Hammer’s House of Horror
Part I: The Classic Years 1956–1967

May 30 – June 19

It’s a chilling season at the Quad! Brace yourself for mummies, vampires, werewolves, and more with our extensive two-part retrospective celebrating Britain’s genre studio powerhouse, Hammer Films

With 32 titles in the first installment (22 on 35mm), including Frankenstein Created Woman, The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, and The Quatermass Experiment

Look forward to Part II (1967-76) this July, with highlights including: Frankenstein and the Monster from HellDr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde, and The Vampire Lovers

Throughout film history, many countries have had their own point-of-pride movie studios; Britain can claim several, whether as backlots or sites of creative capital. In Hammer Films, a genre-oriented counterpart to Ealing Films, the UK could boast of one with all that and more; Hammer’s output in the second half of the 20th century sent aesthetic and sensory frissons throughout the nation while influencing pop culture and world cinema. Although synonymous with horror, the Hammer library was stocked from the beginning with films of all kinds. Founded in November 1934 as Hammer Film Productions and based in London, the studio came out of the gate with dramas and then specialized in “B” pictures and homegrown tales, pausing only for WWII. A turning point came in the mid-1950s with a move into genre fare with an accent on the Gothic, and this first crop of titles in the Quad’s extensive two-part Hammer retrospective demonstrates that—as Universal Pictures had found in the 1930s—famous monsters were a good (and generally inexpensive) way to expand your industry footprint. Hammer finally made its first color movie in 1954; a good thing, too, since what would the next quarter-century of movies have been like without all that scarlet sanguinary screen imagery?

“If we saw the logo of Hammer Films, we knew it was a very special picture. We knew it was a certain kind of film. A surprising experience, usually—and shocking.” — Martin Scorsese

The Abominable Snowman
Val Guest, 1957, UK, 91m, 35mm

The Brides of Dracula
Terence Fisher, 1960, UK, 85m, 35mm

The Camp on Blood Island
Val Guest, 1958, UK, 82m, 35mm

Cash on Demand
Quentin Lawrence, 1961, UK, 89m, 35mm

The Curse of Frankenstein
Terence Fisher, 1957, UK, 83m, 35mm

The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb
Michael Carreras, 1964, UK, 81m, 35mm

The Curse of the Werewolf
Terence Fisher, 1961, UK, 93m, DCP

The Damned (aka These Are the Damned)
Joseph Losey, 1962, UK, 96m, DCP

The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride)
Terence Fisher, 1968, UK, 95m, 16mm

Dracula: Prince of Darkness 
Terence Fisher, 1966, UK, 90m, 35mm

The Evil of Frankenstein 
Freddie Francis, 1964, UK, 84m, 16mm

Fanatic (aka Die! Die! My Darling) 
Silvio Narizzano, 1965, UK, 97m, 35mm

Frankenstein Created Woman
Terence Fisher, 1967, UK, 92m, 35mm

The Gorgon
Terence Fisher, 1964, UK, 83m, DCP

Horror of Dracula
Terence Fisher, 1958, UK, 82m, 35mm

The Hound of the Baskervilles 
Terence Fisher, 1959, UK, 87m, 16mm

Hysteria
Freddie Francis, 1965, UK, 85m, 16mm

The Mummy 
Terence Fisher, 1959, UK, 88m, 35mm

The Nanny 
Ian Holt, 1965, UK, 93m, 16mm

Never Take Sweets from a Stranger 
Cyril Frankel, 1960, UK, 91m, 35mm

One Million Years B.C. 
Don Chaffey, 1966, UK, 100m, DCP

The Phantom of the Opera 
Terence Fisher, 1962, UK, 84m, 35mm

The Pirates of Blood River
John Gilling, 1962, UK, 87m, 35mm

Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth) 
Roy Ward Baker, 1967, UK, 98m, 35mm

The Quatermass Experiment 
Val Guest, 1955, UK, 82m, 35mm

Rasputin: The Mad Monk 
Don Sharp, 1966, UK, 92m, 35mm

The Revenge of Frankenstein 
Terence Fisher, 1958, UK, 91m, 35mm

The Stranglers of Bombay 
Terence Fisher, 1959, UK, 80m, 35mm

Ten Seconds to Hell 
Robert Aldrich, 1959, UK/US/West Germany, 93m, 35mm

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll 
Terence Fisher, 1960, UK, 88m, 35mm

X—The Unknown 
Leslie Norman, 1956, UK, 81m, 16mm

Yesterday’s Enemy 
Val Guest, 1959, UK, 95m, 35mm

About Sheri White

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