Critical Readings on Hammer Horror Films

by Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns (Editor), Matthew Edwards (Editor)

Overview

This collection offers close readings on Hammer’s cycle of horror films, analysing key films and placing particular emphasis on the narratives and themes present in the works discussed.

Ranging from the studio’s first horror outing, The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (1935) to Hammer’s last contemporary film, Doctor Jekyll (2023), the collection celebrates cult-favourites such as The Quatermass Experiment, the films of Terence Fisher, to overlooked classics such as Captain Clegg or The Mummy franchise. This volume also delves into Hammer’s psychological thrillers, the studio’s venture into TV with Hammer’s House of Horrors, with theoretical frameworks varying from queer studies to postcolonial readings.

This volume will appeal to scholars and students of film studies, international cinema, film history and horror studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032603155
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/28/2024
Series:	Routledge Advances in Horror
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns (PhD in Arts, PhD candidate in History) works as Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (Argentina) and teaches courses on international horror film. He is the director of the research group on horror cinema “Grite” and authored a book about Spanish horror TV series Historias para no Dormir (2020). He has edited books on Frankenstein bicentennial, on directors James Wan and Wes Craven, and on the Italian giallo film and horror comics (Routledge). His forthcoming publications include an edited volume on Dario Argento and another one on Baltic horror.

Matthew Edwards is an independent film scholar and primary school teacher from Cheddar, England. He has authored and/or edited various books on cult/horror cinema including Bloodstained Narratives: The Giallo Film in Italy and Abroad, The Atomic Bomb in Japanese Cinema; Klaus Kinski, Beast of Cinema; Twisted Visions: Interviews with Horror Filmmakers and Murder Movie Makers: Directors Discuss Their Killer Flicks. In 2023, he was nominated for a Rondo Hatton Horror Award for the best interview. He has also written for many magazines and contributed booklets for 88 Films on their Hong Kong film releases.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Hammer Horror before (and Beyond) Horror

1. The Mystery of the Mary Celeste – Hammer’s First Horror

2. The Quatermass AnXiety and the Evil Within: Re-emerging Victorian Ethos in Post-War Science-Fiction Narratives

3. Hammer Studio’s Captain Clegg and the Genre Legacy of Swashbuckling Gothic Horror

4. I Bette you I’m a Great Mother: Middle-Aged Women and Grotesque Maternity

Part II: The Golden Age of Horror

5- ‘A Sickness partly Spiritual, partly Physical’: Monster, Savant, Gender and Class in The Brides of Dracula (1960)

6. “Give Me a Skin for Dancing In”: Female Grotesquery and Desire in The Witches (1966)

7. Children of the Night: Vampiric Blood Lines, Reproduction, and Queer Futurity in Hammer Horror’s Karnstein Trilogy

8. Let Horror Speak: Theodicy, Eschatology, and Rebellion in Hammer’s Dracula and Frankenstein Films

9. House of Horror: Domestic Architecture and Eco-Gothic Slippage in The Reptile (1966) and Children of the Full Moon (1980)

Part III: The Horror of Decadence and Resurrection

10. Sinking Masculinity in Hammer’s Cycle of Mummies

11. The Sun Has Finally Set: Hammer House of Horror as Postimperial Provincial Horror

12. The Kick and/or the Crucifix: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires and the Kung Fu Craze of 1970s

13. Postmodernity and Elevated Horror in The Lodge (2019)

Part IV: Interviews

14. The Satanist: An interview with David Wickes

15. Visitor from the Grave: An interview with actor Kathryn Scott

16. Revenge of the Runners: An interview with Brian Reynolds

17. Run Like Hell: An interview with Hammer Film Production runner Phil Campbell

18. Doctor Jekyll – An Interview with Joe Stephenson