HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY & SUSPENSE: Although The DVD Cover Is In German, The Series Is In English

I have been a fan of all things Hammer for many years and though I was aware of HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY & SUSPENSE, I had only seen some of the episodes on YouTube and that was a few years ago. I completely missed its American TV run in 1984 as FOX MYSTERY THEATRE. The U.K. edition has been discontinued and the episodes are no longer available on You Tube so I had to get this German edition which, despite the cover, contains the original English soundtracks and credits. I can concur with earlier reviews that this is a quality offering, better produced than the earlier HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR series which looked more like the low budget TV show that it was.

I find it ironic that Hammer Films, having risen to prominence after WW II by making B movies with lower tier American stars before hitting it big with horror films in the 1950s and 60s, should wind up producing 70 minute TV movies with U.S. stars in the 1980s. That gives a sense of the company having come full circle. These would be the last movies produced by the old Hammer which would lie inactive for over two decades before starting up again under new management. They had a box office smash with the first WOMAN IN BLACK in 2012 before disappearing once again. It would also be the swan song of many long time Hammer collaborators like directors Val Guest, Peter Sasdy and John Hough as well as music director Phillip Martell who had been with the company longer than anyone else.

There were 13 episodes (how appropriate) and even the ones I wasn’t impressed with, like BLACK CARRION (pretty good until the payoff) and THE SWEET SCENT OF DEATH (ditto), kept me engaged and entertained. CHILD’S PLAY, which reworks an old TWILIGHT ZONE episode, was quite effective with echoes of director Val Guest’s classic sci-fi film, THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE. As an earlier review gives a brief summary of each episode I’ll refrain from doing the same but I will go on record as saying that MARK OF THE DEVIL (shades of THE ILLUSTRATED MAN), IN POSSESSION, A DISTANT SCREAM, LAST VIDEO AND TESTAMENT and THE HAUNTED TENNIS COURT were among my favorites. I am not sure who currently owns the rights to HHOM&S but since HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR has been newly issued on Blu-Ray, then its time for these to be properly released as well.