Hammer Horror - Part 5

Well, having reviewed all of those lovely films in the Hammer Horror Collection, I thought I'd do a round-up article with my general thoughts on the box. But that could possibly be a bit boring, so I thought I'd do this instead:

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10 Things Andy learnt from watching Hammer Horror

1) Blondes are good, innocent and usually survive. Brunettes are duplicitous, sometimes evil and expendable.

2) Endless sequels and remakes are not a new phenomenon.

3) Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Andrew Keir form a British acting triumvirate that should be celebrated more than it is.

4) Transylvania, Russia and Bavaria all look like rural Berkshire and if I ever went back in time "Akita" would cover most language problems.

5) Ancient Britain was apparently populated by Vikings who rode around in chariots.

6) Low budget doesn't necessarily mean low quality, except sometimes it does.

7) Cases in point: Vengeance of She is a horrible movie...

8) ...but The Plague of The Zombies is an awesome one

9) My Hammer Glamour section may have been was a bit sexist.

10) My girlfriend has weirder film tastes than I do.

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So there you go. The box cost me £20 on Amazon and I certainly got my money's worth out of it. The films are certainly of a different era and need to be judged as such - the set design, the way they are staged and the way they are filmed are light years away from what we see now and as such I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wasn't 'that' into films - especially older ones. 

In fact the people I know who would probably most appreciate this are people who watch classic Doctor Who. A lot of these films have the same sort of vibe as the series, and there is certainly a huge overlap in actors (as can be seen from the Bonus Cameos). If you do get it, you'll probably like different ones from me, think I've been too forgiving on some or too harsh on others but hopefully you'll appreciate a very weird, very fun period of British film-making. 

My personal favourites from the box were Horror of Frankenstein, Quatermass and the Pit and The Plague of The Zombies. The ones I would most definitely suggest skipping if you do get the box are Prehistoric Women, The Viking Queen (unless you want a laugh) and the wretched Vengeance Of She.

Done!