A Spooky English Institution!

As it's Halloween season it seems only right to talk about an era in the British film industry, with a strong connection to this scary season.

Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of gothic horrors made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such as 'Victor Frankenstein', 'Count Dracula' and 'The Mummy', which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time. During its most successful years, Hammer dominated the horror market, enjoying worldwide distribution and considerable financial success.

This success was, in part, due to its distribution partnerships with American companies such as Warner Bros. Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox and MGM, as well as fellow European film companies.

Although the company has had mixed fortunes since the 1980's, it's the horror films which they produced in the 1950's-1970's that many older generations still remember fondly.

Two actors who regularly appeared in Hammer productions and who later found international fame, were Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Cushing appeared in 22 Hammer Productions, with his most famous roles being Baron Frankenstein, which he played 6 times, and Dr Van Helsing (below,left), which he played 5 times.

He also became famous as the character, Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars in 1977. (above,right)

Lee became known as the face of Dracula (below,left), because he played the character 7 times for Hammer, quite often battling against Cushing's character, Dr Van Helsing.

Lee later appeared in many films, such as Count Dooku in Stars Wars Episodes 2 & 3, as well as Saruman (above,right) in both The LOTR and The Hobbit trilogies of films.

Hammer Film Productions may not be so well-known as in its heyday, but in recent years it has still produced films staring famous actors such as Hilary Swank, Chloe Moretz and Daniel Radcliffe.

So if you're in the mood for a horror film this Halloween, why not try a classic, Hammer horror film!! Classic titles include 'The Curse of Frankenstein', 'The Mummy's Hand' and 'Dracula: Prince of Darkness'.

Until next time.........

#hammerhorror, #brzegdolnynauczyciel #nativespeakerbrzegdolny