Customer Reviews

Hammer Horror Collection (The Curse of Frankenstein / Dracula Has Risen from the Grave / Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed / Horror of Dracula / The Mummy / Taste the Blood of Dracula)

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just got this set and it's great. The video transfers are all vivid and beautiful, the colors pop, especially those all important blood reds. The mono soundtracks are surprisingly robust and clear. If you love Hammmer Films like I do then this set will probably make you drool.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957): Terence Fisher is a master director and this, the first of Hammer's reinvention of classic gothic horror, proves why. Story, performances and, oh, those colors are stunning.

Horror of Dracula (1958): Perhaps Hammer's finest hour, this is the best Dracula film ever. Great cast, direction, photography, costumes, etc. And the music by Hammer veteran James Bernard is terrific--it really gets your blood pumping. Oh, and Lee and Cushing truly strike sparks.

The Mummy (1959): The third in Hammer's fantastic Lee/Cushing Gothic re-imaginings. Chris Lee is the best mummy. Like his interpretation of Dracula, Lee is dynamic and forceful--and he does this with absolutely no dialogue!

Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968): The third in the Lee Dracula cycle. This one's exciting and fast-moving with some interesting visuals--the use of color filters on Dracula, Dracula's suspenseful removal of a stake from his chest, and some wonderfully eerie rooftop sets make this a winner.

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969): The fifth in the Cushing Frankenstein cycle and my personal favorite. The doctor is truly a complex character in this one. At turns, charming, cunning, witty, brilliant and evil. Cushing is amazing in the role and proves why he was such a great actor. Exciting and absorbing from start to finish.

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970): This DVD presents for the first time the full 95 minute cut in America. All previous releases were 91 minutes. This version is rated R and has bits of nudity and bloody violence reinstated. Chris Lee is as commanding as ever as Dracula but, to be truthful, he's not in this very much--in fact, it's really more of an extended cameo. Still, the film has much to recommend it. The cast is one of the best in the entire Hammer catalogue, especially Geoffrey Keen as the hypocritical Hargood and Ralph Bates as the sinister Courtley and, in a small role, Russell Hunter as a flamboyant Bordello owner. The production is quite beautiful and it's the first and only Hammer Dracula that's set in Victorian London. And the story is actually clever and interesting. The time just flies by.

Extras are slim, just some cool trailers, but the movies are the thing and they're great.

These are the films that took the three classic movie monsters brought them into the world of color. They each spawned several sequels of various quality ( the Hammer Mummy films coming off worst)but they all changed the way that we view horror today. Made on the high end of a low budget the films look great.The acting is wonderful, Cushing's Frankenstien is masterful portrait of evil and Christopher Lee's Dracula rightly made him famous the world over. It should also be remembered that as tame as they seem by todays standards there was a great out cries about the horror and shock content of the films upon their first release. The films while not nearly as terrifying as they once were are still really good thrillers. The discs themselves are quite good, although sorely lacking in extra material. Why no effort was made to put something together by Warner is beyond me, especially since Christopher Lee has been doing commentaries for the other Dracula films over at Anchor Bay.But that's a minor sticking point since the films themselves are what matter and in this case the transfers are wonderful.

The one thing that all three of these movies have in commen is that they were the first of what seemed like endless sequals where the same story was recycled over and over again. Hammer made their movies quickly and cheaply, thus they use the same sets over and over again. There were never more then 10 to 20 people making the movie from behind the camera, the creature make-up always looked fake, and the production values were not much better then what Roger Corman or Irwin Allen did in their movies, or what Kevin Smith uses now in his movies. End result, Low Budget Movies will always be very bad film making.

This is an absolutely top-notch collection. The widescreen transfers are nearly flawless, with rich colors - far and away better than any previously video releases. My only beef (minor at that) are the lack of extra disk features. This is especially notable when you compare this set with the recent Universal Monster Legacy collection. That aside, viewing this collection makes it easy to see why Hammer was so popular in its day - high production values, great casts, great pictures. I am just hoping that Warners follows up this US set with a second one because on the Amazon UK site I noticed that there is another box set with lesser, but no less desirable, Hammer titles such as Scars of Dracula, Horror of Frankenstein, The Devil Rides Out, Lust for a Vampire and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb. It would be nice to have that one available in a Region 1 version...

From the mid-'50s until the mid-'70s, the British Hammer Studios specialized in producing gothic horrors, with great success. Showcased here are three of their early productions, all directed by stalwart Terence Fisher, along with three of their later productions.

The seminal Curse of Frankenstein (1957) contains all the sophistication, irony and terror that made the Hammer Frankenstein series so successful and memorable. Peter Cushing plays the villianous Baron magnificently, and Christopher Lee presents us with an original and sympathetic portrayal of the creature. Production design is stunning, especially some of the lush matte paintings, and veteran James Bernard supplies one of his best scores.

Horror of Dracula (1958) is generally regarded as Fisher's masterpiece. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are pitted against each other as vampire-hunter Van Helsing and the nefarious Transylvanian aristocrat respectively. Fisher brings style and depth to the Dracula myth, and is fortunate to have the brilliance of composer James Bernard and designer Bernard Robinson at hand. Here we are presented with some of the cinema's most memorable images of vampirism of all time.

The Mummy (1959) never quite reached the heights attained by Frankenstein and Dracula, but it remains an entertaining piece of vintage Hammer.

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) is a much later example of Terence Fisher's work, and is one of his finest achievements. With an almost Hitchcockian flair, Fisher adds new dimensions to the Frankenstein legend. Freddie Jones gives the screen's most tragic and sympathetic "monster" since Christopher Lee or perhaps even Boris Karloff (1931), and Peter Cushing turns in his best performance as the notorious Baron himself.

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), directed by Freddie Francis, is entertaining hokum, lacking the depth and sophistication of Fisher's instalments, but nevertheless far ahead of some of the deplorable later additions to the series.

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) is a fine film that picks up where Risen from the Grave left off. Peter Sasdy directs this time, and at its best, his work harks back to Fisher's monumental vision of the Dracula myth. Unfortunately, the series went downhill rapidly from there.

All in all, an excellent collection containing some of Hammer's greatest output.

From the mid-'50s until the mid-'70s, the British Hammer Studios specialized with great success in producing gothic horrors, with great success. Showcased here are three of their early productions, all directed by stalwart Terence Fisher.

The seminal Curse of Frankenstein contains all the sophistication, irony and terror that made the Hammer Frankenstein series so successful and memorable. Peter Cushing plays the villianous Baron magnificently, and Christopher Lee presents us with an original and sympathetic portrayal of the creature. Production design is stunning, especially some of the lush matte paintings, and veteran James Bernard supplies one of his best scores.

Horror of Dracula is generally regarded as Fisher's masterpiece. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are pitted against each other as vampire-hunter Van Helsing and the nefarious Transylvanian aristocrat respectively. Fisher brings style and depth to the Dracula myth, and is fortunate to have the brilliance of composer James Bernard and designer Bernard Robinson at hand. Here we are presented with some of the cinema's most memorable images of vampirism of all time.

The Mummy never quite reached the heights attained by Frankenstein and Dracula, but it remains an entertaining piece of vintage Hammer.

Long time fan of the works of Chris Lee and Peter Cushing these are some of the early and best works. Hammer did good! Hammer Horror Collection (The Curse of Frankenstein / Dracula Has Risen from the Grave / Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed / Horror of Dracula / The Mummy / Taste the Blood of Dracula). Hammer brought lush colour to the old B&W classic, in fast pace, visually beautiful films.

You notice when amazon has used DVD and books listed, an item is good if the use price is 1/2 the original price. I notice on these, the used price is HIGHER. I think that says it all. Get these for your collection before they run out!

I have been watching these movies my whole life, and I can say they have never looked better. Hammer films have always been known for the rich colors in thier movies, and it comes across beautifuly on these discs. The price is incredible. I easily would have paid more for this set than I did. The only things lacking are the extras. Enjoy horror fans! You won't be disappointed.

I am a big fan of the Hammer horror films. While, the scripts were adequate, the actors were brilliant and top-rate, and managed to inject complete believability into what they had to work with. In my opinion, however, the primary genius behind these films was director, Terence Fisher, who managed to give these films a look and style quite apart from anything that had ever been done before, which very few people have managed to match in today's "quick cutting, camera-whipping to the point of nauseum, get-as-much-information-as-you-can-to-the-audience" filmmaking. Great horror is not about overt blood-letting, it's about classy style. Fisher, his crew and cast, had style.

This collection is a must for any fan of classic horror films. Yes, Hammer films were modest in budget, and compared to the pyrotechnics of contemporary horror films they seem downright quaint. However, at their best (and these are three of their finest) they redefined the horror genre for an entire generation. These are B movies with class. Great acting. Great scripts. Great talent. Christopher Lee as Dracula, the Mummy AND Frankenstein's monster. Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Frankenstein (not to mention Peter Banning, the Mummy's nemesis). Terence Fisher directing. It just doesn't get any better.