Search - The Horror of Hammer on DVD

Great idea, botched execution

Brad Baker | 08/05/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I got excited when I read about this coming out, but my enthusiasm cooled when I screened the final product. These Hammer trailers and featurettes have been around for a long time on bootleg and independent VHS releases, and most die hard fans already own them in that format. The big drawback has of course been the quality of the transfers; unfortunately, All Day's release does nothing to correct that . . . in fact it appears they've used some of these sources for the DVD. Almost all are fuzzy or faded, and in a few cases you can hear the hi-fi mistracking noise from the VHS source! Although it wouldn't be fair to expect the pristine quality Anchor Bay's promotional Hammer trailer DVD release had (since they had original film elements to work from) All Day should have made a little more effort to find collectors with film sources and re-transfer these trailers for a cleaner and professional end product. The disc is better than nothing, and if you don't have them already at least this release gives you a historical overview of Hammer. Still, a big dissappointment."

The Studio that drips Blood!

Brad Baker | Atherton, Ca United States | 08/14/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"All Day Entertainment has just released the colorful DVD compilation of 53 Hammer Film trailers. Despite the variance in quality, this one is a treat for the true fan. As a homage to Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, get set for 1 1/2 hours of gory fun. All 4 Hammer Mummy films are previewed. Christopher Lee appeared in 15 movies as Count Dracula, 7 were released by Hammer. All 7 trailers appear here. Of note is a one-reel short promoting "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth". Gothic cinema expert Gary Smith is on the audio commentary track. As noted, "The Horror of Hammer" suffers from some archival quality problems. The trailer for "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" is faded and flat. "The Man Who Could Cheat Death" suffers serious sound loop problems. The video picture is 7 to 10 seconds behind the audio. All Day Entertainment's web site promotes "Prehistoric Women" as one of the epics to be seen, however, on the DVD, it is not to be found."

A Winner!

John Clymer | O'Fallon, Missouri | 08/02/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A few weeks ago I watched Horror of Hammer's sister release Tales of Frankenstein and was greatly disappointed. I'm happy to report Horror of Hammer was a much happier viewing experience. The disc contains over 50 previews of Hammer shockers, including Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula and its final thriller To the Devil a Daughter. Also included are a couple of goofy behind the scenes featuretes from the early '70s. A real plus to the package is an audio commentary from Ted Newsome(?) and two other genre historians. The talk is a fun overview of Hammer Studios.As with Tales of Frankenstein, the technical Quality of Horror of Hammer is lacking, but an improvement over the earlier DVD.This is a cool addition to any Hammer fan's DVD collection."

Not half as good as it should be

John Clymer | 08/06/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"When I heard about this DVD I got excited, over 50 original hammer trailers with audio commentary(!) The Audio and picture quality of the trailers is awful but that is to be expected. What I cant get over is the dreadful production quality of the commenatay track complete with background hiss. Informative as it is, the commentary is pretty much unlistenable, which is unfortunate as it's the main reason I bought the DVD."