Hammer House Of Horror - Complete (DVD)

...Good Man Down' so proclaimed Hammer about Dracula, but in an effort to disprove that theory, the general public stopped going to see Hammer's gothic horrors. The Dracula and Frankenstein cycles suffered a slow death, and in the face of 'The Exorcist' Hammer made a few half hearted stabs at rebranding their packaging. Their last gasp came in 1978, when 'The Lady Vanishes' vanished on the film circuit, taking Michael Carreras with it, and Hammer needed ...
...as an ideal outlet for Hammer in its new slimmed down incarnation, Skeggs negotiated a deal for 13 50 minute stories to be broadcast on the ITV networks.

Filmed on 35mm film, filled with guest stars, and reuniting Hammer with some of it's past glories, the future should have been rosey. As befits a 'grasping at straws' concept, 'Hammer House of Horror' fails on the most part for being frankly unsure of itself. Should it be gory? Should ... more

'You Can't Keep a Good Man Down' so proclaimed Hammer about Dracula, but in an effort to disprove that theory, the general public stopped going to see Hammer's gothic horrors. The Dracula and Frankenstein cycles suffered a slow death, and in the face of 'The Exorcist' Hammer made a few half hearted stabs at rebranding their packaging. Their last gasp came in 1978, when 'The Lady Vanishes' vanished on the film circuit, taking Michael Carreras with it, and Hammer needed a new owner.

In desperate efforts to stay afloat, the company relaunched itself under variations on a theme, and by the time it pitched 'House of Horror' to Lew Grade's ATV in 1980, Roy Skeggs was head of the company. Seeing TV as an ideal outlet for Hammer in its new slimmed down incarnation, Skeggs negotiated a deal for 13 50 minute stories to be broadcast on the ITV networks.

Filmed on 35mm film, filled with guest stars, and reuniting Hammer with some of it's past glories, the future should have been rosey. As befits a 'grasping at straws' concept, 'Hammer House of Horror' fails on the most part for being frankly unsure of itself. Should it be gory? Should it be Gothic? Should it be psychological? Should it be laden with 'Twilight Zone' twists? Should it involve fresh new talent or rely on the old timers who once kept Hammer alive?

So on and so forth, and understandably the 13 episodes featured on this attractively packaged Carlton (Carlton in good DVD Shocker!) boxset are wildly variable in quality and content. From downright shoddy and embarrassing, right through to outstanding. A few episodes teeter in the middle, but it's a mixed bag of unsure compromises.

The ITV networks were fairly ruthless with their handling of the show, shoving it out in graveyard (pun intended) slots that varied from week to week. Some areas failed to complete the run of 13 shows, while others dropped shows in fear of the violence on display. A product that no-one really knew how to make that became a product no-one really knew how to market or schedule.

Audience ratings and critical reaction was lukewarm, with the show performing averagely in a competitive network. Hammer managed to secure a second series from ATV, but Lew Grades other outift ITC had suffered terribly through the financial losses of 'Raise the Titanic' and the deal collapsed. Looking abroad for funding, 20th Century Fox brokered a deal, but the emphasis was to be on mystery and drama and so Hammer veered further away from their roots and compiled a series of 'telemovies' under the banner of 'The Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense'. If 'House of Horror' had been a moderate success, then 'Mystery' was an unqualified disaster. It failed to secure airtime in the UK, and in the US where the deal balanced, the series was a complete flop. Hammer slid back into the shadows, and save for a limp series of highlights shows, they have been dormant for 20 years.

So to the series, and the boxset chooses a different running order to that of production of, or original television scheduling. We kick off with, and do forgive the hyperbolic titles, 'The House that Bled to Death'.

This is an episode I recall vividly from my childhood, and remarkably it retained a certain chill factor. Of note immediately is the high production standard of these films, and some of the names assembled in front of and behind the cameras.

The tale of a house of horror, a building that has seen murder, and refuses to let go of it's grim past. A young family move in and are subjected to daily horrors, ranging from the death of a family pet, to bleeding walls, and most effective of all, burst plumbing that covers a childrens party in a torrent of blood.

It's a small scale 'Amityville Horror' and plot holes and ridiculous coincidences aside, director Tom Clegg handles writer Davis Lloyds story effectively enough. As you would expect from a 50 minute film, we are rushed through proceedings, and are given little chance to gasp at the flaws in logic. In line with this type of television we are also expected to marvel at the twist endings, each tale on these discs has one, and without exception they are whimpers rather than bangs.

It's reasonably spooky, occasionally grisly, and is a good taster for what is to come. The only star of note is 1980s TV regular Nicholas Ball. The episode originally went out as the fifth instalment.

Seemingly in a bid to play all of it's good cards first, the second episode on disc one is 'The Silent Scream', perhaps the most fondly remembered episode of the entire run. Key to its success is the appearance of Peter Cushing, supported ably by a young Brian Cox, and the solid direction of Alan Gibson, who had shown flare and promise at the end of Hammers film cycle.

Cushing is the kindly ex-prisoner of war who gives ex-convict Cox a place to work in his pet shop. Cox's character is naturally planning to do over the frail man who has already suffered at the hands of nazi wardens. The old man's facade soon slips though, and animals are not the only caged beings in the shop, and he may not have been entirely truthful about the part he played in nazi atrocities.

It's predictable hokum, but handled with such a deft touch that you scarcely notice. Cushing relishes the role of tormentor and Gibson effectively papers over the cracks of the Francis Essex screenplay. This one is unnerving, lingers in the mind, and boasts the only effective ending of the series. 'Scream' originally went out seventh in the schedules.

'The Two Faces of Evil' is probably my favourite episode, and shows that there was much promise and imagination in the idea of teleplays from Hammer. Unfortunately the style and sheer spookiness of this outing failed to rub off on the majority of the run.

Alan Gibson again takes the reins, and we are treated to an often jumpy and spine tingling tale about doppelgangers.

A family are returning from a camping trip when unwisely they stop in the midst of a storm to pick up a hitch-hiker. The bedraggled figure promptly goes berserk in the car and causes a massive crash, leaving one man dead...or does it?

I have to confess to jumping on more than one occasion during 'Two Faces' and it often feels of a higher quality than the latter cinematic efforts of the once great studio. It features some good location work, a cast who work very well with the material, and suitably eerie music. It originally went out 12th.

Next up is a real curio, 'The Mark of Satan' opens in a most unsettling fashion, and to the large part maintains the same spooky atmosphere for half an hour. Then, with you salivating for a decent climax, it becomes a hilariously inept mess of hallucinogenic dream sequences and plot contrivances.

It begins with an operating theatre, in which a team is about to release the pressure from a mans skull. He has attempted to rid himself of voices, but his DIY efforts have seen him on the edge of life, and he is now in hospital. As the chief surgeon begins to operate, the man suddenly lets out a spooky death rattle 'leave my soul alone.....'.

Cut to a mortuary attendant who is clearly the wrong side of mentally stable himself. He believes the weathervane at the hospital transmits police signals to him, warning of evil.

As he takes care of the deceased lunatic, a series of coincidences begin to pile up, all involving the number 9, and often 3 at a time, which when reversed spell out 666. His precarious mental state is pushed further as the 9s pile up and he becomes convinced that he has been the recipient of an evil disease, let loose from the body of the DIY surgeon.

The above is handled in a far more earnest and realistic fashion than my outline perhaps suggests, and it is genuinely spooky stuff, but it all amounts to nought when Don Leaver loses his grip on proceedings and allows the second half to ruin all of the good work. A wasted opportunity. Peter McEnery is an effective lead throughout though in the episode that finished the series.

Now we arrive at the doorstep of what was the series' curtain raiser 'Witching Time'. Anyone catching this opener would surely never have tuned in again such is the low quality. A perplexed Jon Finch can't even save this dud.

A stressed overworked music composer (Finch) is trying to add the finishing touches to his horror film soundtrack when a witch arrives on his doorstep. She generally creates havoc, while talking much like the Wurzels, and seems quite eager to shed her clothes at any given moment. Finch thinks he's going out of his mind, but shags her anyway.

And on, and on it goes. Like a horror soap opera as written by the Cajun folks of 'Deliverance', 'Witching Time' is irretrievably crap. Insultingly dull and predictable with director Don Leaver apparently clueless as to what to do with Anthony Reads wafer thin screenplay.

'Visitor from the Grave' is, I warn you, 50 minutes of your life that you shall never retrieve. The sheer fact that Simon MacCorkindale is in it should be warning enough. For completisms sake I sat through every last stinking minute of this Peter Sasdy (Taste the Blood of Dracula, Hand sof the Ripper) directed howler. More insultingly it is penned by Hammer old hand John Elder (Curse of the Werewolf), but plays out more like an episode of Scooby Doo.

Woman kills intruder, husband buries body, intruder haunts her, everywhere. Husband makes her strong cups of tea and says 'there, there' alot. All turns out to be ruse to drive her mad. Again.

The above is not a spoiler. Nothing I could possibly do or say could spoil 'Visitor from the Grave', it manages quite well by itself. Slipped out originally in eleventh place.

Onto disc two, and 'Rude Awakening'. I'm not entirely convinced with this one, it's either good or utter rubbish, with nowhere inbetween to sit. In it's favour is its complete abandonment of logic and it has a distinct 'Twilight Zone' feel to it.

Sasdy probably does the best to mangle this promising premise of a man who never knows when he is dreaming or not. Haunted by the same dream over and over, he loses his grip on reality and becomes a nervous wreck. Denholm Elliot retreads old ground as said gibbering mess, but emerges from the episode with credit. Make of it what you will, I'm fence sitting on this one. It went out third in the 1980 shedules.

'Charlie Boy' petrified me 23 years ago, and so it should have done when I happened upon it by accident. I was similarly mortified, for all the wrong reasons, by it in 2004. A slog through the murky and wholly predictable waters of voodoo.

A sort of monkeys paw tale, with a malevolent carved head carrying out the wishes of an aggrieved businessman. Unimaginatively handled by Robert Young (the sublime GBH), it's a fidgety 50 minute yawnfest that almost has one uttering out loud 'I didn't see that one coming'. Even the faint hearted, or the hard of thinking would feel cheated with this offering. Sixth in the schedules.

'Children of the Full Moon' is creaky and hackneyed, but somehow I like the bravery of it, in attempting a small scale werewolf picture in the heart of the home counties. Diana Dors adds to the bizarre flavour of this episode which director Tom Clegg spices up with some spooky moments.

A young couple head away for the weekend, but their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Without a phone box nearby, they instead search for signs of life in a rambling house. The house is inhabited by numerous children and a gentle natured woman who invites them to stay until help arrives. Something more sinister arrives instead.

It's a well meaning episode and I admire the splicing together of old school Hammer and more up to date concerns. It's cliched and hammy, but tongue in cheek and fun. Number 8 in '81.

'The Thirteenth Reunion' sees Sasdy again forcing me to reach for the fast forward button. A home counties reporter stumbles upon dark deeds at a slimming farm, and soon finds herself trapped in the bigger picture. Food? Horror? I'm sure you're already ahead of the game here. Bright moments are set like raisins in a rather heavy cake. It went out second in the original run.

'The Carpathian Eagle' is more plodding of the same ilk. Noteworthy for an early appearance by Pierce Brosnan and little else. Suzanne Danielle may be nice to look at, but her acting ability does nothing to help this overly talkative episode which talks endlessy of supernatural legends, but stops short of showing any horror. The dullest of all the episodes, which criminally also fails in the unintentional laughter stakes. Episode 9.

'The Guardian of the Abyss' is an old school romp brought up to date a la 'Children of the Full Moon'. Veteran director Don Sharp provides a bit of zing, and this story crackles along in it's tale of the dark arts and the arrival of a being from the other side which cannot be denied. Stirring stuff from writer David Fisher, acted well from a competent cast which features a Hammer villain of old in John Carson (Plague of the Zombies). This was tenth in the schedules.

Last up is the inexcusably dire 'Growing Pains'. A half arsed brew of possession, mad science, haunting and...oh, whatever. A painful 50 minute plod with a nasty child performer who is frightening but in all the wrong ways.

Scientist's child takes pills that are lying about. Kid dies. Parents adopt weird child from mysterious school (don't expect this to make sense in the episode) who acts oddly and invokes the spirit of the dead son. Sheer crap. Ineptly acted and directed, though it's hard to see any potential in the potboiling screenplay. It went out fourth, and brings this DVD to a close.

So, there we have it, thirteen tales of terror that swing wildly in terms of quality from utter rubbish to acceptable spook-mongering television.

The DVD itself is nothing to be ashamed of. Two uninspired looking cases slide into a much better looking card case. There is a nicely presented 8 page book inside that offers the uninitiated some insight into Hammers history and the television project.

Extras are limited to bios and brief stills galleries, but on the whole the discs are designed nicely enough and easy to navigate.

Picture quality is superb for vintage productions as these. Captured on 35mm film and shot in a 4:3 fullscreen ratio, they are remarkably clean and grain free prints. Sound is mono that is mixed to come from your stereo speakers, which is a nice touch and preferable to just getting a centre speaker channel.

The discs are rated 15, and on the whole do make unsettling viewing for younger eyes. Pick the boxset up for £35.00 on Play.com, and make what you will of Hammers seconds foray into television after the equally uncertain 1968 'Journey into the Unknown'.

 

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