Let’s be clear from the overture: Hammer Films’ 1962 adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Terence Fisher, is not a horror movie. It’s not even much of a movie. It’s more like a collection of dusty stage sets, prolonged musical numbers, and one poor bastard in a half-mask who mostly just looks … Read More “The Phantom of the Opera (1962) – A Phantom Without a Pulse” »
There’s something charmingly doomed about The Curse of the Werewolf—Hammer Films’ lone venture into lycanthropy, directed by their go-to Gothic maestro, Terence Fisher. Released in 1961, it stars Oliver Reed in what might be the most brooding, booze-soaked performance of a wolfman ever captured on celluloid. This movie is a strange creature: part tragedy, part … Read More “The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) – Fur, Fangs, and a Face That Ain’t Scary” »
There’s something inherently exciting about the legend of Robin Hood: the dashing outlaw, the merry men, the forbidden romance, the swashbuckling derring-do. So it takes a special kind of cinematic misfire to take that premise and make it feel like a high school play being performed in slow motion by the drama club’s understudies. Enter … Read More “The Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960) – When Robin Hood Trades Arrows for Ennui” »
There’s a moment in The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll—Hammer Films’ 1960 attempt to put a new twist on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale—when you realize something has gone terribly, cosmically wrong. It’s not when Dr. Jekyll drinks his potion. It’s not even when his evil alter ego makes his first appearance. It’s the moment … Read More “The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) – A Tale of Two Hairdos and One Big Letdown” »
There are few things more disappointing in the horror genre than a vampire movie that forgets to bite. The Brides of Dracula—which, despite the title, features zero Dracula and not much bride—is Hammer Horror at its most frustrating: all gothic window dressing and no teeth. Directed by Terence Fisher and released in 1960 (not 1966—though … Read More “The Brides of Dracula (1960) – Fangless Fiancées and Hammer Horror on Valium” »
Let’s get this out of the way: The Stranglers of Bombay (1959) sounds like the kind of movie that should be playing at a grindhouse double bill—probably sandwiched between Dracula’s Dog and Nude Nuns with Big Guns. And with Terence Fisher behind the camera and Hammer Films bankrolling the production, you’d expect a pulpy, blood-soaked, … Read More “The Stranglers of Bombay (1959) – Colonial Panic in a Dusty Teacup” »
There’s a certain dusty charm to Hammer Films’ The Mummy (1959), the kind of movie where the horror is less about undead revenge and more about British colonial guilt wrapped in gauze and shot through a sepia filter. But charm only gets you so far. Eventually, you want something—anything—to happen. A scare. A scream. Maybe … Read More “The Mummy (1959) – Bandages, Boredom, and British People Pretending to Be Afraid” »
If you’re going to make a movie about a man who’s conquered mortality, the one thing you probably don’t want is for the audience to spend most of the runtime contemplating their own death—from boredom. Yet here we are with The Man Who Could Cheat Death, a 1959 Hammer horror directed by Terence Fisher, which … Read More “The Man Who Could Cheat Death”(1959) – Immortal? More Like Immortally Boring” »
You’d think combining Hammer Horror’s visual flair with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous ghost story would be a match made in gothic heaven. After all, The Hound of the Baskervilles is the only Sherlock Holmes tale that flirts with the supernatural. And Hammer? Hammer built its house on blood, capes, and fog machines working … Read More “The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) – A Bark Without Bite, Fog Without Fear, and Sherlock with a Fancy Waistcoat” »
Sequels are supposed to raise the stakes. More horror, more gore, more monsters, more questionable science conducted by men in capes. But The Revenge of Frankenstein, Hammer’s follow-up to their vibrant and bloody Curse of Frankenstein, mostly raises eyebrows—like, “Wait, this is it?” and “Why is that brain in a jar giving monologues?” Directed once … Read More “The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) – Baron Bore Returns: Electric Boogaloo in a Cracked Beaker” »
