Hammer time!!!

One of the best films Hammer made, this sees the studio casting about for new horror subjects and coming up with an adaptation of Dennis Wheatley's Satanist adventure. Richard Matheson, who had scripted many of the superb Poe films for Roger Corman, was drafted in to write. Lee is on great form in a rare heroic role and the rest of the cast are good, especially the effortlessly evil Charles Gray as leader of the Satanists. "The Devil Rides Out" is only let down by some - by today's standards - unconvincing effects work, and by the fact that the Black Masses are merely silly when they should be frightening, as they are for instance in Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby", made the same year. This latter problem does not, however, spoil the whole film, as it did the earlier "The Witches".

Ironic that the best of the Hammer Dracula movies should not feature Christopher Lee at all! Full of good performances and quirky little touches, such as the vampire's servant coaxing a fresh acolyte from her grave, and the sails of a windmill forming the sign of the cross. Martitia Hunt, who played Miss Havisham in David Lean's "Great Expectations", is absolutely wonderful as a baroness turned into a vampire by her own son. A great film.

If one of the great ironies of Hammer is that their best 'Dracula' movie doesn't even feature Dracula (Brides of Dracula), yet another is that their best 'Frankenstein' movie is the one with the female monster! Colourful, atmospheric, well acted and boasting an ingenious revenge plot involving the transference of souls (which I'm trying hard not to spoil here), what makes Frankenstein Created Woman particularly memorable is the surprisingly poignant love story between Frankenstein's servant, Hans (Robert Morris), and the deformed daughter of the local innkeeper, Christina (Susan Denberg). Denberg's excellent performance in this movie is a notable exception to the rule that Hammer were generally at their dullest when attempting to showcase some European starlet or other, though a good portion of the credit must go to whoever dubbed her voice. Unnecessary or bad dubbing in movies is one of my pet peeves, but this is perhaps the only example I can think of where the dubbing process unquestionably enhances a performance, lending a disembodied, otherworldly strangeness to Denberg entirely appropriate to her character, both before and after Frankenstein gets his hands on her.

This is one of the last great movies Hammer made, and it was a telling display of how out-of-touch the studio was at the time that they sat on it for a couple of years before releasing it and went back to producing the increasingly dire Dracula series. This is a fabulously entertaining, audacious and offbeat movie which introduces elements of the western and swashbuckler genres to the vampire yarn.

An intelligent film, scripted by Nigel Kneale, which postulates that the abominable snowman is a near relative to homo sapiens, biding it's time until we have destroyed ourselves before taking our place. The genuine mountain footage was shot with stand-ins; the actors never left the studio. For the most part the location and studio footage is well matched. This is a much better film than its reputation suggests.

Hammer's third vampire movie, though not part of the 'Dracula' series. Of interest for the representation of vampirism as a religious cult. Not one of Hammer's most memorable casts; only Noel Willman, as the vampire hunter, and Isobel Black, as a vampire, impress. Well directed and photographed all the same, and better than all but the first three 'Dracula' movies. Excellent climax.

First of the Gothic Hammers and the first of their seven 'Frankenstein' films, all but two of which ("The Evil of..." and "The Horror of...") were directed by Terence Fisher. Christopher Lee did not return to the role of The Monster for subsequent outings. Cushing appeared in all of the sequels except "The Horror of...", which starred Ralph Bates. Though better known for their 'Dracula' series, the Frankenstein films were generally superior.

Second sequel to "Dracula" which picks up where that film left off. It even begins with the final fight between Dracula and Van Helsing, a misty halo disguising the disparity between aspect ratios. Cushing does not star here and would not return to do battle with the arch-vampire until "Dracula A.D. 1972".

Were it not for the laughably dreadful climax, which ranks among the worst of any film I've ever seen, this otherwise cracking little Hammer horror would have made a fine companion piece to their other, excellent, occult thriller "The Devil Rides Out", made the following year. The story concerns a teacher, convalescing from a nervous breakdown, who stumbles upon a coven of witches in a sleepy English village. In such films as "Suspicion","Jane Eyre" and "Rebecca" nobody did cringing vulnerability better than Joan Fontaine, and she's perfectly cast as the lead here.

The 'Mummy' films made by Hammer were much duller than the 'Frankenstein' or 'Dracula' movies. This one starts slowly but finishes well, and Lee's make-up looks superb. Possibly one of Hammer's most attractively photographed movies.

Good late Hammer. A shame to see Dennis Price so wasted, but Cushing gives perhaps his best late performance as a witch-hunter. The film obviously owes a debt to the much more serious "The Witchfinder General". It's remarkably chaste for a late-period Hammer, especially given the Playboy pin-up twin leads. Interestingly, the music score is a pastishe of Spaghetti Western music.

A curious collaboration between Hammer and the Hong Kong Martial Arts outfit Shaw Brothers. No classic, but good fun all the same. This was to be Cushing's last outing as Van Helsing. Dracula does appear, though not as played by Christopher Lee, and this can hardly be considered part of the 'Dracula' cycle.

Enjoyable enough but rather silly middle part of the 'Carmilla trilogy', loosely based on a story by J.S. Le Fanu. This film was preceded by "The Vampire Lovers" and followed by "Twins of Evil", neither of which it is equal to. Yutte Stensgaard is lovely to look at but, alas, no Ingrid Pitt in the acting stakes - no pun intended. Mike Raven makes a poor Christopher Lee substitute. Look out for a cracking blooper in the final scenes when the camera crew can be glimpsed to the left of the frame as a coach hurtles towards a group of villagers.

An attempt to revitalise the 'Frankenstein' films via black comedy. It doesn't really come off as the plot loses its way once the monster is unleashed, becoming indistinguishable from any other Hammer 'Frankenstein' feature. The cast is fine - Dennis Price, very amusing as a grave-robber - though the monster and its make-up are lame. This was the one film in the series in which Cushing failed to appear. Though much maligned, I prefer this one to "The Evil of Frankenstein"

Very disappointing third instalment which doesn't follow on from the second film, which ended with the doctor having an emergency head transplant and moving to London. The one interesting idea is that a hypnotist is required to revivify the monster after it is found frozen in ice. Cushing is good, as usual, but otherwise only Katy Wild makes an impression as a deaf and dumb girl, though unfortunately she's given precious little to do. The film is surprisingly unattractive to look at, given the director's past history as a cameraman, and the monster's make-up is very poor.

Christ, this is boring! Unfortunately for us, it was such a success upon first release that Hammer 'treated' us to two more pictures in the same vein, "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth", which I've not yet been unlucky enough to catch, and "Creatures the World Forgot", which is even worse than this! "One Million Years B.C." is virtually plotless; Raquel and her boyfriend just seem to drift backwards and forwards from his tribe to hers (and back again), fending off the occasional dinosaur when our attention threatens to flag. The effects work isn't too shabby but it hasn't aged well.

I'm probably one of the few guys around who'd gladly have crawled over Raquel Welch in her prime to get to Julie Ege. That said, this movie sucks! Where are the monsters, dammit?!?!