Movie Review: Hammer Horror – The Warner Bros. Years

Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years (2018)
Directed by Marcus Hearn
Starring Veronica Carlson, John Carson, Steve Chibnall, Joe Dante, Jonathan Rigby, Peter Sasdy, Madeline Smith, Caroline Munro, Christopher Frayling, Wayne Kinsey, Denis Meikle

So…a new documentary on Hammer Studios? I’m there. Simple as that. Add to the fact that when the producers of this documentary started a Kickstarter fund to get this project off the ground, I immediately signed up. Honestly, I don’t remember which level I put in for, but I did get a nice poster print as well as the Blu-ray. Being a huge fan of this famous British studio, this review might be a little jaded, but I will try to be as honest and straight forward as I can.

If you ever wondered just what happened to Hammer Studios, as to why they went under, then this feature length documentary will either answer that, or at least give you some very strong contributing factors that might have caused it. Even though this studio was very successful in the late ’50s and ’60s, by the time the ’60s were coming to a close, things were starting to change. Not with just the audiences, but the ratings boards, other movies the studios were releasing, as well as where Hammer was getting their funding from.

Hammer Frankenstein Scrapbook Now Available

Fans of Hammer and their Frankenstein series now have the chance to order an incredible volume for their library. Peveril Publishing just announced that this volume is now ready for orders. If you own one of their Dracula Scrapbook editions, then you know the kind of quality put into these. Simply stunning.

This hardcover volume is 344 pages, color throughout, is filled with stills, script pages, schedules and call sheets, press books, press reviews, set design notes, contracts, and so much more. It is like walking back in time, with so much information and little tidbits of nostalgia for Hammer fans. Kinsey and Peveril always do an exceptional job on their books and each one of them is a glorious piece of work. They are so cool just to page through and look at all the history laid out within the pages.

Keep in mind that there are only 700 copies of this book and that their Dracula edition sold out in 5 weeks, so don’t wait too long. And while these volumes are a bit pricy, keep in mind that their value will only go up. You can see the Dracula Scrapbook on ebay for close to $250 now.

To order your copy now, head over to their website HERE.

Hammer’s Dracula Scrapbook Available

Peveril Publishing’s latest must-have edition, The Hammer Dracula Scrapbook, is now available for order. Keep in mind, there are only 600 copies of this available so if you have ANY desire to order this, you might want to do it now. Once their books go out-of-print, the prices just get ridiculous.

Dracula Scrapbook Rises from the Publisher

We are huge fans of Peveril Publishing and have several of their titles in our library. They consistently put out amazing editions that not only look gorgeous, but are filled with a ton of information. And across the pond, one of the biggest authorities on Hammer Films is Wayne Kinsey. So anything with his name on it, is well worth the money. Peveril announced some time ago that they were working on their latest volume, The Hammer Dracula Scrapbook and it is close enough to being completely that they have released the final cover, as you can see below.

Book Review: Hammer Films – A Life in Pictures

Hammer Films – A Life in Pictures
by Wayne Kinsey
Published by Tomahawk Press, 2008. 240 Pages.

Being a huge Hammer fan, I knew this was a book I was going to add to my collection eventually. Luckily for me, it was given to me as a recent birthday gift. And what better gift could a movie fan ask for? This book is a filled with over 600 photos covering the history of Hammer Films. There are candid shots, on the set production stills, promo shots, and much more. In these pages, you’ll see shots of actors like Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed, Ingrid Pitt, the Collinson twins, directors like Freddie Francis and Terence Fisher, and many more. Most are in black and white, but there are a few full color shots, all showing the beauty of these films and the people that made them. I have to say the candid ones were the ones I enjoyed the best. You’ll see some familiar ones but a lot that you’ve probably never seen before.

70s Monster Memories

Since references books are apparently on their way out, what better time to pick up this new one that sets out to show the younger audience a much different time of being a horror fan, as well as for us that grew up in that decade, something to spark a lot of amazing memories.

The publishers of the UK’s We Belong Dead has recently put a book entitled 70s Monster Memories. This thing is 400 pages of just what the title says, monster memories from a decade that I remember very well. Since I was born in 1965, the 70s is where my own passion for horror was born. With over 70 essays talking about everything from fanzines, horror vinyl, monster magazines, movie tie-in books and so much more! There is even a few articles on some of the names behind a few of the horror reference books that birthed a generation of monster fans; names like Alan Frank and Denis Gifford. The contributors consist of people like Tim Greaves, Troy Howarth, Dustin Jablonski, Stephen Jacobs, like Hammer scholars Richard Klemensen and Wayne Kinsey, and many others.

This softcover edition will be available on the 20th of this month, but they are taking pre-orders now, even at a discounted price. The cover price is £35 plus £5 postage UK, but the sale price is only £30 + postage. They are taking orders for US delivery, but obviously postage will be a bit higher.
Just head over to their website HERE for all the ordering information.

Give the Gift of Knowledge

With the holiday season approaching, we are always seeking out just the right gift for that special person in our lives. Now this may come as a bit of a surprise, but I’m a pretty big proponent of books. Yeah, I know….shocker, huh? But honestly, why buy something like a movie for this person (when chances are they might already have it!?!?!) that is just going to sit on a shelf until they get around to watching it. Okay…same could be said for a book…especially in my house. But honestly, a book will stay longer with them, by teaching them something they didn’t know before, which will allow a few different things to happen. For instances, if you get them a biography, they will learn about this particular person, be it a director or actor, which will help them appreciate and understand their work each and every time they watch one of their movies. If it is a simple film guide, it could open up a bunch of titles to them that they might not have known about yet. Or even if it is a book about the genre in general, it could open up some understanding as a whole, which always helps you appreciate it even more, getting you to think about these films possibly a little different than you had before.