Some other lobby cards

Here are a few more lobby cards I collected in the dim, distant past.

The Evil of Frankenstein Lobby Cards

It's fun sometimes to rummage through old stuff you collected years ago. Back in the day I used to collect film memorabilia. Here are some lobby cards from The Evil of Frankenstein, which was still fairly new at the time.

Birthdays: Sir Christopher Lee and the late Vincent Price

It would have been Vincent Price's 100th birthday today. As it is, today sees Sir Christopher Lee reach 89.

Coincidentally, two days ago it was also the anniversary of Peter Cushing's birth.

Wake Wood

Got the DVD for this latest Hammer epic this weekend. Surprisingly good, and with some unexpected twists - and a toe-curling end that I did not anticipate at all, but which makes horrifying sense. Some good performances, particularly from Ella Connolly, who plays the little girl, and TV stalwart Timoth Spall. This is a true Folk Horror in the tradition of The Wicker Man, though it owes nothing to that earlier film and has an original storyline all of its own. Some quite gruesome - and exceedingly realistic - scenes which would certainly never have been allowed past the censor during Hammer's heyday in the sixties, but are far from gratuitous. In a way, they help to build up what it really means to live and work in the countryside, away from the sentimentality of townlife. Well worth watching.

 

Let Me In

Bought the newly released DVD of Let Me In yesterday, which I watched for the first time last night. The earlier version, Let The Right One In is one of my favourite vampire movies, confounding the modern tendency for user-friendly vampires TV and films seem to have been innundated with since Interview With The Vampire.

Despite the usual qualms one has about American remakes of brilliant European movies (putting aside the Hammer connection), I was pleasantly surprised to see just how good a job was made of this. The casting was impeccable and the acting first rate. There were differences between this and the original movie, but nothing that seemed to cheapen it. It had an air of realism, intelligence and sincerity about it that lifted it far above most horror movies. It was refreshingly free of any obvious CGI and was certainly not reliant on any ridiculous special effects. If this is an indication of the calibre of productions the new Hammer Films is capable of bringing out, that bodes well for the future. At the end of this month, another Hammer Film comes out on DVD, Wake Wood, with Timothy Spall. I'm looking forward to that!

Hammer Novels Trailer

Hammer have brought out a brilliant new trailer to advertise their line of film-related novels.

Hammer Novels

Hammer will be launching its own publishing imprint on March 10th with the release of two novels, one old and one new.

The new is the novelisation of a new Hammer thriller, The Resident, by Francis Cottam.

The other is a reissue of The Witches, by Peter Curtis. This was originally titled The Devil's Own, on which the 1966 film starring Joan Fontaine was based.

New Hammer Film - Wake Wood

I only just found out that this is being released on DVD at the end of this month, so I have it on pre-order. I can't resist that name Hammer, old or new.  There are more details about it here.

It is my only weakness.

Interesting news about Hammer Films and TV

The BBC have a report about plans for Hammer to embark again in producing a TV series, like The Hammer House of Horror and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense in the 1980s.

That's great news, after their first film venture in Let Me In and the DVD release of Beyond the Rave.

I must admit I have always been a keen fan of the Hammer films. I have virtually every single one of their horror, thriller and even crime films on DVD. It will be nice to add more new ones to my collection!