Nine Great Hammer Horror Posters To Celebrate THE ART OF HAMMER

By the way, it’s come to my attention that Hammer actress Ingrid Pitt has recently passed away. None of the posters below are Pitt films, but her work for the studio is legendary. When I said bosoms and blood earlier, I was very much talking about Ingrid Pitt. RIP, Countess Dracula.

Click on the images for the bigger versions (you may need to click again on a gallery view. Sorry!)

[caption id=“attachment_3422” align=“aligncenter” width=“568” caption=“People are always the same. When Peter Cushing took on the role of Holmes in Hammer's HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, people got upset because he wasn't Basil Rathbone. But Cushing played a terrific Holmes, quite close to the literary version. The film itself was less faithful, adding atmospheric bits like tarantulas and ritual sacrifices. HOUND was directed by the great Terence Fisher, who really established Hammer's gothic horror style in CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN two years before.”]

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[caption id=“attachment_3430” align=“aligncenter” width=“568” caption=“The Hammer Dracula begins here! This 1958 film was a follow-up to CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN; renamed HORROR OF DRACULA in the US to avoid confusion with the Universal version, Hammer's DRACULA stands alone with its lush color photography and incredible cast. Originally tagged with an X rating by the BBFC, it was rereleased - uncut! - with a 12A a few years ago. Times change.”]

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[caption id=“attachment_3425” align=“aligncenter” width=“568” caption=“Here's the story I've heard: 1970's TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA almost had no Dracula in it at all. Christopher Lee was tiring of the role and wanted out, and Hammer was going to vamp a character from the previous film. But when US distributors demanded Lee return or they wouldn't run the film, he buckled.”]

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[caption id=“attachment_3429” align=“aligncenter” width=“568” caption=“The penultimate Hammer Dracula film sees a group of hippies (with a sinister figure in their midst) raising Old Fangface from the grave. Not the best of the series, but now a wonderful time capsule of Swinging London and particularly Chelsea.”]

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[caption id=“attachment_3428” align=“aligncenter” width=“568” caption=“While DRACULA AD 1972 brought the Count to the modern day, VAMPIRE CIRCUS, released the same year, kept things in the 19th century with a traveling carnival hiding a vampiric secret. I've never seen this quad poster for the film, and I have to say that it's absolutely stunning.”]

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[caption id=“attachment_3427” align=“aligncenter” width=“568” caption=“This is complicated. Hammer was going to make a movie version of I AM LEGEND under the title NIGHT CREATURES, but the BBFC told them that such a film would be outright banned in the UK. The problem was that they had already sold a film under that title to US distributors. Solution: slap the name NIGHT CREATURES on their movie CAPTAIN CLEGG, which was actually an adaptation of the DR. SYN novels. Those books were published in the 1910s and followed a heroic smuggler named Dr. Syn; the problem here was that Disney had a Dr. Syn movie in the works, so Hammer changed their character to Pastor Blyss. The film came out in 1962. Follow all that?”]

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[caption id=“attachment_3423” align=“aligncenter” width=“568” caption=“Known originally as TASTE OF FEAR in the UK, 1961's SCREAM OF FEAR was directed by Seth Holt, who had gotten his start as an editor on Ealing comedies.”]

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[caption id=“attachment_3426” align=“aligncenter” width=“568” caption=“Oliver Reed is totally unhinged in this 1963 gem directed by the underrated Freddie Francis. Francis would get success as a cinenmatographer, but for me he'll always be known for films like the original TALES FROM THE CRYPT and Harry Nilsson's SON OF DRACULA.”]

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[caption id=“attachment_3424” align=“aligncenter” width=“568” caption=“I have to be honest and say I've never seen 1963's MANIAC. But I do know that director Michael Carreras has an interesting spot in the history books - his film SAVAGE GUNS is probably the first ever Spaghetti Western.”]

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