horroroftruant:

Hammer Films

Founded in November 1934, Hammer is one of the oldest film companies in the world. It celebrates its 80th anniversary this year.

Hammer is synonymous with horror, after defining the genre in Britain with classics such as Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Mummy, which spawned numerous sequels.

However, only 1/3rd of Hammer films were horror! The company tackled other genres, including psychological thrillers, sci-fi, noir and historical epic.

Hammer has a back catalogue of nearly 300 titles, and a rich character canon including classic monsters, mobsters, psychopaths, and surprisingly ‐ cavegirls.

The company has had a lasting impact on popular culture, paid homage to in all manner of releases from Frankenweenie to Jurassic Park and The Shawshank Redemption.

Following the success of The Quatermass Xperiment, Hammer switched focus from the struggling crime thriller pictures of the early fifties to horror.

The company made history with its first full colour creature feature The Curse of Frankenstein. Blood, gore, extravagant costumes and sets were presented in vibrant colour, enraging censors, but delighting audiences in equal measure.

The staggering success of The Curse of Frankenstein was followed by the even greater box office haul of Horror of Dracula just one year later. With these two films alone Hammer had cemented the company name in the lexicon of audiences, film critics and censors alike.

The monster movie was back, and Hammer jumped at the opportunity to reinvent other characters including The Abominable Snowman (1957), and The Mummy (1959).

Recent output includes the worldwide box office smash The Woman in Black, critically acclaimed Let Me In, and 2014 paranormal thriller The Quiet Ones.

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