History Film / HammerHorror

A common assumption was that Creator/VincentPrice did Hammer Horror as well. In fact his films were for other studios (such as his popular Creator/EdgarAllanPoe adaptations, made for Creator/RogerCorman and Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures), though he did star alongside Lee and Cushing in many other films, and was good friends with them.[[note]]Price and Lee were also both born on 27 May (Price in 1911, Lee in 1922), while Cushing was born on 26 May 1913. Eerie.[[/note]] Price did do a few British horror films, notably ''Film/WitchfinderGeneral'' for Creator/{{Tigon|BritishFilmProductions}}, and ''Scream and Scream Again'' (a Tigon/AIP co-production).

Creator/TerryPratchett's love of Hammer films was a source of much inspiration for the Literature/{{Discworld}} country of {{Uberwald}}, where every count is a vampire, every baron a werewolf, and every doctor is a MadScientist, and each of them is served by a specimen of TheIgor clan. You can also see many of the old clichés lovingly spoofed in Aardman's animated ''[[WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit]]''. One of the most fondly regarded periods of ''Series/DoctorWho'' is the "[[GothicHorror gothic]]" period of Season 12-14 (with Creator/TomBaker), which swiped Hammer Horror tropes and monsters and Doctorised them. Creator/TobeHooper's vampire flick ''Film/{{Lifeforce}}'' was dreamed up as a "70mm Hammer Film" and Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/SleepyHollow'' is basically an American equivalent, even featuring Christopher Lee and Michael Gough. ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt'' pays loving tribute to Hammer the way ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' did the Universal films, and the ''[[Film/FrightNight1985 Fright Night]]'' films are more serious, though still tongue-in-cheek homages with Roddy [=McDowall=] as an extremely Peter Cushing-esque vampire hunter. Creator/GuillermoDelToro is a lifelong Hammer fan and admitted to styling his gothic ghost films ''Film/TheDevilsBackbone'' and especially ''Film/CrimsonPeak'' as [[GenreThrowback throwbacks]]. Creator/SteveCoogan, a horror nerd, created the ''Series/DrTerriblesHouseOfHorrible'' to {{Pastiche}} Hammer films, as well as similar ones by their rival Creator/AmicusProductions. Meanwhile in Japan, LightNovel/VampireHunterD and Franchise/{{Castlevania}} draw strong influence from Hammer's stylings and traditions.

* ''Film/TheManWhoCouldCheatDeath''

* GenreShift: Occasionally, they did non-supernatural psych thrillers like ''Film/{{Paranoiac}}'' and ''Nightmare''. Despite the title, ''[[Film/CaptainClegg Night Creatures]]'' was more of a 1790s crime thriller than a horror movie.

* AffablyEvil: Baron Frankenstein can be quite charming when necessary.

Like its most famous character, you can't keep a movie studio dead. [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7629245.stm A new Hammer horror has been produced]], to briefly see the light of day in 2011. They also produced ''[[Film/LetMeIn]]'', a remake of ''Film/LetTheRightOneIn'' and second adaption of ''Literature/LetTheRightOneIn''.

A common assumption was that Creator/VincentPrice did Hammer Horror as well. In fact his films were for other studios (such as his popular Creator/EdgarAllanPoe adaptations, made for Creator/RogerCorman and Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures), though he did star alongside Lee and Cushing in many other films, and was good friends with them.[[note]]He was also born on the same day as Lee, and a day after Cushing. Eerie.[[/note]] Price did do a few British horror films, notably ''Film/WitchfinderGeneral'' for Creator/{{Tigon|BritishFilmProductions}}, and ''Scream and Scream Again'' (a Tigon/AIP co-production).

Like its most famous character, you can't keep a movie studio dead. [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7629245.stm A new Hammer horror has been produced]], to briefly see the light of day in 2011. They also produced ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_Me_In_(film) Let Me In]]'', a remake of ''Film/LetTheRightOneIn''.

* ''[[Literature/LetTheRightOneIn Let Me In]]'' (2010)

* ToplessFromTheBack: Common in earlier Hammer films, such as ''Rasputin the Mad Monk,'' along with DressHitsFloor.

-->-- '''Music/KateBush''', "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itX7uyZ4Ocw&feature=related Hammer Horror]]"

** Ingrid Pitt seemed to be Hammer's equivalent to Scarlett Johansson.

Creator/TerryPratchett's love of Hammer films was a source of much inspiration for the Literature/{{Discworld}} country of {{Uberwald}}, where every count is a vampire, every baron a werewolf, and every doctor is a MadScientist, and each of them is served by a specimen of TheIgor clan. You can also see many of the old clichés lovingly spoofed in Aardman's animated ''[[WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit]]''. One of the most fondly regarded periods of ''Series/DoctorWho'' is the "[[GothicHorror gothic]]" period of Season 12-14 (with Creator/TomBaker), which swiped Hammer Horror tropes and monsters and Doctorised them. Creator/TobeHooper's vampire flick ''Film/{{Lifeforce}}'' was dreamed up as a "70mm Hammer Film" and Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/SleepyHollow'' is basically an American equivalent, even featuring Christopher Lee and Michael Gough. ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt'' pays loving tribute to Hammer the way ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' did the Universal films, and the ''Film/FrightNight'' films are more serious, though still tongue-in-cheek homages with Roddy [=McDowall=] as an extremely Peter Cushing-esque vampire hunter. Creator/GuillermoDelToro is a lifelong Hammer fan and admitted to styling his gothic ghost films ''Film/TheDevilsBackbone'' and especially ''Film/CrimsonPeak'' as [[GenreThrowback throwbacks]]. Creator/SteveCoogan, a horror nerd, created the ''Series/DrTerriblesHouseOfHorrible'' to {{Pastiche}} Hammer films, as well as similar ones by their rival Creator/AmicusProductions. Meanwhile in Japan, LightNovel/VampireHunterD and Franchise/{{Castlevania}} draw strong influence from Hammer's stylings and traditions.

Most were distributed by Creator/{{Universal}} Pictures. The films mostly re-invented the 'classic' horror movie characters previously given form by [[Franchise/UniversalHorror Universal themselves]] in the 1930s and '40s (Film/{{Dracula|1931}}, [[Film/{{Frankenstein1931}} Frankenstein and his Monster]], [[Film/TheWolfMan1941 The Werewolf]], Film/{{The Mummy|sHand}}), putting them into colour (often very lurid colour) and adding some new twists. The reinventions were so popular that the public image of many of these characters has some Hammer elements. For example, [[ClassicalMovieVampire the popular conception]] of {{Dracula}}, as seen in so many cartoons, wears full evening dress and talks with a Hungarian accent, like Creator/BelaLugosi's portrayal for Universal, but he is also over six feet tall and lean with {{red eyes|TakeWarning}}, [[FangsAreEvil long fangs]] and a [[VillainousWidowsPeak widow's peak]], which more closely resembles Creator/ChristopherLee's Hammer Dracula.

* ''Film/PrehistoricWOmen'' (1967)

The Hammer Horror films were a series of GothicHorror movies made by the British company Hammer Film Productions between the 1950s and the early '70s. The name is sometimes applied to similar films from the same era made by other small (often British) companies.

* TheProductionCurse: Hammer films, given their subject matter, have been surprisingly free of manifestations of this trope. Except once. Their adaptation of Creator/BramStoker's novel ''The Jewel of the Seven Stars'', subtly retitled ''Blood From The Mummy's Tomb'', bcame known as "Hammer's cursed production". Star Creator/PeterCushing dropped out of the film only three days in, when his wife died suddenly. A month into filming, the director dropped dead of a heart attack. One scene in the film involved filming the aftermath of a motorcyle accident and the retrieval of a corpse from the scene. A member of the production crew died in a motorcycle accident just as filming got to this point.