Back to gory days at the Hammer House of Horror

Although supernatural chills and thrills had been made in the UK for years, one company did more to popularise them than any other during the 1950s and 1960s.

The name Hammer became synonymous with the genre, thanks in no small part to The Curse Of Frankenstein, a retelling of Mary Shelley’s novel in - for the first time - full, glorious, and often gory, colour.

It’s difficult to imagine the impact it had, 50 years on, but back then, the sight of a drowned puppy being revived and blood-covered operations left a few cinemagoers feeling decidedly queasy, as well as some critics who, by and large, mauled it.

However, the rest of the world seemed to lap up this new and daring approach to scaring us witless, including the US, who couldn’t get enough of it.

The movie made stars of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who quickly reunited for 1958’s Dracula, a then-risque and often sexy retelling of Stoker’s tale. If anything, it was an even bigger smash than its predecessor, and Lee went on to play the neck-biting Count a further five times for Hammer.

Both Frankenstein and Dracula were scripted by Jimmy Sangster. He may have been just a lowly production assistant at Hammer’s Bray studios beforehand, but he’s now widely regarded as helping to revolutionise, along with director Terence Fisher, the UK’s horror movie output.

Hammer’s success led to various companies, most notably Tigon and Amicus, jumping on the bandwagon with their own gothic-inspired films. Tigon came up with the likes of The Creeping Flesh, Blood On Satan’s Claw and Witchfinder General, while Amicus weighed in with such classics as Tales From The Crypt, The Skull and Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors.

By the time all three studios were losing steam in the early 1970s, British-based filmmakers were beginning to move with the times by producing harder-hitting fare.

Nicolas Roeg’s eerie adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s Don’t Look Now was paired on the big-screen with the Anthony Shaffer-scripted The Wicker Man - what a double-bill that must have been for unsuspecting cinemagoers in 1973.

Various comedians who grew up watching these films, including Simon Pegg and The League Of Gentlemen, have since paid homage to them in their own work.

They’re among the famous faces discussing the subject in this documentary. More recently, fantasy films have come to the fore, with Brazil becoming a cult classic and the Harry Potter franchise going great guns at the box office.

Terry Gilliam, who directed the former, and Rupert Grint, who stars in the latter, are also on hand here.

Others offering their contributions are Hammer scream queens Ingrid Pitt and Barbara Shelley, Jimmy Sangster, John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins and John Landis.

Sadly, the genre’s granddaddy, Christopher Lee, doesn’t enjoy speaking about his time as Britain’s foremost monster, and appears to have declined a chance to offer his opinions and memories.

Then again, the 85-year-old is one of the busiest men in filmdom - he’s currently preparing to start work on Cowboys For Christ, a reworking of The Wicker Man made by its director, Robin Hardy.