 | |
| Company type | Production company |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founded | 5 November 1934; 91 years ago (1934-11-05) |
| Founder | |
| Headquarters | , England |
Key people | John Gore (CEO and Chairman) |
| Parent | John Gore Organization (2023–present) |
| Divisions | Exclusive Film Distribution |
| Website | Official website |
Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a Britishfilm production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series ofGothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such asBaron Victor Frankenstein,Count Dracula, and theMummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time.[1] Hammer also producedscience fiction,thrillers,film noir andcomedies, as well as, in later years,television series.
During its most successful years, Hammer dominated thehorror film market, enjoying worldwide distribution and considerable financial success. This success was, in part, due to its distribution partnerships with American companies such asUnited Artists,Warner Bros.,Universal Pictures,Columbia Pictures,Paramount Pictures,20th Century Fox,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,American International Pictures andSeven Arts Productions.
During the late 1960s and 1970s, the saturation of the horror film market by competitors and the loss of American funding forced changes to the previously lucrative Hammer formula with varying degrees of success. The company eventually ceased production in the mid-1980s. In 2000, the studio was bought by a consortium including advertising executive and art collectorCharles Saatchi and publishing millionairesNeil Mendoza andWilliam Sieghart.[2]
In May 2007, the company name was sold to a consortium headed by Dutch media tycoonJohn de Mol, who announced plans to spend some $50 million (£25m) on new horror films. The new organization acquired the Hammer group's film library of 295 pictures.Simon Oakes, who took over as CEO of the new Hammer, said, "Hammer is a great British brand—we intend to take it back into production and develop its global potential. The brand is still alive but no one has invested in it for a long time."[3]
Since then, Hammer has produced several films, includingBeyond the Rave (2008),Let Me In (2010),The Resident (2011),The Woman in Black (2012),The Quiet Ones (2014), andThe Lodge (2019).
In November 1934,William Hinds, a comedian and businessman, registered his film company, Hammer Productions Ltd.[4][5] It was housed in a three-room office suite at Imperial House,Regent Street, London. The company name came from Hinds' stage name, Will Hammer, which he had taken from the area of London in which he lived,Hammersmith.[6]
Work began almost immediately on the first film, a nowlost comedy,The Public Life of Henry the Ninth at the MGM/ATP studios. Filming concluded on 2 January 1935. The film tells the story of Henry Henry, an unemployed London street musician, and the title was a "playful tribute" toAlexander Korda'sThe Private Life of Henry VIII which was Britain's firstAcademy Award for Best Picture nominee in 1934.[7] During this time Hinds met Spanish émigré Enrique Carreras, a former cinema owner, and on 10 May 1935 they formed thefilm distribution company Exclusive Films, operating from an office at 60-66 National House,Wardour Street.[8] Hammer produced four films distributed by Exclusive:
A downturn in the British film industry forced Hammer intobankruptcy, and the company went into liquidation in 1937. Exclusive survived and on 20 July 1937 purchased the leasehold on 113-117 Wardour Street and continued to distribute films made by other companies.[9]
James Carreras, Enrique's son, joined Exclusive in 1938, closely followed by William Hinds' son, Anthony. At the outbreak of World War II, James Carreras andAnthony Hinds left to join the armed forces and Exclusive continued to operate in a limited capacity. In 1946, James Carreras rejoined the company afterdemobilisation. He resurrected Hammer as the film production arm of Exclusive with a view to supplying 'quota-quickies', cheaply made domestic films designed to fill gaps in cinema schedules and support more expensive features.[10] He convinced Anthony Hinds to rejoin the company, and a revived Hammer Film Productions set to work onDeath in High Heels,The Dark Road, andCrime Reporter. Not able to afford top stars, Hammer acquired the film rights to BBC radio series such asThe Adventures of PC 49 andDick Barton: Special Agent (an adaptation of the successfulDick Barton radio show).[11] All were filmed at Marylebone Studios during 1947. During the production ofDick Barton Strikes Back (1948), it became apparent that the company could save money by shooting incountry houses instead of studios. For the next production,Dr Morelle – The Case of the Missing Heiress (another radio adaptation), Hammer rented Dial Close,[12][13] a 23 bedroom mansion on Winter Hill,[14] beside theRiver Thames, atCookham Dean,Maidenhead.[15]
On 12 February 1949, Exclusive registered "Hammer Film Productions" as a company with Enrique and James Carreras, and William and Tony Hinds as directors. Hammer moved into the Exclusive offices in 113-117 Wardour Street, and the building was rechristened "Hammer House".[16]
In August 1949, complaints from locals about noise during night filming forced Hammer to leave Dial Close and move into another mansion,Oakley Court, also on the banks of the Thames betweenWindsor and Maidenhead.[17] Five films were produced there:Man in Black (1949),Room to Let (1949),Someone at the Door (1949),What the Butler Saw (1950),The Lady Craved Excitement (1950).
In 1950, Hammer moved again to Gilston Park, a country club in Harlow, Essex, which hostedThe Black Widow,The Rossiter Case,To Have and to Hold andThe Dark Light (all 1950).
In 1951, Hammer began shooting at their most fondly-remembered base, Down Place, on the banks of the Thames. The company signed a one-year lease and began its 1951 production schedule withCloudburst. The house, virtually derelict, required substantial work, but it did not have the construction restrictions that had prevented Hammer from customising previous homes. A decision was made to remodel Down Place into a substantial, custom-fitted studio complex[18] that became known asBray Studios. The expansive grounds were used for much of the later location shooting in Hammer's films and are a key to the 'Hammer look'.
Also in 1951, Hammer and Exclusive signed a four-year production and distribution contract withRobert Lippert, an American film producer. The contract meant thatLippert Pictures and Exclusive effectively exchanged products for distribution on their respective sides of theAtlantic – beginning in 1951 withThe Last Page and ending with 1955'sWomen Without Men (a.k.a.Prison Story).[19] It was Lippert's insistence on an American star in the Hammer films he was to distribute that led to the prevalence of American leads in many of the company's productions during the 1950s. It was forThe Last Page that Hammer made a significant appointment when they hired film directorTerence Fisher, who played a critical role in the forthcoming horror cycle.
Towards the end of 1951, the one-year lease on Down Place expired, and with its growing success Hammer looked towards more conventional studio-based productions. A dispute with the Association of Cinematograph Technicians blocked this proposal, and the company purchased the freehold of Down Place instead. The house was renamedBray Studios after the nearby village ofBray, and it remained Hammer's principal base until 1966.[19] In 1953, the first of Hammer's science fiction films,Four Sided Triangle andSpaceways, were released.
Hammer's first significant experiment with horror came in a 1955 adaptation ofNigel Kneale'sBBC Television science fiction serialThe Quatermass Experiment, directed byVal Guest. As a consequence of the contract with Robert Lippert, American actorBrian Donlevy was imported for the lead role and the title was changed toThe Quatermass Xperiment to cash in on the newX certificate for horror films. The film was unexpectedly popular, and led to the popular 1957 sequelQuatermass 2 – again adapted from one of Kneale's television scripts, this time by Kneale and with a budget double that of the original: £92,000.[20] In the meantime, Hammer produced anotherQuatermass-style horror film,X the Unknown, originally intended as part of the series until Kneale denied them permission to use his characters (the writer is known to have disliked Donlevy's performance as Quatermass).[21] At the time, Hammer voluntarily submitted scripts to theBritish Board of Film Censors (BBFC) for comment before production. Regarding the script ofX the Unknown, one reader/examiner (Audrey Field) commented on 24 November:
Well, no one can say the customers won't have had their money's worth by now. In fact, someone will almost certainly have been sick. We must have a great deal more restraint, and much more done by onlookers' reactions instead of by shots of 'pulsating obscenity', hideous scars, hideous sightless faces, etc, etc. It is keeping on and on in the same vein that makes this script so outrageous. They must take it away and prune. Before they take it away, however, I think the President [of the BBFC] should read it. I have a stronger stomach than the average (for viewing purposes) and perhaps I ought to be reacting more strongly.[22]
The scores for many Hammer horror films, includingThe Curse of Frankenstein andDracula, were composed byJames Bernard. Other Hammer musical personnel includedMalcolm Williamson,John Hollingsworth, andHarry Robertson.
Production designerBernard Robinson andcinematographerJack Asher were instrumental in creating the lavish look of the early Hammer films, usually on a very restricted budget.
Hammer's horror films featured many actors who appeared repeatedly in a number of movies, forming an informal "Hammer repertory company".
As production began onQuatermass 2, Hammer started to look for another U.S. partner willing to invest in and handle the American promotion of new product. They eventually entered talks withAssociated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) and head,Eliot Hyman. During this period, two young American filmmakers,Max J. Rosenberg andMilton Subotsky, who later established Hammer's rivalAmicus, submitted to a.a.p. a script for an adaptation of the novelFrankenstein. Although interested in the script, a.a.p. were not prepared to back a film made by Rosenberg and Subotsky, who had just one film to their credit. Eliot Hyman however, sent the script to his contact at Hammer. Rosenberg would often claim he 'produced'The Curse of Frankenstein, an exaggeration repeated in his obituary.
Although the novel byMary Shelley was long since in thepublic domain, Anthony Hinds was unsure about the story, as Subotsky's script adhered closely to the plot of the 1939 Universal filmSon of Frankenstein, featuring a second-generation Baron Frankenstein emulating his father, the original monster-maker. This put the project at risk of acopyright infringement lawsuit by Universal. In addition a great deal of polishing and additional material was needed, as the short script had an estimated running time of just 55 minutes, far less than the minimum of 90 minutes needed for distribution in the U.K. Accordingly, comments on the script from Hammer's Michael Carreras (who had joined his father James as producer in the early 1950s) were less than complimentary:
The script is badly presented. The sets are not marked clearly on the shot headings, neither is DAY or NIGHT specified in a number of cases. The number of set-ups scripted is quite out of proportion to the length of the screenplay, and we suggest that your rewrites are done in master scene form.[23]
Further revisions were made to the script, and a working title ofFrankenstein and the Monster was chosen. Plans were made to shoot the film in Eastmancolor – a decision which caused worry at the BBFC. Not only did the script contain horror and graphic violence, but it would be portrayed in vivid colour.[24]
The project was handed to Tony Hinds, who was less impressed with the script than Michael Carreras, and whose vision for the film was a simple black-and-white 'quickie' made in three weeks. Concerned that Subotsky and Rosenberg's script had too many similarities to the Universal films, Hinds commissionedJimmy Sangster to rewrite it asThe Curse of Frankenstein. Sangster's treatment impressed Hammer enough to rescue the film from the 'quickie' treadmill and to produce it as a colour film.
Sangster submitted his script to the BBFC for examination. Audrey Field reported on 10 October 1956:
We are concerned about the flavour of this script, which, in its preoccupation with horror and gruesome detail, goes far beyond what we are accustomed to allow even for the 'X' category. I am afraid we can give no assurance that we should be able to pass a film based on the present script and a revised script should be sent us for our comments, in which the overall unpleasantness should be mitigated.[25]
Regardless of the BBFC's stern warnings, Hinds supervised the shooting of an unchanged script.[26]
The film was directed by Terence Fisher, with a look that belied its modest budget. British TV starPeter Cushing portrayedBaron Victor Frankenstein, and supporting actorChristopher Lee was cast as the imposingly tall, brutishCreature. With a budget of £65,000 and a cast and crew that would become the backbone of later films, Hammer's first Gothic horror went into production.[26] The use of colour encouraged a previously unseen level of gore. UntilThe Curse of Frankenstein, horror films had not shown blood in a graphic way, or when they did, it was concealed by monochrome photography. In this film, it was bright red, and the camera lingered on it.
The film was an enormous success, not only in Great Britain, but also in the U.S., where it inspired numerous imitations from, amongst others,Roger Corman andAmerican International Pictures (with their series largely based onEdgar Allan Poe – the so-called "Poe Cycle"). It found success on theEuropean continent also, where Italian directors and audiences were particularly receptive.
The huge box office success ofThe Curse of Frankenstein led to the inevitable desire for a sequel inThe Revenge of Frankenstein, and an attempt to give the Hammer treatment to another horror icon. Dracula had been a successful film character for Universal in the past, and the copyright situation was more complicated than for Frankenstein. A legal agreement between Hammer and Universal was not completed until 31 March 1958 – after the film had been shot – and was 80 pages long.[27]
Meanwhile, the financial arrangement between a.a.p. and Hammer had broken down when money promised by a.a.p. had not arrived. Hammer began looking for alternatives, and with the success ofThe Curse of Frankenstein signed withColumbia Pictures to distributeThe Revenge of Frankenstein and two films from the defaulted a.a.p. deal,The Camp on Blood Island andThe Snorkel. Hammer's financial success also meant the winding-down of the parent film distribution company Exclusive, leaving Hammer to concentrate on filmmaking.[28]
Work continued on the script forDracula, and the second draft was submitted to the BBFC. Audrey Field commented on 8 October 1957:
"The uncouth, uneducated, disgusting and vulgar style of Mr Jimmy Sangster cannot quite obscure the remnants of a good horror story, though they do give one the gravest misgivings about treatment. [...] The curse of this thing is the Technicolor blood: why need vampires be messier eaters than anyone else? Certainly strong cautions will be necessary on shots of blood. And of course, some of the stake-work is prohibitive."[29]
Despite the success ofThe Curse of Frankenstein, the financing ofDracula proved awkward. Universal was not interested,[30] and the search for money eventually brought Hammer back to a.a.p.'s Eliot Hyman, through another of his companies, Seven Arts (which later merged withWarner Bros., now thesuccessor-in-interest to a.a.p.). Although an agreement was drawn up, it is alleged that the deal was never realised and funding forDracula eventually came from the National Film Finance Council (£33,000) and the rest from Universal in return for worldwide distribution rights.[31] However, recent research suggests that the issue of who exactly fundedDracula is still not entirely clear (see Barnett, 'Hammering out a Deal: The Contractual and Commercial Contexts ofThe Curse of Frankenstein (1957) andDracula (1958)’,Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, published online 19 November 2013).
With a final budget of £81,412,Dracula began principal photography on 11 November 1957.[32] Peter Cushing again had top-billing, this time asDoctor Van Helsing, whilst Christopher Lee starred asCount Dracula, with direction by Terence Fisher and a set design byBernard Robinson that was radically different from the Universal adaptation; it was so radical, in fact, that Hammer executives considered paying him off and finding another designer.[33]
Dracula was an enormous success, breaking box-office records in the U.K., the U.S. (where it was released asHorror of Dracula), Canada, and across the world. On 20 August 1958, theDaily Cinema reported:
"Because of the fantastic business done world-wide by Hammer's Technicolor version ofDracula, Universal-International, its distributors, have made over to Jimmy Carreras' organisation, the remake rights to their entire library of classic films."
Establishing the fanged vampire inpopular culture, Lee also introduced a dark, brooding sexuality to the character.[34] The academicChristopher Frayling writes, “Dracula introduced fangs, red contact lenses, décolletage, ready-prepared wooden stakes and – in the celebrated credits sequence – blood being spattered from off-screen over the Count's coffin".[35] The film magazineEmpire ranked Lee's portrayal as Dracula the 7th Greatest Horror Movie Character of All Time.[36] 1960 saw the release of the first in a long line of sequels,The Brides of Dracula, with Cushing returning to the role of Van Helsing, though Lee did not play Dracula again untilDracula: Prince of Darkness, released in 1966.
With the agreement in place, Hammer's executives had their pick of Universal International's horror icons and chose to remakeThe Invisible Man,The Phantom of the Opera, andThe Mummy's Hand. All were to be filmed in colour at Bray Studios, by the same team responsible forThe Curse of Frankenstein andDracula.The Mummy (the title used for the remake ofThe Mummy's Hand, which also incorporated significant story elements from that film's first two sequels,The Mummy's Tomb andThe Mummy's Ghost) was made in 1959,The Phantom of the Opera followed in 1962, and Hammer collaborated withWilliam Castle on a remake ofThe Old Dark House in 1963.The Invisible Man was never produced.
Principal photography forThe Mummy began on 23 February 1959 and lasted until 16 April 1959. Once again it starred both Peter Cushing (as John Banning) and Christopher Lee (as Kharis the Mummy), and was directed by Terence Fisher from a screenplay from Jimmy Sangster.The Mummy went into general release on 23 October 1959 and broke the box-office records set byDracula the previous year, both in Great Britain and the U.S. when it was released there in December.[37]
Hammer consolidated their success by turning their most successful films into series. This was a practice they had makingDick Barton movies which they continued to their horror movies and other genres.
The success ofThe Quatermass Xperiment (1955;The Creeping Unknown in the U.S.) led to two sequels:
There were also twoQuatermass-style films:
Six sequels toThe Curse of Frankenstein were released between 1958 and 1974:
All starredPeter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein, exceptThe Horror of Frankenstein (which was not a sequel, but a tongue-in-cheek remake ofThe Curse of Frankenstein), in whichRalph Bates took the title role.The Evil of Frankenstein stars Cushing but due to an agreement made with Universal to more closelypastiche their version of the Frankenstein story, it re-tells the Baron's history in flashbacks that bear no resemblance to the two earlier Hammer Frankenstein films and it portrays the Baron with a very different personality, resulting in a film which permanently breaks the chronological continuity of the series. Each subsequent movie in the series contains elements that do not relate to (or flatly contradict) the events of the movie that went before, whilst the characteristics of Cushing's Baron vary wildly from film to film, resulting in a series that does not progress as a self-contained narrative cycle.[38]
David Prowse was the only actor to star as the creature twice in the Hammer Frankenstein series; he reprised the role fromThe Horror of Frankenstein inFrankenstein and the Monster from Hell.
Hammer also produced a half-hour pilot titledTales of Frankenstein (1958) that was intended to premiere on American television; it was never picked up, but is now available on DVD.Anton Diffring took over Cushing's role of Baron Frankenstein.[39]
Eight sequels toDracula were released between 1960 and 1974:
Peter Cushing appeared in the first and final three sequels (with archive footage also used inDracula: Prince of Darkness).Christopher Lee appeared in all the sequels except the first and last.The first five sequels were direct sequels to the original.The Brides of Dracula did not include Dracula but is still considered part of the series sincePeter Cushing reprises his role as Doctor Van Helsing and battles vampire Baron Meinster (David Peel) and the film makes several direct references to the 1958 original.Christopher Lee returned as Dracula for the following six films, which employed ingenuity in finding new ways to resurrect the Count. Only archive footage of Cushing was used inDracula: Prince of Darkness and he wouldn't return to the Dracula series untilDracula A.D. 1972. Hammer upped the graphic violence and gore withScars of Dracula in an attempt to re-imagine the character to appeal to a younger audience, but the movie performed poorly at the box-office which led to a further change of style with the remaining three films.Dracula A.D. 1972 andThe Satanic Rites of Dracula were not period pieces like their predecessors, but had a contemporary 1970s London setting. Now set in a new timeline, Peter Cushing appeared in both films, playing Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing, as well as his own grandfather (Lawrence Van Helsing) in the prologue of the first of the two films. Cushing returned for a final time as Professor Van Helsing in the horror / martial arts crossoverThe Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a movie this time set primarily in 1904.
Christopher Lee grew increasingly disillusioned with the direction the character was being taken and with the poor quality of later scripts, although he did improve these slightly himself by adding lines of dialogue from the original novel. Lee speaks at least one line taken fromBram Stoker in every Dracula film he appeared in, except forDracula: Prince of Darkness in which the Count does not talk at all (Lee claimed repeatedly he was appalled by his dialogue in that film and refused to speak it, but Jimmy Sangster rebutted that no dialogue was written for the character). He was also concerned about typecasting, and after filmingThe Satanic Rites of Dracula he finally quit the series.John Forbes-Robertson took over the role for one final outing as the Count.
Three sequels toThe Mummy were released between 1964 and 1971:
Peter Cushing andChristopher Lee appeared in none of the Mummy sequels, which had stories and characters unrelated to the 1959 film and all three were relegated to second feature status, as by the mid-1960s, Hammer's films were often intended fordouble features. Often two films would be shot back-to-back with the same sets and costumes to save money, and then each film would be shown on a separate double feature to prevent audiences noticing any recycling, as for example inThe Plague of the Zombies andThe Reptile (both 1966).The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb supported the slightly more prestigiousThe Gorgon, whilstThe Mummy's Shroud was a second feature forFrankenstein Created Woman.
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb was a modern-day take onBram Stoker'sThe Jewel of Seven Stars and featuredValerie Leon as a reincarnated Egyptian princess, rather than a mummy. The same novel served as the basis for the 1980Charlton Heston film,The Awakening, and a later direct-to-video feature,Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy, starringLou Gossett Jr.
Other horror films produced by Hammer included:
In addition to theirDracula series, Hammer produced a number of other horror movies on the vampire theme, including:
Hammer also made a loose trilogy of films, known as ″The Karnstein Trilogy″, based onSheridan Le Fanu's early vampirenovellaCarmilla, written by newcomerTudor Gates. These films include:
Running alongside production of their 1960s gothic horror films, Hammer made a series of what were known as "mini-Hitchcocks" mostly scripted byJimmy Sangster, and directed byFreddie Francis andSeth Holt. These low-budget suspense thrillers, often in black-and-white, were made in the mould ofLes Diaboliques (1955), although more often compared to the laterPsycho. This series of mystery thrillers, which all hadtwist endings, comprised:
In addition to these were more traditional thrillers such as:
Hammer had some success with films set in (or with strong connections to) the prehistoric/ancient world, including:
Hammer made several war films over the years:
Hammer were less well known for their comedies, but they made a number in the 1950s and early 1960s, returning to the genre in the 1970s:
Hammer occasionally made science fiction movies. Notable examples were:
Hammer made a number ofswashbucklers, including:
Hammer had some success with films set in the British Empire, such as:
On 29 May 1968, Hammer was awarded theQueen's Award to Industry in recognition of their contribution to the British economy. The presentation ceremony took place on the steps of the Castle Dracula set atPinewood Studios, during the filming ofDracula Has Risen from the Grave.[41]
Hammer films had always sold, in part, on their violent and sexual content. In the late 1960s, with the release of Hollywood films likeBonnie and Clyde,Rosemary's Baby, andThe Wild Bunch, the studio struggled to maintain its place in the market.Roman Polanski'sRosemary's Baby was a successful example ofpsychological horror, whileBonnie and Clyde andThe Wild Bunch exposed mainstream audiences to more explicit gore, and were more expertly staged than Hammer films. Meanwhile,George A. Romero'sNight of the Living Dead (1968) had set a new standard for graphic violence in horror films.
In 1969 Tony Hinds resigned from the Hammer board and retired from the industry.[42] Hammer was not the same without him; it responded to the new reality by bringing in new writers and directors, testing new characters, and attempting to rejuvenate their vampire and Frankenstein films with new approaches to familiar material. (1974'sFrankenstein and the Monster from Hell, for example, features a scene where the Baron treads on a discarded human brain.)
The company soon realised, however, that if they could not be as gory as the new American productions, they could follow a trend in European films of the time and instead play up the sexual content of their films.
While the studio remained true to previous period settings in their 1971 releaseVampire Circus,Dracula AD 1972 andThe Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), for example, abandoned period settings in pursuit of a modern-day setting and a "swinging London" feel.The Satanic Rites of Dracula, then calledDracula is Dead... and Well and Living in London, indulged the turn toward self-parody suggested by the title, with some humour appearing in the script, undercutting any sense of horror. These latter films were not successful and drew fire not only from critics but fromChristopher Lee himself, who refused to appear in any more Dracula films after these. Speaking at a press conference in 1973 to announceDracula is Dead... and Well and Living in London, Lee said:
"I'm doing it under protest... I think it is fatuous. I can think of twenty adjectives – fatuous, pointless, absurd. It's not a comedy, but it's got a comic title. I don't see the point."[43]
Hammer Films had commercial success with some atypical output during this period, with film versions of several British TV situation comedies, most notably theITVseriesOn the Buses (1971). The first spin-off made was Hammer's biggest domestic earner of the 1970s and was popular enough to produce two sequels,Mutiny on the Buses (1972) andHoliday on the Buses (1973), seeing Hammer return to their pre-horror practice of adapting television properties for the cinema as they had once done withPC 49 andDick Barton.
Other adaptations included:
In the latter part of the 1970s, Hammer made fewer films, and attempts were made to break away from the then-unfashionable Gothic horror films on which the studio had built its reputation.The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), a co-production withHong Kong'sShaw Brothers which attempted to combine Hammer's brand of horror with the then popularmartial arts genre, andTo the Devil a Daughter (1976), their third adaptation of aDennis Wheatley novel, were both quite successful at the U.K. box office, but Hammer was unable to capitalise on them as most of the profits went to other financial backers.
Hammer Films struggled on throughout the 1970s before going into liquidation in 1979.[42] Hammer's last production, in 1979, was a remake ofAlfred Hitchcock's 1938 thrillerThe Lady Vanishes, starringElliott Gould andCybill Shepherd.[44] (The Encyclopedia of British Film characterized the remake as "about as witless and charmless as could be conceived".)[45]
In July 1993, it was reportedRichard andLauren Shuler Donner had acquired 200 titles of Hammer's library from rights holderRoy Skeggs with the intention of remaking them for film and television.[46] The following month it was reportedWarner Bros. had signed a deal with the Donners to develop the new Hammer projects.[47] The first of the intended Hammer remakes was to be a $40-50 million remake ofThe Quatermass Xperiment to be titledXperiment and written byDan O'Bannon with eitherSean Connery orAnthony Hopkins eyed to playBernard Quatermass along with remakes ofQuatermass 2 andQuatermass and the Pit and possibly further installments shouldXperiment prove successful.[48][49] In addition to relaunching theQuatermass series, the Donners also planned remakes ofThe Devil Rides Out,Stolen Face, andTaste of Fear.[49][48] In addition to remaking established Hammer titles, the Donners also planned to produce new films under the Hammer name such as an adaptation of the Andrew Laurence novelThe Hiss titledHideous Whispers slated to be directed by Richard Donner,Psychic Detective, and aJohn Hough directed film titledChildren of the Wolf.[49][48] Additional plans were made for aTwilight Zone styleanthology series to be titledThe Haunted House of Hammer with a planned 44 one-hour episode commitment, 22 of which would be filmed in theUnited Kingdom while the other 22 would be filmed in theUnited States.[49] Ultimately, despite interest expressed by both the press and Warner Bros., nothing ultimately came of this deal and the Hammer revival was abandoned.[48]
In the 2000s, although the company seemed to be in hibernation, frequent announcements had been made of new projects. In 2003, for example, the studio announced plans to work with Australian company Pictures in Paradise to develop new horror films for the DVD and cinema market. On 10 May 2007, it was announced that Dutch producerJohn De Mol had purchased the Hammer Films rights via his private equity firm Cyrte Investments. In addition to holding the rights to over 300 Hammer films, De Mol's company plans to restart the studio. According to an article inVariety detailing the transaction, the new Hammer Films was to be run by former Liberty Global execsSimon Oakes and Marc Schipper. In addition, Guy East andNigel Sinclair of L.A.-based Spitfire Pictures are on board to produce two to three horror films or thrillers a year for the U.K.-based studio. The first output under the new owners isBeyond the Rave, a contemporary vampire story which premièred free online, exclusively, on Myspace in April 2008 as a 20 × 4 min. serial.
The company began shooting a new horror/thriller film inCounty Donegal in 2008, backed by theIrish Film Board. The film is titledWake Wood and was scheduled for release in the United Kingdom in the autumn of 2009.[50]The film was produced in collaboration with the Swedish company Solid Entertainment, makers of the vampire filmFrostbiten, which pays homage to the Hammer vampire films among others. It was given a limited UK/Ireland theatrical release in March 2011. In the summer of 2009, Hammer produced in the U.S.The Resident, a thriller directed and co-written byFinnish filmmakerAntti Jokinen and starringHilary Swank,Jeffrey Dean Morgan andChristopher Lee.[51][52] It was released in the US and UK in March 2011. In 2010, Hammer, in partnership withOverture Films andRelativity Media, releasedLet Me In, a remake of Swedish vampire filmLet the Right One In.[53]
In June 2010, it was announced that Hammer acquiredWake, a script by Chris Borrelli for an action feature to be directed by Danish filmmakerKasper Barfoed.[54] In February 2012, the Hammer and Alliance Films adaptation ofThe Woman in Black was released.Daniel Radcliffe stars as lawyer Arthur Kipps.Jane Goldman wrote the film's screenplay, withJames Watkins in the director's chair. In April 2012, the company announced it was to make a sequel toThe Woman in Black titledThe Woman in Black: Angel of Death. Also in 2012, Hammer and Alliance Films announced two more films going into production during 2012, entitledThe Quiet Ones andGaslight.[55]The Quiet Ones tells the story of an unorthodox professor (Jared Harris) who uses controversial methods and leads his best students off the grid to take part in a dangerous experiment: to create a poltergeist. It was released on 10 April 2014 in the UK and 25 April in the US.
After a few quiet years, the filmThe Lodge had its world premiere at theSundance Film Festival on 25 January 2019. It was scheduled to be released on 15 November 2019, by NEON.
In September 2019, Hammer signed a worldwide distribution deal withStudioCanal for its catalogue.[56]
In November 2021, it was announced Network Distributing had united with Hammer to form Hammer Studios Ltd.[57] In August 2023, it was announced Hammer Film Productions, its affiliated companies, and back catalogue had been acquired by theJohn Gore Organisation.[58]
In July 2022, Hammer Film Productions Ltd was incorporated by independent filmmaker and writer, Ronan Williams via Companies House in the UK.[59][60]
In my early teens I went with groups of friends to see certain films. If we saw the logo of Hammer, we knew it was going to be a very special picture. A surprising experience. And shocking.
Hammer's horror films were often praised by critics for their visual style, although rarely taken seriously. "Altogether this is a horrific film and sometimes a crude film, but by no means an unimpressive piece of melodramatic storytelling" wrote one critic ofDracula inThe Times in 1958.[62] Critics who specialise in cult films, likeKim Newman, have praised Hammer Horror more fully, enjoying their atmosphere, craftsmanship and occasionalcamp appeal. InA History of Horror,Mark Gatiss remarked that Hammer's earlier films were taken seriously at the time, in comparison to the trademark camp appeal of their later works.
In a 2013 retrospective forThe Guardian, Michael Newton wrote:
Shot inEastmancolor, the first batch of Hammer Horror movies – Terence Fisher'sThe Curse of Frankenstein (1957),Dracula (1958) andThe Mummy (1959) – are among the loveliest-looking British films of the decade... The early Hammer films offer a last gasp of British romanticism, the solid sets drenched in a soft brilliance of shadows, of greys, reds and blues; when these films stray into the far woods, it's always autumn there, never spring. The leaves fall, and the light shines golden and clear; compared with the well-lit contemporary look of the "angry young men" films, Hammer's mournful sumptuousness must have been even more striking. They play out a 1950s reverie of contagion, lust and post-Suez anxiety. Questions of guilt circulate in these films, where the virtuous can be transformed into vampires through one moment of sexual weakness...[63]
This was a fantasy, science fiction and supernaturalanthology series which dealt with normal people in everyday situations that found themselves having to experience something out of the ordinary. 17 episodes of approximately 50 minutes each were produced by Hammer Film Productions and20th Century Fox Television. In America, eight episodes from the series were broadcast as fourmade-for-television films consisting of twinned episodes along with new segment introduction footage provided by actorsPatrick McGoohan,Sebastian Cabot andJoan Crawford serving as hosts. The series was first aired onABC from 26 September, 1968 to 30 January, 1969, prior to broadcast in the UK onITV in 1969.
In 1980, Hammer Films created ananthology series for British television,Hammer House of Horror. Shown onITV, it ran for 13 episodes with a running length of approximately 54 minutes each. In a break from their cinema format, these self-contained episodes featuredplot twists which usually saw the protagonists fall into the hands of that episode's horror at the end. The series featured a different kind of horror each week, including witches, werewolves, ghosts, devil worship and voodoo, but also included non-supernatural horror themes such as cannibalism, confinement and serial killers. All the stories were set in contemporary England.
A second television anthology series,Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense, was produced in 1984 and ran for 13 episodes. The stories were originally to have been the same 54 min. length as their previous series, but it was decided to expand them to feature-length to market them as 'movies of the week' in the US. The running time varied from 69 to 73 minutes. The series was made in association with20th Century Fox (who broadcast films asFox Mystery Theater) and as such, the sex and violence seen in the earlier series was toned down considerably for US television. Each episode featured a star, often American, known to US viewers. This series was Hammer's final production of the 20th century, and the studio went into semi-permanent hiatus.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
