Hammer Films

[ulthar]

What Hammer films have you seen?  Which ones have your really liked?  Which ones would you say are got-to-see?

I think my personal favorite so far has been NIGHT CREATURES.  What a fun film.

TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA was a bit weird for me, with Drac not even being in it all that much.  Still fun, though.

I have not seen a Hammer production yet that I disliked enough to say "stay away from this one."

[Ometiklan]

Without A doubt My favorite would Be Quatermass and the Pit.

[Mr. DS]

Hammer offers up Bmovie goodness with a Shakespearean flair.  I've reviewed a few (Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed and The Reptile) and enjoyed them.  They never fail to offer up a great macabre sense to their films.  

[RCMerchant]

The ones I've seen....
the CURSE of FRANKENSTEIN with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. (Good movie!)
HORROR of DRACULA (with Lee and Cushing-again GREAT film!)
BRIDES of DRACULA (an underated little gem...with David Peel as the vampire)
TASTE the BLOOD of DRACULA
DRACULA PRINCE of DARKNESS
DRACULA HAS RISEN from the GRAVE
SCARS of DRACULA (a personal favorite!!!! Lee gets lotsa screen time in this one!)
DRACULA AD 1972 ( I seen this in the theater in...gee...what year was that? oh yeah! 1972!!!)
the SATANIC RITES of DRACULA (meh-a mediocore finish to Lee's Hammer/Dracula series,IMH
ONE MILLION YEARS BC (HARRYHAUSEN and RAQUEL WELCH! YEAH!)
the EVIL of FRANKENSTEIN (another personal fav! Kiwi Kingston is the monster)
FRANKENSTEIN and the MONSTER from HELL (with David (Darth Vade) Prowse as the monster)
all 3 of the QUARTERMASS films
the VAMPIRE LOVERS (with the bee-a-u-tiful Miss Ingrid Pitt)
DR>JEKYLL and SISTER HYDE (with Ralph Bates turning into Martine Bestwick!)
TERROR of the TONGS (loooooong ago on Double Creature Feature)
MOON ZERO 2
CAPTAIN KRONOS-VAMPIRE HUNTER
the GORGON
the MUMMY
BLOOD from the MUMMYS TOMB
The REPTILE
I would like to see...
DRACULA and the 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES
LUST for a VAMPIRE
VAMPIRE CIRCUS
TWINS of EVIL
HANDS of the RIPPER

I found this great video on youtube...it features one of the best thing about Hammer films....The Big Breasted WOMEN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTOzgW1e6Go

[akiratubo]

Curse of Frankenstein - It's all right, I guess

Horror of Dracula - a BOMB!  Why even cast Christopher Lee if all he's going to do is hiss?

The Mummy - fell asleep

Quatermass and the Pit - Ok, this movie is great!  What the heck, Hammer?  Why couldn't you pull it together like this in every movie?

[Shadow]

I love Hammer flicks! My favorites are probably X the Unknown, Plague of the Zombies and One Million Years BC, though dozens of others are great, too. RC mentioned a few that I have yet to see:

LUST for a VAMPIRE
VAMPIRE CIRCUS
TWINS of EVIL
HANDS of the RIPPER

[Jack]

Quatermass and the Pit - Awesome.
The Abominable Snowman - great.
Brides of Dracula - pretty good.
The Curse of the Werewolf - good.
Phantom of the Opera - great.
Paranoiac - good.
The Kiss of the Vampire - good.
Plague of the Zombies - great.
The Reptile - haven't seen it in a long time, remember it being good.
The Mummy - great.
Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter - fair.
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb - good.
Quartermass II - poor.

[lester1/2jr]

I liked Rasputin

[The Burgomaster]

I love Hammer movies.  I have many stand-alone DVDs (mostly the Lee / Cushing movies, plus a few others), and I have a Hammer boxed set with about 8 movies in it (CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF with Oliver Reed, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA with Herbert Lom, and stuff like that).  I find these movies particularly pleasing:

1) On a rainy Saturday afternoon;
2) Any night after midnight

[peter johnson]

I tend to enjoy whatever Hammer does --
I definitely join the raves here over "Quatermass and The Pit" aka "5 Million Years to Earth".  This film is full of so much fine detail:  The change in the spelling of Hobb's Lane on the streetsigns from "Hob's Lane", meaning Demon's Lane; the business when the scholar is reading the ancient Latin description of the adventures of the charcoal burners, turning the single page backwards and forwards, just as you really would do were you trying to read a Latin text that went from page to page.  I could go on and on.  Not just my favorite Hammer film, but one of my favorites of all time ever just plain movie!
Glad to see someone mention "Paranoiac" -- Hammer made a bunch of psychological horror/suspense films that owed more to Hitchcock & the French surrealists than to Technicolor gore . . . not that there's anything wrong with that!
I wish more people would see "Taste of Fear", released in America as "Scream of Fear"(1961).  A really nasty piece of Gaslight/Diabolique-inspired mayhem.  A Halloween favorite of many people out here in Boulder.  It has Christopher Lee, really creepy black-and-white photography, and a killer plot.  It moves slowly at first, so don't get impatient.  They need the time to set you up for the grand finale . . .
"Hysteria"(1964) is another one of these --
"The Devil Rides Out"(1968) -- Charles Grey, from Rocky Horror, plays an Alestier Crowley inspired head of a witches coven who does battle with Christopher Lee (playing the good-guy hero!!) as a white magician in a duel of wits and demons.  Highly literate script from the novel by Dennis Wheatley.  Now, this one I wouldn't mind seeing remade with modern special effects.
"The Hound of The Baskervilles"(1959)-- Lee!!  Cushing as Sherlock Holmes!!  Blood!! Gore!!  Monster Hounds!!  Lavish sets and costumes!!  Derring do!!  Exclamation Points!!
"Four-Sided Triangle"(1952) -- Brilliant.  An almost never-seen-these-days science fiction study in cloning and murder.  Decades ahead of its time.  Seek it out and marvel that it was made in 1952 . . .
"Countess Dracula"(1970) -- Ingrid Pitt stars in this.  Based loosely on the 16ht Century Duchess Barony stories that had her bathing in the blood of virgins to keep her youth, it's actually set at the outbreak of WW1 and contains some genuinely amazing imagery.
"The Nanny" -- Bette Davis!! She did 2 films for Hammer -- I forget the other one.  She's creepy!  And hey, she can act a little too!!
Anyway, I could go on and on here -- better to go to the 2 dozen or so Hammer sites I'm aware of and get some good ideas for viewing there --
My point here is to give mention to some of the ones I think get overlooked when people think of Hammer.  If you pick only one of the lesser-knowns, I  have to go back to "Scream of Fear".
peter johnson/denny crane

[Neville]

I saw some of the Dracula movies as a kid, but barely remembered them. A few years ago a local theatre made a short run of Hammer films, and I decided to watch as many as I coul put my hands on.

I'd say my favourites are these, in no particula order:

- Dracula, Prince of Darkness (amazing settings and atmosphere)

- Dracula rises from the grave (one of the most sexually charged Dracula films)

- Taste the blood of Dracula (yes, Dracula is not given much to do, but great film nevertheless)

- Frankenstein Created Woman (the best Frankenstein film if you ask me)

- Frankenstein must be destroyed (it's always fun to see Cushing as the villain)

- Captain Kronos (refreshing take on vampirism)

- Vampire circus (late vampire film that acts as a Hammer compendium of vampire films)

- The Mummy (just plain great)

- The hound of the Baskervilles (probably the best Holmes adaptation ever)

- The Devil rides out (easily the best script Hammer ever filmed, and Christopher Lee gets to play the hero)

So many good memories... sigh.

As for stinkers, there are a few too. I can't speak for the Karnstein trilogy, I still have to see it, but I'd suggest to avoid "Countess Dracula" and the several sequels to "The Mummy".

[WingedSerpent]

My personal favorite is One Million Years BC.  I love pretty much everything with Ray Harryhausens spfx in it. 

[the ghoul]

I think there are only 2 or 3 Hammer Horror movies that I haven't seen yet.  My favorite ones are the Frankenstein series, but I like them all so far.

[JJ80]

Although I called them 'Gaudy' in another post I actually rather like Hammer films (I own the big box set), but I actually prefer their older black and white films:

- "The Quatermass Experiment";
- "Quatermass 2";
- "X The Unknown";
- "Spaceways";
- "Four-Sided Triangle";
- "These Are The Damned".

'60's/'70's classics: "The Lost Continent";
                          "The Gorgon";
                         "The Reptile";
                          "Plague of the Zombies";
                         "The Nanny".

[Neville]

"The Gorgon" is a critics' favourite, but I found it a bit dull. "Plague of the zombies" is alright, although the zombies are a bit underused. They tell me "The reptile" is very similar to these other two, but never seen it.

As for the Quatermass films, for some reason they don't work for me as well as for other people. I like the second one a lot, though. I found the central idea very unsettling, and its stark B/W cinematography contributes a lot to its atmosphere.