Hammer, Amicus & Classic British Horror

[GoldenGirl]

Any fans of classic British horror here? I'm a huge Hammer fan especially, but I love all classic horror from the portmanteau style films such as Tales from the Crypt, to the genuinely creepy psychological horror of Don't Look Now, and of course the downright cheesy such as The Abominable Dr Phibes!

My favourites are Hammer's vampire films... They just don't make vampire films like they used to!! I don't want to see Buffy and her high school buddies slaying vampires in modern day Los Angeles or wherever it is - I want to see gothic sets and creepy castles in 19th c. eastern Europe, I want to see heaving bosoms in scanty nightdresses, I want to see plastic bats being reeled in on invisible wire, and I want to see Peter Cushing!!!

[Flash Gordon]

Can there be anything better than snuggling up, gone midnight, and watching a Hammer horror?

[Flash Gordon]

PS. I also like heaving bosoms, but that's just me.

Don't Look Now is an absolute classic - a masterclass in suspence from Nicolas Roeg.

I always remember Asylum: which I think featured Robert Powell. I like those films where there's multiple stories, but love horror in general

Christopher Lee was a great Dracula.

[frame]

You've said it all for me

[rossobantam]

yeh another fan here!

I loved Friday nights 'Appointment with Fear'......the intro montage of faces that changed from Dracula, to the Wolf Man, to the Mummy, to Frankenstein's Monster etc etc

[GoldenGirl]

Can there be anything better than snuggling up, gone midnight, and watching a Hammer horror?

No - absolutely my perfect night in!

Funny you should mention Asylum - I just watched it the other night, it was on the Paranormal channel.

Good to see there are some other fans here!

[silverbirch]

did you realise the similarity between the Hammer movies and the Carry On movies ?

they both got going in the mid 50s
they both had theire hey day in the swinging 60s
and they both hit the buffers in the mid 70s !

there have been attempt s to revive these British institutions but it looks like they are down and out !

[GoldenGirl]

did you realise the similarity between the Hammer movies and the Carry On movies ?

Absolutely - they were both made at Pinewood studios too! And of course Carry on Screaming both takes the p*ss out of - and pays homage to - the Hammer style.

[silverbirch]

my theory is that the movie carry on screaming .. sounded the death knell for Hammer Horror

Just like Blazing Saddles a spoof of cowboy films
and the cowboy movies seemed to die out around then.

Syd James died in the mid 70s and the Carry Ons seemed to die with him.

[Flash Gordon]

It could also have been recession.

I very much liked that red dress that lady wore in Carry on Screaming