After decades scaring a generation at the cinema, world-famous British company Hammer Films decided to move into television. The shift in attention came at a time when the humble TV had proved to be a focal point of entertainment in the 70s, so Hammer House Of Horror was unleashed onto the British public in 1980...
The series was a horror anthology, with standalone stories told each week. Hammer Films acquired the services of some of their legendary movie stars to appear in some episodes, like Peter Cushing, Diana Dors and Denholm Elliot.
Hampden House was used as the primary filming location, appearing throughout the series in various guises. The series filmed around the area, in the hamlet of Great Hampden, Great Missenden, Chesham and Amersham.
The first episode aired on ITV in 1980 and ran for a fitting 13 weeks. If you need any indication of the vibe of the series, you merely have to read the episode titles:
1. Witching Time (a woman claims to be a 17th-Century witch)
2. The Thirteenth Reunion (a strange slimming clinic)
3. Rude Awakening (Denholm Elliot stars as a man trapped in a recurring nightmare)
4. Growing Pains (a book resurrects a spirit)
5. The House That Bled To Death (a family move into a haunted house)
6. Charlie Boy (African voodoo)
7. The Silent Scream (Peter Cushing stars as a pet shop owner who employs an ex-con)
8. Children Of The Full Moon (werewolves, with Diana Dors)
9. Carpathian Eagle (a murder mystery, co-starring a young Pierce Brosnan)
10. Guardian Of The Abyss (a strange antique mirror)
11. Visitor From The Grave (a murdered body comes back to life)
12. The Two Faces Of Evil (a strange hitch-hiker)
13. The Mark Of Satan (a man sees the number 9 everywhere he goes.)
Of the 13 episodes, The House That Bled To Death became notorious for a bleeding pipes sequence and is probably the most famous installment.
An inferior second series was made 3 years later, retitled Hammer House Of Horror And Suspense, but owing to American financing by 20th Century Fox, it was produced with less graphic scenes. Episodes also had to be extended from 60 minutes to 90 minutes only weeks before production started!
The failed TV series heralded the end of Hammer Films, as even their celebrated films looked antiquated when compared to American products of the 1980s -- such as An American Werewolf In London and The Fly. The studio languished throughout the 90s, not producing anything, but a 21st-Century revival of the studio is being planned -- with the company currently searching for good scripts...
LinksHammer Films - Official Site
Dictionary of Hammer
