This collection offers close readings on Hammers cycle of horror films, analysing key films and placing particular emphasis on the narratives and themes present in the works discussed.
This collection offers close readings on Hammers cycle of horror films, analysing key films and placing particular emphasis on the narratives and themes present in the works discussed.
Ranging from the studios first horror outing, The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (1935) to Hammers last contemporary film, The Lodge (2019), the collection celebrates cult-favorites such as The Quatermass Experiment, the films of Terence Fisher, to overlooked classics such as Captain Clegg or The Mummy franchise. The volume also delves into Hammers psychological thrillers, the studios venture into TV with Hammers 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.
Introduction
Part I: Hammer Horror before (and Beyond) Horror
1. The Mystery of the Mary Celeste Hammers First Horror
2. The Quatermass AnXiety and the Evil Within: Re-emerging Victorian Ethos in
Post-War Science-Fiction Narratives
3. Hammer Studios Captain Clegg and the Genre Legacy of Swashbuckling Gothic
Horror
4. I Bette you Im 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 Horrors Karnstein Trilogy
8. Let Horror Speak: Theodicy, Eschatology, and Rebellion in Hammers 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 Hammers 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
Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns (PhD in Arts, PhD candidate in History) works as Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) - Facultad de Filosofķa 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.
