Hammer House of Horror
Plot:
A horror anthology series which aired on British television in the early 80’s. Now out on dvd thanks to A&E (which along with re-running ‘Newsradio’ a few years ago is the only worthwhile thing they’ve done for a decade) this once hard to come by show is now widely available.
Comments:
If
you knew me, you’d know I don’t care for Hammer studios. I’m sorry, but their
reworking of the classic Universal monsters was shallow at best and annoyingly
banal at worst. I certainly wasn’t looking forward to reviewing this series.
Imagine my surprise, it’s good! Very good!
Of course, since I and the Hammerphiles seem to be on different wavelengths, there is some consternation on this point. Fans of the turgid gothic spectacles so often associated with the studio will be very disappointed by this series. Achingly low budget, the show has a modern setting and certainly doesn’t rely on flashy special effects. Instead, the show incorporated a little thing called imagination, something damn hard to come by in television horror.
Whereas most tv anthologies have no greater aspiration than crafting a second-rate knock-off of ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Hammer House of Horror’ dares to be different. You won’t find any animate ventriloquist dummies, incognito vampires or walking severed hands here. Not content with simply regurgitating the same old threadbare genre clichés, the series challenged its audience, giving them something fresh and interesting. (Which is probably why it didn’t fare too well.) On whole, the show posses clean competent camerawork, talented performers, intelligent writing and some damn good production values given the budget. (It’s also not too big on happy endings, which gave me quite a hearty chuckle from time to time.) The circa 50 minute length of each episode means that even the weak chapters don’t wear out their welcome, unfortunately neither did the series. ‘House’ only lasted a single season, which is a shame, but it does mean that I’ll have the time and space to comment on each episode;
‘The House That Bled to Death’ is one of my favorites. An old man chops up his wife with an old ghurka kukri knife. A nice young couple and their daughter move in to the couple’s old house, only to experience bloody poltergeist activity. A sort of parody of the whole Amityville debacle, the show also has a killer ending. (Literally!)
‘The Silent Scream’ is Peter Cushing’s only guest shot on the show. Unfortunately, it doesn’t grab me. It concerns an escaped nazi war criminal experimenting with Pavlovian training on humans.
‘The Two Faces of Evil’ Another sweet one. A family picks up a mysterious
hitch-hiker on a rainy road, only to have him attack the father. Though it
appears everything is ok, the wife becomes convinced that her husband is no
longer her husband. Confusing and illogical, this episode perfectly encapsulates
the feeling of being trapped in a nightmare.
‘The Mark of Satan’ is one of the best of the lot. After performing an autopsy on an insane man, a morgue worker seems to catch his madness. Becoming increasingly paranoid and obsessed with numbers, he is convinced that there is a demonic conspiracy forcing him to eat his neighbor’s baby. Highly experimental, this show is less like a narrative and more like Kafka on acid.
‘Witching Time’ A bit uneven, but entertaining none the less. A witch teleports herself to the modern era to escape persecution. There she begins an affair with the man who discovers her on his property. When he tries to get rid of her, she begins conspiring to bump off his cheating ho of a wife. I love, love, love the ending. (Ah, karma.)
‘Visitor from the Grave’ A disturbed woman shoots a man who attempts to assault her. Her husband convinces her to hide the body, but the vision of his rotting corpse continually harasses her. The ending is a bit obvious, but still cute.
‘Rude Awakening’ A middle-aged real estate agent has a reoccurring nightmare triggered by a visit to an old house. In the dream, he murders his shrew of a wife so that he can run off with his secretary. After a while, he loses track of what is reality, and what is fantasy. (And so do we.) It does a fair job of conveying the disjointed nature of dreams.
‘Charlie Boy’ A man uses a hideous African fetish to exact revenge on those who have wronged him. Trouble is, he also curses himself at the same time. A voodoo doll may be a bit cliché, but the show handles it very well.
‘Children of the Full Moon’ A couple falls prey to werewolves. More sad than scary.
‘The Thirteenth Reunion’ Someone is murdering obese men. Why? And what keeps
happening to their bodies? A bad start, but the show picks up at the end.
‘The Carpathian Eagle’ A beautiful woman picks up men and then murders them. Seems that she is following the M.O. of a mad Carpathian blood countess. Dopey, tired, and poorly executed.
‘Guardian of the Abyss’ An antique mirror holds the key to calling up a powerful demon. Isn’t that always the way?
‘Growing Pains’ is the weakest show in the series. It concerns a child who dies due to the negligence of his parents. (At least, this is what we are supposed to think. He eats a random chemical from his father’s lab and dies a foamy death. Not so much negligence as an illustration of natural selection at work.) His ghost returns to avenge himself upon his father, who was too busy trying to feed the starving people of the world to play catch with his son. (Yeah kid, he’s the selfish one. Stupid little jackass.) Boring and pointless.
The disks have a nice visual transfer and a few minor extras. However, due to the short length and a few uneven installments, this collection is really more of a rental than a purchase. Still, I do recommend ‘The Hammer House of Horror’.
7.0