Hammer, House of Horror: Behind the Screams

by Howard Maxford

Provides a film by film history of the leading horror film-producing studio from its beginnings in the 1930s through the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and includes a filmography and a list of Hammer's major stars and key personnel

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere)]

Contents: (capitalization and lack of it as printed!)
Section one: Behind the Screams
Introduction
In the beginning
The Exclusive Years
The Quatermass interim
Frankenstein unbound
Dracula has risen from the grave
Gory, glory days
Welcome to the sixties
New directions
Back to basics
Something old, something new
Jurassic larks
All change
The devil made me do it
Royal approval
A sense of deja vu
Bosoms, bums and buses
Decline and fall
Last gasps: The Phoenix rises

Section two: Chronology, who's who and filmography
Hammer - A film chronology
Hammer - Who's who
Hammer filmography and reviews
Hammer on TV
Index
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Note that in 1996 this was the kind of book you had to dig up in order to research film - there wasn't a handy way of looking things up like the 'net offers now. Of course you'll notice I'm still not giving up books like this! I used to spend hours in the library shelves for horror films and one of the best things about grad school was using the excuse to buy the sorts of books I always loved reading.

[Lee Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty straightforward biography of Hammer studios with not enough pictures for true coffee table tome and not enough detail for deep dive into the history. However it is written with a passion and knowledge of the story.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for fans of late Fifties through Seventies British horror. Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, and Terence Fisher . . . they are all here. I remember as a youth watching 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness' and 'Frankenstein Created Women.' In a sense of nostalgia, I purchased all of the Hammer horror that I could get my hands on. The films still stand today as they did twenty five years ago . . . and I'm all the better for it. This is a great companion to those wonderful films and a true keeper for any fan of horror or film history.

[Kurt Criscione · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Hammer Films, recently i've started collecting them all on DVD, this book was the inspiratioin that drove me to start collecting them.