Mad monks, black-eyed zombies, giant prehistoric crabs and reptile women. It’s Hammer time! Michigan-based Anchor Bay Entertainment has unearthed buried treasures from Hammer Studios, the legendary British independent that made international stars out of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and brought technicolor gore to horror films.
Anchor Bay’s “Hammer Collection” includes digitally remastered, widescreen editions of “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” starring Lee in his signature role, “The Lost Continent,” “Quartermass and the Pit” (also known as “Five Million Years to Earth”), “Plague of the Zombies,” “Rasputin, the Mad Monk,” also starring Lee, and “Reptile.” Each retails for $14.98.
The videos include the original theatrical preview and TV promotional spots. “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” also features behind-the-scenes footage and commentary by Lee and other cast members.
Though a recent U.S. News & World Report profile noted the often “hammy acting and cheesy special effects,” for horror aficionados Hammer films are not guilty pleasures. William Lustig, director of such infamous cult favorites as “Maniac” and “Maniac Cop,” is not only a Hammer fan. He owns the rights to these titles and supervised their transfer to video.
“On an emotional level,” he said in a phone interview, “these films are a piece of my childhood. They were released during the mid-to-late ’60s, my formative theater-going years. I knew about Hammer films before I knew about Paramount Pictures.
“As I became older and more sophisticated, I could appreciate that these films are very well made. Hammer was a low-budget film factory, but you could never tell watching them. They were top drawer from the scripts to the full-bodied orchestral scores. `Quartermass’ is Hammer at its finest and considered to be a horror-sci-fi classic.”
What further distinguished Hammer films, besides the got settings and scantily clad actresses, was what Lustig called “the good parts,” the blood and gore that seem tame in the age of “Scream” but are still not for the squeamish.
Among the “good parts” in “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” are a stake being driven into vampire Barbara Shelley’s heart, a scene previously cut for American audiences. “Plague of the Zombies” features a graveyard decapitation. “You see the head hit the ground,” Lustig said, “which was always kind of cool.”
To order, or for more information on Anchor Bay’s extensive horror film library (definitive editions of, among others, “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” John Carpenter’s original “Halloween,” “The Stepford Wives,” the erotic French vampire shocker “Daughters of Darkness,” the indescribable “Spider Baby” and — yes — “Maniac” and “Maniac Cop”), call 800-786-8777.
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Hammer Collection
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