first saw HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR back in 2010 on the old A&E DVDs with the green covers. At that time I wrote in my first review that I was disappointed in the series as a whole. There were a number of reasons for this. The biggest one was that I was really looking forward to it and it wasn’t what I expected. Nothing like thwarted expectations to color how you feel about something. I thought it would look more like the Hammer movies of yore with their moody photography and atmospheric use of color. Now that HHOH is out on Blu-Ray, I thought I would revisit it for old times’ sake. Boy what a difference a decade can make! This time around I had no such expectations and I was able to enjoy them as well crafted mini-movies with eclectic stories and solid performances.
As I noted in my old review, the stories were a mixed bag with some better than others but none of them were without interest. The only real disappointments were THE CARPATHIAN EAGLE and THE MASK OF SATAN. The former had an unsatisfactory revelation while the latter was just too confusing to follow. I also didn’t like the ending to THE 13th REUNION. My personal favorites were THE TWO FACES OF EVIL which was truly unsettling, GUARDIANS OF THE ABYSS with John Carson recycling his PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES persona, CHILDREN OF THE FULL MOON provides an interesting variation on werewolves and has a great Diana Dors performance, RUDE AWAKENING with a lecherous Denholm Elliot and an ever changing secretary and the one and only Peter Cushing in THE SILENT SCREAM.
The remaining 5 episodes all have their moments. There’s the notorious birthday party in THE HOUSE THAT BLED TO DEATH, the creepy child ghost of GROWING PAINS, the African fetish doll in CHARLIE BOY, the just desserts ending of WITCHING TIME, and finally the interesting twist to the GASLIGHT theme of VISITOR FROM THE GRAVE. All 13 episodes were done in 1980 and were given the trademark Hammer treatment. They are well produced, well acted, well directed by such Hammer veterans as Peter Sasdy, Alan Gibson, and Don Sharp, feature lots of Kensington gore (Hammer’s celebrated fake blood), and even have occasional nudity which was surprising because this was a TV show. Best of all they are still entertaining and engaging after 40 years.
That won’t be true for younger viewers who rely more on effects than they do on performances, written dialogue, and interesting storylines. While many familiar horror tropes are here, they are cleverly handled with new twists that many won’t see coming. I am glad that I revisted HHOH after 10 years and am absolutely delighted that I found them so enjoyable. Apparently many others agree as the series even has its own website with all sorts of background info and trivia. Although it is available to view online, if you want to own the series just make sure that you get this IMPRINT set not any of the others as they won’t work on Region 1 players while this one will.
The Capsule Critic 