A baby from Hell

To the Devil a Daughter (1976)

Last movie from the Hammer Collection is also the second to last movie Hammer made and their last horror movie before going bankrupt. It's a story about a young nun who gets possessed by an excommunicated priest while an American occult novelist tries to save her from the group of Satanists. The movie is supposedly based on Dennis Wheatley's book by the same name, but it really has nothing much to do with it. The story has it's moments, but especially the ending is such an anti-climax that it's a bit too uneven to work. Actually as the documentary on the disc says the original ending was cut from the movie and the new ending was just edited together from what they had. The cast is quite great with Christopher Lee and Richard Widmark as the most notable. The movie has it's moments and is nicely twisted at parts, but it's just a bit too uneven to make it a good one. Surely worth the watch for Hammer fans, but I doubt anyone else will get much out of it. The document on the DVD, To the Devil... The Death of Hammer, is well worth the watch. There's also Eddie Powell interview and a trailer as extras, no subtitles.
60%

Family ties, Hammer style

Demons of the Mind (1972)

This one from the Hammer Collection is a weird little thriller. A physician finds out that two children are being imprisoned in their house by their father. He decides to find out what's going on and discovers a very disturbing "family life" with incest and satanic possession. The story is not exactly great and the dialog is kind of goofy at parts. The acting could have also been better, but it's not a bad movie. The mood is quite great and at parts it reminded me of The Wicker Man (1973) in it's feel. At parts there's even some nice "what the fuck?" moments. And those parts are what makes this one well worth the watch. With a bit more focus on the script and better cast, this would be a great movie, now it's just above average. The picture quality is quite good and there's a commentary with director, writer and co-star Virginia Wethrell and a trailer as extras. No subtitles as usual.
69%

A crippled thriller

Fear in the Night (1972)

Next film from the Hammer Collection continues on the psychological thriller path. This time a young teacher travels to the countryside with her husband to teach in a local boy school. She is however attacked by a one armed man before she leaves and that traumatizes her. Once they arrive to their new home things look great and life is beautiful, until she's attacked by the same one armed man again. Things start to look suspicious in the vacant school and the head master, played by Peter Cushing, happens to be missing an arm. I really loved the mood of this one and the strong cast carries the movie past the quite boring plot after the strong start and before the brilliant end third. I was surprised to see even traces of giallo style in this one, kind of like a mix of Hammer and Argento (the good Argento when he was still doing great movies). If the two thirds of the movie after the start would have been a bit more interesting, this would be one of the best Hammer movies. Now it's just a bit too uneven, but none the less it's surely worth watching if you're into Hammer movies. The picture quality of the DVD was fairly good. There's a commentary with director Jimmy Sangster and a trailer on the disc, no subtitles as usual.
75%

Looking for love in all the wrong places

Straight on Till Morning (1972)

The next film from the Hammer Collection is quite an interesting one. Early 70's was not a good time for conventional horror, no matter how brilliant the mood was, so Hammer needed to switch the actual monsters to humans who are monsters. Serial killers, rapists, sadists and so on. And simple horror was not good enough any more, you needed thriller that turns into terror and the viewer had to really feel the pain. So with that mind set they went on making this disturbing psychological horror movie. It's a story about a timid and withdrawn woman who moves to London from the countryside. She's looking to grow away from her mother and in the essence looking for love. Life is rough for her and things don't go as planned. When she eventually meets a man she thinks is the right one for her, the man turns out to be a sadistic serial killer. Despite the style and the story this is not just mind numbing sleaze, it's kind of like sleaze for the intelligent audience. And that makes this quite a good movie. The cast is fairly good and the mood is quite disturbing. At parts it goes to almost being surreal in it's nasty vision. The feel of the 70's is captured quite well which only adds to the already well working mood of it. All in all this was quite a great surprise and well worth watching if the genre suits you. There's a commentary with Rita Tushingham and journalist Jonathan Sothcott on the DVD with a trailer as an extra.
79%

The Mummy looks hot without all those bandages

Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)

This is the only Mummy movie from the Hammer Collection and as such it's rather an odd pick, there is no monster in wrapped in bandages at all in this one. It's kind of like what Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) did to the Frankenstein franchise, a new angle of the story. But where Frankenstein pulled it off quite nicely, this one really doesn't. The mood in this one is quite brilliant, nice atmospheric horror, true Hammer style and the movie looks surprisingly good. But the script is quite silly, even though it's based on a Bram Stoker story. And it really didn't help the script that the acting is sub par. Sure Valerie Leon looks stunning but what she has been gifted in her body is quite far from her acting gifts. Veird fact about the movie is that the director, Seth Holt, died during filming at the age of 47 and Michael Carreras stepped in to finish the movie. Guess the curse of the Mummy claimed a real victim this time. Anyway, this is far from the best of Hammer and even far from the best of the Mummy series. It has good mood to it, but not much else. The picture quality was fine and there's an interview with Valerie Leon and Christopher Wicking on the DVD with stills gallery and radio spots as extras, no subtitles as usual.
40%

Oh the horror, it's another Frankenstein

The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

Another Frankenstein movie from the Hammer Collection. This is the weakest of the Hammer's Frankenstein series and quite a dull movie all together. It's the only movie without Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein and it's basically a remake of The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), those don't help it that's for sure. The younger version of Dr. Frankenstein doesn't really fit the part and the rest of the cast isn't anything great either. There are some attempts for dark comedy in it, guess as an effort to save the poor ripoff story, but it isn't really funny either. The monster itself was fairly nice, not the best I've seen but there have been worse also. Still there are some good moments in the movie, especially during the last 30 minutes, but it's not really worth it to watch the movie just for those. The picture quality is quite good, there's a commentary with Jimmy Sangster, interview with Veronica Carlson, posters and stills gallery on the DVD as extras, no subtitles as usual.
37%

You can't kill the pointy toothed count that easily

Scars of Dracula (1970)

Another Dracula movie from the Hammer Collection. This time the movie wastes no time on getting the count back up and sucking blood as before the title credits a bat spills blood on his cape and on we go. I really have to say that bat makes a freaking annoying sound and unfortunately we need to hear it quite a many times later on. Anyways back to the story, a man runs from the law to hide in the castle, only to be captured by Dracula. His brother and the brother's wife go after looking for him and of course meet the count. This was a bad movie, probably the worst in the Dracula series. But it does go into the campy side quite nicely so there are some laughs in there. The movie tries to get that gothic Hammer feel but it just ends up being a cheap ripoff. I guess the makers thought that just sucking blood from the neck was boring so this time the bat does a fair share of the killing and even Dracula himself relies on a knife and poisoned soup. So yes, it's stupid, but it's quite fun and it isn't too boring either. The ending was quite great. That Dracula sure loves them boobies. The picture quality was quite ok. The disc had no subtitles, but there is a commentary by Roy Ward Baker and Christopher Lee, stills gallery and a trailer.
40%

Rhino's and boobies

Prehistoric Women (1967)

This one from the Hammer Collection is by far the worst Hammer movie I've seen. But it's actually so bad it becomes quite fun. A jungle guide kills a cheetah and gets captured by a tribe of natives who want to sacrifice him. But while the ritual is taking place, the man touches a horn of a sacred rhino and is sent to another world. This world has only women, brunettes who enslave the blondes. Him being the only man, he of course is quite wanted on both sides. This movie is utter nonsense and so badly made it makes it quite campy and fun. The acting is pretty much horrible, the effects are goofy, the story is ridiculous and the ending is something quite confusing in all it's stupidity. So the camp values are high, but it's still not a great bad movie. Even though at parts you can laugh out loud, there's still quite a few scenes that just make you yawn. So it's an average campy fun bad movie. The picture quality on the DVD was ok with no subtitles and only a trailer as an extra.
51%

The Devil against Christopher Lee

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

Next movie in the Hammer Collection is Christopher Lee's personal favourite Hammer film. It's also one of the few movies where Christopher Lee plays a hero and not the villain. It's a story set in the early 20th century where Duc de Richeleau, played by Lee, and his friend Rex, played by Leon Greene find out that their young charge has been posessed by the devil. They save him from being baptized into the service of evil and end up getting the devil himself after them channeled by an evil priest Mocata. The cast is absolutely brilliant, Lee of course doing a great job but Charles Gray as Mocata is just as good if not better. The movie is a great Brittish gothic horror full of thrills and suspension. Hammer mood at it's best, despite it not being the usual Hammer movie. Sure the effects are dated and time hasn't been kind to it on some parts, but still it's surprisingly effective even today. One of my favourite Hammer movies and definitely worth watching if you crave for some proper horror that doesn't rely on cheap scares but to a striking suspension building. The picture quality on the DVD is good and again there's no subtitles and only a trailer as an extra.
86%

She who should have been left without a sequel

The Vengeance of She (1968)

Another one from the Hammer Collection. This was supposed to be a sequel to She (1965), but they decided to do a remake of the story with a bit of a twist. This time it's a woman who is haunted by a man giving her dreams to go to a lost land in Africa. The movie pretty much assumes the viewer has seen the original as it really doesn't bother to explain things, so unless you've seen the original you're going to have a hard time making any sense of this. The leading lady, Olga Schoberova, looks stunning but can't act one bit. Rest of the cast isn't exactly shining either. The dialog is about as intelligent as in an average pre-school theatre act, so the bad actors really don't mess up much. I didn't really like this movie much, the start was quite good, but then it got dull and never really came out from it. A bad sequel/remake of a below average movie, not really worth wasting your time for this. The picture quality on the DVD was ok and there was a trailer on the disc as well, no subtitles as usual.
17%

The dilemma of intelligent stupidity

Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

The eleventh movie from the Hammer Collection is quite a dilemma. On the other hand it's stupid as a boot and campy like the worst of them, but on the other hand it's quite clever, interesting and thought provoking. It's the third part in the Quatermass series and the only one in this collection. This time professor Quatermass is called to investigate a strange object and skeletons found underground in a London subway tunnel while they were extending it. The bones seem to be around five million years old and appear to be of some pre-human nature. The object is of an indestructable unknown material and seems to be some kind of container or something like that. This being a Quatermass movie it's of course aliens again and the horror starts. The effects are horrible at best and make it at parts quite hard not to laugh at them. Parts of the story are simply stupid and a bit too much "out there". But still it's definitely not a bad movie. There is quite a bit of good things in the story as well. At parts it's almost ingenious and quite thought provoking. The mood is guaranteed Hammer quality and the movie is properly scary at parts. The cast is great with good performances by pretty much all of them. So basically this movie works well both ways, it's at the same time a hilarious campy fun ride and a properly scary interesting sci-fi thriller. That's what I would call quite an achievement and a movie well worth watching. The picture quality on the DVD is not bad and again there are no subtitles and only a trailer as an extra.
79%

The doctor should know not to play with the dead

Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

The Hammer Collection returns to horror after two "historical" action adventures. This time dr. Frankenstein has refined his work so it's no more bits and pieces of bodyparts with hideous scars all around it. He creates a beautiful young woman. But him being Frankenstein, things of course don't end up too well for his "monster". It's a shame he put a soul of a wrongly executed man with some temper problems in the woman's body and the "creature" is out for blood again. This was actually surprisingly good even though it's not that much horror except the last 20 minutes or so. The 3 bullies reminded me of A Clockwork Orange (1971) and wouldn't be surprised if they have taken some references from this movie to that. The cast is quite good and Peter Cushing is always great. I liked the fact that they took the usual Frankenstein story away from the monster on a rampage while mobs with pitchforks and torches are out for justice. The movie actually has some nice remarks for those and kind of makes a dark comedy out of that. So it's not the usual story and for that I quite like it. The picture quality on the DVD was ok and there were no subtitles or extras on the disc.
77%

The Celtic Queen

The Viking Queen (1967)

The ninth movie from the Hammer Collection is again a rewrite in history. The movie has absolutely nothing to do with the Vikings, no matter what the title says, it's about the Celts and the Romans. And losely based on history would be an overstatement in this one, it's just exploitation set in some historic scenery. It's badly made, badly acted and the script is ridiculous, but it's still somewhat fun. Funny enough this movie is most known for a scene where a Roman soldier is wearing a wristwatch, that says a lot about the quality of the movie. Though I've seen the movie twice now, I still haven't spotted the watch myself. But I guess it has to be there as everyone says that it is. Or then it's just a prank by Hammer, they make the audience focus on looking for the watch and thus make them not see how crappy the start of the movie is and when the action starts towards the end they are bored of looking for the watch and just enjoy the best moments the movie has to offer. That's how I watched it. The acting is bad, the "Viking Queen" is played by Carita Järvinen, a Finnish actress in a role that ended up being her last. Sure she looks great, but can't act more than your average tree. The movie has some camp values worth the watch but really not much of them either. Funniest thing there was that the movie presents about twenty scenes where bare breasts could have been shown, but it shows none. Kind of a nice little tease for what ever that's worth. Anyway the first half of the movie is utter crap but the second half is somewhat enjoyable campy action flick. As a whole though it's more on the crappy side of it. The picture quality on the DVD was not great and there were no subtitles and only a trailer as an extra.
39%

Prehistory by Hammer, or how the blondes met the brunettes

One Million Years B.C. (1966)

This is another movie from the Hammer Collection and I have to say I quite like it. The idea of it is completely ridiculous, set in this somewhat prehistoric time where men and dinosaurs live together. There is not much of a script as the movie has only a few lines of dialog in the beginning as the announcer tells us what's going on. Rest of the movie is just grunting and some other voices that appear remotely to be somekind of language. Though there are the occasional English word here and there, most likely unintentionally. Also all the people look quite modern, despite their outfit and the beard for the men. Especially it's funny that the women seemed to have makeup back then. But hey it was a good excuse of getting hot women in tiny rags on film. Anyways, the weak plot and the campy bits aside, the movie is quite stunning. It's one big adventure through this fantasy land where the turtles, lizards and spiders are as big as houses and all sorts of dinosaurs are out to get you. The stop motion effects from Ray Harryhausen are alone worth the watch, add to that the beautiful scenery and of course the beautiful Raquel Welch and you have tons of eye candy. Sure some of the effects are quite bad in modern standards, but still some of them work surprisingly well even today. Wether it's the camp values or the eye candy, this movie is surely entertaining. The picture quality on the DVD was not the best, but still not horrible either. Again there were no subtitles, but there were two interviews as extras, one with Raquel Welch and one with Ray Harryhausen.
81%

Brittish witchcraft

The Witches (1966)

Seventh movie from the Hammer Collection is Joan Fontaine's last big screen film and quite an ok thriller despite it's few flaws. It's a story about a teacher who suffers a nervous breakdown in Africa after being terrorized by local witch doctors. She returns to England and gets a job at a small village private school. There she finds out that the witchcraft has not left her alone and that one of her students is about to be sacrificed. The story, as in many cases with Hammer, isn't the strongest part of the movie, the strongest part is again the feel of it. I loved how at start the village and the people living there seemed very idyllic and how the atmosphere there was very pleasant, but towards the end it became quite spooky. It has a very nice contrast to it. The cast is fairly ok, nothing to complain on that department. The look and the sound of the movie are quite great. Even though the style is very straight forward, there are some quite brilliant shots in there as well. Too bad that the story was so dull as this had the feel right but lacked the depth of it. The picture quality on the DVD is pretty good and again there are no subtitles and only a trailer of the film as an extra.
50%

Hammer goes ectothermic

The Reptile (1966)

Sixth movie from the Hammer Collection is shot in the same set as The Plague of the Zombies (1966) and has a similar storyline to it. This time without the zombies, but again there are mysterious deaths in a small village and a man travels there with his wife in plans to move in to the house they inherited from the man's dead brother. The similarities are at parts a bit annoying, but this is by no means a bad movie. Sure it's not a great one either but there's still that great Hammer feel to it and it kept me nailed to the seat quite nicely. Sure the snake woman is a bit goofy in modern standards, but the atmosphere makes the movie work very well. Was worth watching, even though it left a lot to improve. The picture quality on the DVD was not that great and the disc had no subtitles or extras.
61%

Russian history by Hammer

Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966)

Fifth movie from the Hammer Collection tells the story of the Russian monk, Rasputin. History books can be tossed to the campfire, this movie follows only entertainment values not actual facts. But that doesn't matter much, what would you expect from Hammer anyways. Christopher Lee steals the show here, he himself consideres this one of his best performances and I really agree. You can almost see him enjoying the part after the muted Dracula, Frankenstein and such, he really gets to let it loose and does it brilliantly. Unfortunately there's not much else brilliant in this one. The story is what it is, Rasputin drinks, dances, takes the ladies, heals a few people and tries to hypnotize the Tsarina to get control of the wealths of the country. The movie looks good and doesn't get boring, but still it's missing a bit too much sense to be fully entertaining. Luckily Christopher Lee saves many of those duller moments. For fans of Lee this is a must see, others can basically pass it. The DVD had a good picture quality, no subtitles and the only extra is the trailer of the movie.
58%

Plague + Zombies = Apocalypse?

The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

Fourth movie from the Hammer Collection is a gothic zombie movie. As such it's original enough to be quite interesting. It's a story about a small village of Cornwall where strange epidemic is killing people. A city doctor travels there with his daughter to investigate what's going on. Soon enough the dead start walking and the story gets rolling. Not the best story you can think of, but good enough to keep me entertained. The mood is great as usual in Hammer movies. The cast is quite ok, nothing special, but still a solid job by everyone. Far from the best of Hammer, but a fairly good movie and worth the watch. The picture quality on the DVD is quite good and again there's no subtitles. There's a double bill trailer with this and Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) which the movie was originally released with.
61%

Who's been sleeping in my bed?

The Resident (2011)

I know I promised this wouldn't turn into a Hammer blog, but what can you do, the company is back in business and I'm very interested to see their movies. Add to that the fact that this is Finnish director Antti Jokinen's first feature film so this one was pretty much a must see. Jokinen has done some quite nice music videos so I was expecting the visual side to be well in hand. Well it was and it wasn't, the opening credits got my hopes up but unfortunately the individual style ended there. Sure the movie looked good, but it surely wasn't anything special, kind of like any random horror flick out there that is done by a somewhat talented crew. The lack of personal style didn't end to the look of the film, the script was quite crap, offered absolutely nothing new to the table. The start was quite nice and got me quickly into the movie being a nice haunted house/creepy neighbour story, but unfortunately it stayed that way. The story is about this doctor who moves to a new appartment that looks to be too good to be true. The land lord seems to be a nice chap and and the rent is cheap. Though there is the nightly train running under it that shakes the whole building and her neighbour is a creepy old man, played by none other than the face of Hammer, Christopher Lee. Soon the viewer is shown that someone is watching the woman through the walls and the thriller starts. The cast is fairly ok, not bad by any means but didn't really shine either, Hilary Swank managing the best out of them. The technical side is in a good order, it looks and sounds spooky when it needs to and looks and sounds good when it doesn't. So nothing to complain there. The major problem is the lack of originality, the weak script would have needed some more personal approach or this technical side a lot better script. Which ever way, this way it just doesn't work. And that's a shame as I had my hopes up for Antti Jokinen, that finally we could get a Finnish director with some vision and not just technical knowledge. Looks like we didn't.
40%

The count with the sharp teeth

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

Third film from the Hammer Collection is also the third movie in the series of Dracula films from Hammer. To me Dracula is not Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman or Frank Langella, it is and always has been Christopher Lee. The very first Dracula movie I saw was a Hammer Dracula, don't know which one it was as I was so little that I can't remember. But Christopher Lee with his red eyes burned down into my memory so deep that he is the one that first comes to my mind when ever someone mentions Dracula. So this was a nostalgia trip for me. The story of this one is that two English couples end up into Dracula's castle, no matter how many times they were warned not to go there. The creepy servant called Klove uses the blood of one of them to resurrect the count and there we go again. The movie looks quite brilliant as most Hammer horror movies and the mood is spot on perfect. Christopher Lee has said that the lines given to him were so bad that he decided not to speak at all in the movie. So the Dracula only hisses and screams. Not a bad thing actually, gave it a bit more weirdness and made it more menacing. What I love about the Hammer Dracula is that it's not as finesse as the usual ones. It's quite straight forward, this dracula doesn't walk through doors, he kicks them in. The rest of the cast is quite ok and the story even though it's a bit cheesy at parts works well enough to keep the interest up. Can't say this is a masterpiece, but it's quite a great movie none the less. The DVD had no subtitles but there was a very good documentary on the disk called The Many Faces of Christopher Lee.
78%