Hammer Film Production Company

In order to create a successful film, it's important to look at other production company's and what they did for the horror industry. I wanted to research a lesser known company like Hammer instead of someone like Universal or WB, plus Hammer is primarily horror / thriller. I remember watching old Hammer films from the 60's when I was younger and it looked so tame when I seen them, but to put it into context, an audience at the time would have been very shocked.

Founded in November 1934 England. It actually started off making comedies and crime films like 'The Public Life of Henry the Ninth" 1936 and "The Bank Messenger Mystery" 1937. But a crash in the British film industry in 1938 forced Hammer into bankruptcy. Luckily it was bought out at the last minute and started to produce films made by other companies. A few years later after WW2 hammer began to make cheap films to fill gaps in cinema schedules and support big feature films. So after years of creating small crime thrillers and comedies Hammer opened their door to the horror genre, 'Hammer House of Horror films' started in 1955. They took advantage of the Sci-fi situation in the US. America is where all of the huge films were made, and still is today, and during the 50's it was rife with sic-fi films such as 'The Day the Earth Stood Still". The horror golden age was 20 years earlier in the 30s. But Hammer seen a gap in the market for horror films and jumped on it. Their first feature horror film was "The Curse of Frankenstein" featuring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who at the time were big stars of the screen. They re-made other 30's classics like 'Dracula' and 'The Mummy'. But this time was different, better picture, sound, colour and also blood. These Hammer films were in colour, something that was rare at the time, also no one had really seen blood in a horror film at this point. Hammer changed that, instead it was full of blood, and it was bright red so it stood out. The cameraman let you know it was there for they lingered on it for longer than usual. This was breakthrough stuff at the time, people couldn't believe it, they had never seen anything like this before. Even the Americans loved it, Hammer films were huge in the States.

But during the late 60's with the rise of directors like Roman Polanski and films such as 'Night of the Living Dead' by George A. Romero, Hammer was struggling to compete. There films of the 50's were already looking outdated and the gore and graphics from the US was far more superior. They tried getting in new directors and writers but it didn't work. Despite going bankrupt in the 80's and being bought out and failing multiple times, in 2007 Dutch media tycoon John De Mol bought them out and they began producing films again. Perhaps the most well known was 'The Woman in Black' from 2012.

The reason I wanted to talk about Hammer was because they were a small company that dominated the US for a brief period with their breakthrough. Also they produced truly great horror classics, and despite the blood being a big feature of Hammer, they relied on a strong narrative, good acting and suspense to keep the audience engaged.

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This is a scene from the classic 'Dracula' where Dracula dies, watch after 2:40 when you see the special effects of the day and why Hammer was so famous.