DVD REVIEW - HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR - COMPLETE COLLECTION
**This review contains spoilers**
This four-disc collection contains all thirteen episodes of this TV series of mini Hammer horrors, which was that studio's last real attempt to re-establish itself for the eighties. With a new Hammer revival due to take place in 2008 with the release of their first horror film in over thirty years, a contemporary vampire film called Beyond The Rave, it seems like as good a time as any to discuss this offering from Carlton DVD.
This series came about when Hammer struck a deal with ITC who put up all the finance for the first (and only season) to be made. The episodes were made to be more up to date with more sex and violence than the company's more traditional product whilst retaining the look and feel of the studio's output at the legendary Bray studios and as a result much former Hammer talent was recruited including tried and tested directors like Peter Sasdy (Taste The Blood Of Dracula), Alan Gibson (Dracula AD 1972) and Don Sharp (Kiss Of The Vampire). Indeed the show marked the welcome return of the splendid Peter Cushing in The Silent Scream episode which would be the actor's last ever appearance in a Hammer production. In addition, Hammer set up its headquarters at a former girl's school called Hampden House near Great Missenden and Princes Risborough. In a throwback to the old system at Bray, many of the episodes' interiors and exteriors were shot within the grounds of the house and it is that very house that graces the show's opening credits. The series proved very popular with the public when it was originally screened on ITV during the autumn of 1980 and the producers were very keen to make a second series but could not get the financing and in consequence no more films were made. However, three years later, Hammer tried again having secured financial backing from another source that resulted in another series, The Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense, which failed to take off like its predecessor.
The Hammer House Of Horror series varies in quality ranging from the imaginative The Thirteenth Reunion episode about a group of survivors from a plane crash in Marrakesh whom were forced to eat the flesh of their dead fellow travelling companions in order to survive before aid came. But years later, the survivors have formed a secret society which meets up once a month in order to dine on human flesh since their ordeal has given them a taste for it. They employ a health farm, which does exactly the opposite to helping its clients lose weight, they fatten up potential victims for their monthly reunion dinners and a pair of crooked undertakers to supply them with the bodies. This episode harks back to more traditional terrors in that the gruesome subject matter is implied rather than being over graphic yet it still sends a shiver down the spine of even the most hardened horror addicts. The Silent Scream features the great Peter Cushing as an ex-Nazi scientist who is engaged on a macabre experiment to create a prison in which their are no warders or bars in its windows. However, something far more sinister awaits those who try to escape as the young couple, once of which is an ex-jailbird, are tricked into finding out. But among these highlights lie some duff episodes including the abysmal Visitor From The Grave, which is merely a tired retread of the psychological thrillers such as Fear In The Night, where a husband tries to drive his fragile wife insane by making her believe that she has killed an intruder at their country cottage and arranging for the decomposing corpse to keep reappearing at will so that he can lay his hands on her money. The motives of the husband are utterly obvious from the first frame and its routine shocks such as seances with phoney mediums and false premonitions are more laughable than they are supposed to be scary.
All in all, whilst the series is patchy in itself, it is still an important part of Hammer's history and is still very interesting for fans of the studio when its not good due to the amount of former Hammer talent that was involved and some of the guest stars are very interesting including Julia Foster, Denholm Elliot, Nicholas Ball and even a young Pierce Brosnan some fifteen years before he became James Bond 007. The remastering of the episodes is as good as one could wish for though the collection is disappointingly short of special features relying on slide shows of original press materials and cast biographies. I was hoping for a Making Of documentary which would have given us more insight into the show if some of the actors and crew had been drafted in to share their memories about the making of the series.
This four-disc collection contains all thirteen episodes of this TV series of mini Hammer horrors, which was that studio's last real attempt to re-establish itself for the eighties. With a new Hammer revival due to take place in 2008 with the release of their first horror film in over thirty years, a contemporary vampire film called Beyond The Rave, it seems like as good a time as any to discuss this offering from Carlton DVD.
This series came about when Hammer struck a deal with ITC who put up all the finance for the first (and only season) to be made. The episodes were made to be more up to date with more sex and violence than the company's more traditional product whilst retaining the look and feel of the studio's output at the legendary Bray studios and as a result much former Hammer talent was recruited including tried and tested directors like Peter Sasdy (Taste The Blood Of Dracula), Alan Gibson (Dracula AD 1972) and Don Sharp (Kiss Of The Vampire). Indeed the show marked the welcome return of the splendid Peter Cushing in The Silent Scream episode which would be the actor's last ever appearance in a Hammer production. In addition, Hammer set up its headquarters at a former girl's school called Hampden House near Great Missenden and Princes Risborough. In a throwback to the old system at Bray, many of the episodes' interiors and exteriors were shot within the grounds of the house and it is that very house that graces the show's opening credits. The series proved very popular with the public when it was originally screened on ITV during the autumn of 1980 and the producers were very keen to make a second series but could not get the financing and in consequence no more films were made. However, three years later, Hammer tried again having secured financial backing from another source that resulted in another series, The Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense, which failed to take off like its predecessor.
The Hammer House Of Horror series varies in quality ranging from the imaginative The Thirteenth Reunion episode about a group of survivors from a plane crash in Marrakesh whom were forced to eat the flesh of their dead fellow travelling companions in order to survive before aid came. But years later, the survivors have formed a secret society which meets up once a month in order to dine on human flesh since their ordeal has given them a taste for it. They employ a health farm, which does exactly the opposite to helping its clients lose weight, they fatten up potential victims for their monthly reunion dinners and a pair of crooked undertakers to supply them with the bodies. This episode harks back to more traditional terrors in that the gruesome subject matter is implied rather than being over graphic yet it still sends a shiver down the spine of even the most hardened horror addicts. The Silent Scream features the great Peter Cushing as an ex-Nazi scientist who is engaged on a macabre experiment to create a prison in which their are no warders or bars in its windows. However, something far more sinister awaits those who try to escape as the young couple, once of which is an ex-jailbird, are tricked into finding out. But among these highlights lie some duff episodes including the abysmal Visitor From The Grave, which is merely a tired retread of the psychological thrillers such as Fear In The Night, where a husband tries to drive his fragile wife insane by making her believe that she has killed an intruder at their country cottage and arranging for the decomposing corpse to keep reappearing at will so that he can lay his hands on her money. The motives of the husband are utterly obvious from the first frame and its routine shocks such as seances with phoney mediums and false premonitions are more laughable than they are supposed to be scary.
All in all, whilst the series is patchy in itself, it is still an important part of Hammer's history and is still very interesting for fans of the studio when its not good due to the amount of former Hammer talent that was involved and some of the guest stars are very interesting including Julia Foster, Denholm Elliot, Nicholas Ball and even a young Pierce Brosnan some fifteen years before he became James Bond 007. The remastering of the episodes is as good as one could wish for though the collection is disappointingly short of special features relying on slide shows of original press materials and cast biographies. I was hoping for a Making Of documentary which would have given us more insight into the show if some of the actors and crew had been drafted in to share their memories about the making of the series.
posted by Michael Harris | 4:53 pm
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