The Bloke Down The Pub's Top 5 Hammer Horror Films
To celebrate the launch of his book - A Bloke Down the Pub Bangs on About Hammer Horror - the first to be published by The After Movie Diner Press, we asked The Bloke Down The Pub, our resident Hammer Horror expert, what his Top 5 Hammer Films are.
This is what he said:
The five best Hammer films? Oh aye, you are joking aren’t you? Because my love for Hammer films is defined by so many weird things – my mood, my expectations, how big Michael Ripper’s part is…
If I named what I think the 5 best hammer films are, they probably wouldn’t be my favourites anyway. It’d be all ‘Dracula, The Revenge of Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll, The Plague of the Zombies’. Now, these are all very fine movies – horror classics no question. If you haven’t seen them, well then you should, is all I can say.
But my favourites? When there are 66 to choose from? Weird and wonderful attempts by a bunch of blokes without a lot of cash trying to do their best to give you a good old-fashioned scare in exchange for a few bob? Well, alright then - here are five cracking Hammers you might never have seen that I think you should try:
Scream of Fear
The best Hammer film in my opinion. It’s not a classic horror, more of a claustrophobic thriller. It’s also the film that Christopher Lee was most proud of; which, given he’s a supporting role with a silly accent, is really saying something. It was so well directed that I had to look up everything else Seth Holt had done as soon as it was over. And his other Hammer, The Nanny starring Bette Davis, is also fantastic. But it’s Scream of Fear that showed me Hammer Horrors were more than just period pieces where hissing men in capes were run through by other men with narratively significant implements. Bonus points for my favourite ever poster tagline: (“This is positively the only photograph we can show you!.. because we refuse to reveal the story’s shocking qualities!”)
Read The Bloke’s Full Review…
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Controversial choice, no Cushing as Van Helsing for starters, and Lee at the end of his Dracula tether. But that title! And the idea of Dracula being an avenging angel going after the spiritually and morally corrupt ruling class of Victorian London is a lot of fun to watch. The fact that it’s thesps who I’d only seen play thoroughly decent chaps up to that point having a ball as a shower of bastards who definitely have it coming, also contribute to it being probably my favourite Dracula movie. The absence of Cushing is a significant flaw, but you can’t have everything with Hammer, you just have to enjoy what you get.
Read The Bloke’s Full Review…
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell
Another controversial choice. The Revenge of Frankenstein is unquestionably the best Frankenstein movie, and Frankenstein Created Woman is also surprisingly good. But Monster From Hell is my favourite. I think it’s because the setting – a prison full of lunatics – makes such a great backdrop for the Baron to be continuing, even after all these years, to refuse to learn from his past. That, coupled with Cushing’s unavoidably mellowing Frankenstein, lends a sort of winning feel-good factor to what is an incredibly tragic story. There’s a feeling of Hammer winding down in this one that adds to the poignancy. It may not be that great a movie, but I loved watching it.
Read The Bloke’s Full Review…
Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde
I mean, how good can it be with that title right? But the thing is, it’s completely brilliant. It’s weird and kinky (which given how much Ralph Bates looks like Ray Davies in it, works especially well) but also tense and scary. And the setting - a fog-wreathed London in the grip of terror – is so claustrophobic you feel locked up in the city with them. There have been a lot of Jack the Ripper stories, but Hammer did it best.
Read The Bloke’s Full Review…
Curse of the Werewolf
Hammer created such great monsters that they went back to those blood-soaked wells more than once to try and fish out more cash. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy – all of them got at least two sequels, but they only ever did one werewolf picture. And they had Oliver Reed to be the werewolf! I guess I can see why – they set it in Spain for some reason, but thankfully no-one attempts an accent. And of course, convincing werewolf make-up is very, very hard to pull off. But I like it because it’s beautifully shot, with the sort of cinematic images you know you’ll remember forever – in this case the werewolf leaping across roofs, chased by a crowd armed with torches in the street below. Reed is terrific, and the whole story is genuinely moving; I could have used a few more Oliver Reed as a werewolf movies quite honestly. But one of the great tragedies of Hammer films is what might have been. Seeing an aging Reed suit up again as the werewolf in his seventh outing would have been a lot of fun. But we’ll always have the curse.
Read The Bloke’s Full Review…
I don’t know. These are my favourites now. But I didn’t even mention These Are The Damned, The Devil Rides Out, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Nightmare or The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. Or Paranoiac, Hands of the Ripper, The Lost Continent, Quatermass and the Pit or The Reptile. All terrific movies! There’s a lot of Hammer to enjoy I suppose. My advice is watch all of them if you can, because there’s something worth loving in all of them. Except for Fear in the Night. And The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb. Jesus suffering fuck are those two terrible movies.
The Hammer reviews you know and love, NOW in book form
J.E.A. Wallace, the man behind The Bloke Down The Pub Hammer Horror reviews has re-edited and compiled all of his unique Hammer Horror reviews into a Kindle or Paperback book which makes the perfect treat for the Horror or Film fanatic in your life.
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