Customer Reviews

The Icons of Suspense Collection: Hammer Films (Stop Me Before I Kill! / Cash on Demand / The Snorkel / Maniac / Never Take Candy from a Stranger / These Are the Damned)

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Hammer is better known for its colour horror remakes of the classics - Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy - however, these black and white gems should not be overlooked. They are all consistently great. My only complaint, and this goes for Sony's last Icon title as well (Icons of Science Fiction - Toho) is the case. For some reason, they package the disks in a case where they are stacked one on top the other, which could lead to scratching of the individual disks. They produce a quality package of films and then go cheap on the packaging, go figure.

Writing a review on such package is always a bit tricky, even if the Sleeve suggest a homogene film selection, it is almost never the case.

Hammer association with the horror genre casted a shadow over the rest of the filmmakers catalogue. They often venture in the Suspense/Thriller type of stories. But true to their style, there is always a very evil (Read : Monster) character at the center of each film. The 6 movies only slightly vary in style as they all are (more or less) Whodunits flicks. The exceptions are "....Damned" and "Cash...".

I set the bar very high as I watched "Cash on Demand` first. Peter Cushing (as dark as usual) is stuck in an Avengers-like scenario, where he has to help steal his own bank. "... Damned" is a totally disturbing SCI-FI movie. The "Government experimenting with kids" subject has been used many times, but never with such flair and finesse. "..Candy from strangers" has more power nowadays and is standing the test of time. The whole scenario about Kids molesters being protected by thightly knitted villagers will get your blood boiling. The other 3 films are "who is the killer" simple films. They are OK. The weak one is "The Snorkel". You just cannot wait until it ends.as you are told who is the bad guy in the opening scene.

All of them, are well-produced. Some world-class actors, producers and filmmakers were involved. Quality is A+..The packaging is garbage. The disk on disk multidisc box deserves an E-.

Overall, the package is a very good deal for Hammer films fans and movie lovers. You just have to accept that you will not fall in love with ALL the movies.