WHEN UNIVERSAL GOT HAMMERED
Hammer Films is generally considered to be the company that relaunched gothic horror films from the ashes of science fiction and giant bug movies of the 1950's. Beginning with CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) and HORROR OF DRACULA (1958) the old monsters from the 1930's were slowly being reborn -- and more importantly -- were box office successes. Universal Pictures, now known as Universal-International, was the distributor of Hammer films stateside and entered into an agreement with them, enabling them to produce more of the Universal monsters.
This article from STARBURST (December, 2018), chronicles the early history of Hammer and how it eventually became a horror phenomenon.
Those big three -- Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, and The Mummy are top-notch entertainment. The acting is stunning and the pace in each is ideal. Hammer's sequels sometimes lost the thread a bit, as these fifties classics are very much of their time and timeless as well. There's an atmosphere of dankness that overlays the best of them.
ReplyDeleteAnd the James Bernard scores, especially for Horror of Dracula. I remember that rattling me as much as what was going on in the movie.
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