after excellent foreign language originals.

Stone Magnet wrote: I was just about to start a thread interrogating you about this, Montresor, but I see you've graciously saved me the trouble .

I was going to ask for a personal list of really worthwhile hammer films, as these compilation dvds are popping up at the local warehouse for bargain prices, but with a whole host of titles, most of which i'm unfamiliar with. As you point out, too many Hammer productions are subpar B movies, and while they're enjoyable for what they are, they can be hit and miss.

There are some really B-grade ones that's for sure, and there are some ones that people rave about that I found just passable (Hands of the Ripper and Vampire Circus, though I want to give them both a second try).

Horror of Dracula is superb - I watched it again a few weeks back and it really shone through. Despite a couple of lame moments of irrelevant humour, it's moody, thrilling, and makes the most of its two stars, Cushing and Lee. The climax is genuinely great too.

You're right, Satanic Rites of Dracula does have an awesome title, and it's pretty good if you accept it for what it is, but some of the sequels were stupendously bad. Scars of Dracula is just terrible. Perhaps it was Dennis Waterman as the hero, or the really terrible set for Castle Dracula (when they had such good ones before!), but it really is awful. I think Lee regards it as the worst. Dracula Prince of Darkness is a good sequel, but none really come close to Horror.

Of the Frankenstein films, I've only seen Curse of Frankenstein in its entirety, and it is excellent - especially because of Peter Cushing's definitive portrayal of the Baron. I have seen a fair bit of Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (awesome title), and it really does look great.

As I said, Twins of Evil is fantastic, and its prequel The Vampire Lovers is quite good. The Devil Rides Out is supposed to be one of Hammer's very best, as is The Hound of the Baskervilles (the first Holmes film in colour), though I have only seen brief moments from both.

Their last ever horror film, To the Devil a Daughter, is pretty good, though not great. Lee as a satanic Anglican priest is worth seeing alone (as is Nastassia Kinski naked, quite frankly), but I hear that the author of the novel loathes the adaptation. His original story had a defrocked Anglican Priest creating hommunculi to fight Devil-Worshipping Communists, which sounds so over-the-top it must be good.

I have unfortunately not seen any of their Quatermass films (only the BBC TV-film), and they are supposed to be first-rate.

I could list more, and I may need to jog my memory, but I don't want to overload people

Hammer was a really interesting film company, remarkable for so many reasons. They are often worth watching for their lead stars alone and, even when budgets were lacking, everything was just done with such earnestness that its hard not to like them.

Stone Magnet wrote: As usual, the novel is even better than the film, I recommend you read it if you haven't. Lindqvist. His pseudo-followup Handling the Undead, covering zombies, is just as good. I must admit, I do have my doubts on immediate English film adaptions so soon after excellent foreign language originals.

That's interesting. I didn't notice the novel mentioned in the film credits. Is it easy enough to find in bookstores? I really enjoyed the film, though felt it probably could have lost ten or fifteen minutes. It's quite an original in tone, and it's good to see vampires done without all the predictable 'cool' trappings of modern life which have become such cliches in the genre.

I agree that English-language remakes are never usually any good. I personally hope they take the idea and do something differenet. I don't see the point of straight remakes, like those cover songs which sound almost exactly like the original.

I made the mistake of watching Twilight (I was talked into it for a laugh), and it really is one of the worst vampire films ever made. It also made me realise that I lost interest in vampires when they started using product. Honestly, if you were an undead predator with the ridiculously supernatural speed and strength they have in that film, why would you give a shit about your hair?

^Cheers for the comprehensive list! Please feel free to reccommend more as they come to you, looks like i've got a good start.

I think I see where the confusion comes from, several of these films were released in the states with different titles to the UK and Aus/NZ (as often happens). So the Horror of Dracula you're referring to I know simply as "Dracula (The good one with Christopher Lee)".

Their last ever horror film, To the Devil a Daughter, is pretty good, though not great. Lee as a satanic Anglican priest is worth seeing alone (as is Nastassia Kinski naked, quite frankly), but I hear that the author of the novel loathes the adaptation. His original story had a defrocked Anglican Priest creating hommunculi to fight Devil-Worshipping Communists, which sounds so over-the-top it must be good.

Sounds awesome indeed. Though the original is ridiculously cliched. Satanic Anglican Priest?! Naked nuns?! Astaroth?! A must watch.

That's interesting. I didn't notice the novel mentioned in the film credits. Is it easy enough to find in bookstores?

Lindqvuist wrote the screenplay for the Swedish film adaption so he'll be acknowledged for that. The book was so popular in Sweden it probably wouldn't have needed to be mentioned that it was an adaption...strange though, I didn't notice.

I've seen the novels at my university bookshop and at Borders, which is a larger bookstore. They shouldn't be hard to find though, they're quite popular (nothing approaching the rabid fandom that surrounds Twilight, however ). The book contains much "darker" themes that weren't developed in the film, including (without going into too much detail) paedophilia and Eli's androgynous nature. Perhaps the Hammer film, in light of their pedigree, will explore these difficult themes in more detail?