Hammer Films is best known for its Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid 1950's right up to its last film, To the Devil a Daughter, in 1976. During its most productive period, Hammer dominated the horror film market, enjoying worldwide success. In the early 1980's it made its foray into television, producing the Hammer House of Horror.
The show had a haunting theme tune:
Brief synopses of each episode are below:
Lucinda Jessop, a seventeenth century witch, transports herself through time and materialises on David Winter's farm.
A journalist investigates some strange goings-on at a diet clinic.
A seedy estate agent is trapped inside a recurring nightmare.
A neglected dead son's vengeance from beyond the grave.
New occupants of a house experience frightening events.
An African fetish doll begins to exert a malevolent influence on those around it.
A ex-nazi puts an ex-jailbird through a terrifying ordeal.
A car crash leads a couple to a country mansion where a werewolf is on the prowl.
A grisly female serial killer is on the loose, and a detective is close on her heels.
A secret society try to raise Chorozon, the guardian of the abyss, from its slumbers.
After a woman shoots, kills and buries an intruder, she sees him everywhere.
A holidaying family pick up a strange hitch-hiker.
A mortician becomes obssessed by the number nine as he descends into insanity.
The Hammer House of Horror series ran for 13 episodes, with each episode having an approximate running time of fifty minutes. Unlike the original Hammer films, the Hammer House of Horror was set in the present day and merged commonplace situations and characters with a malevolent aspect. Another break with the original Gothic horror films was that all the episodes, except for one, had a downbeat ending, with evil often triumphing.
The series attracted some famous names in its line-up. Notable names include, Peter Cushing, Diana Dors, Brian Cox, Denholm Elliot and Suzanne Danielle.
The series was released in DVD format in 2004 with the following running order:
Hammer House of Horror DVDS
Disc 1: The House that Bled to Death, The Silent Scream, The Two Faces Of Evil
Disc 2: The Mark of Satan, Witching Time, Visitor from the Grave
Disc 3: Rude Awakening, Charlie Boy, Children of the Full Moon
Disc 4: The Thirteenth Reunion, The Carpathian Eagle, Guardian of the Abyss, Growing Pains
Some dramatic scenes from the series.
After the success of the Hammer House of Horror, another tv series was commissioned called The Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense. It also ran for 13 episodes and was aimed at the U.S. market.
Also see classic Hammer Horror Films
Another classic tv series of the 1980's www.tales-of-the-unexpected-episodes.com