DC's

The blog of author Dennis Cooper

DC’s ostensibly favorite Haunted Attractions of Halloween season 2025 (North American edition) *

* (Halloween countdown post #11)

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Arx Mortis at Ghosthill (Killen, AL)
‘The Book of Nine has been unearthed. Its ancient pages laden with dark secrets and whispered horrors. Within its confines, five haunting narratives await. As you immerse yourself in each tale, you are drawn deeper challenging you to confront your deepest fears with every turn of the page.’

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A Haunting in Hollis (Queens Village, NY)
A Haunting in Hollis is one of the scariest haunted houses in Queens and is certainly going to be one of the most frightful experiences you’ll have this season. This haunted house is set up in a residential neighborhood. It’s so frightening you’ll have to sign a hold-harmless waiver to enter! You wouldn’t think you’d find such a scary place in a normal neighborhood, but here it is! The entire property is decked out in scary decor. They really go all out! Inside the home, you’ll be met with three floors of terror. There are two pitch-black mazes outside where you’ll have nothing but a flashlight to guide you.

 

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Nightmare on Edgewood (Indianapolis, IND)
‘Going into their 48th season, Nightmare on Edgewood is Indiana’s most extreme haunted house. The nightmare will be returning with three haunted houses: Unhinged, The Factory, and Conley Farm. This will be the final season for Edgewood under its current ownership, as the haunt is up for sale. So get your a$$ out there and support this haunt in its final season in its current form! This is a full touch haunt but they also sell chicken vests for those who do not prefer to be touched.’

 

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ScareHouse: The Basement (Pittsburgh)
A scare so terrifying that it requires you to have a safe word – just in case you can’t make it through the whole haunted attraction? Bunny. That’s your safe word, should you need to use it. Once you do use it, you’ll be escorted out of the terrifying haunted attraction, forfeiting your admission fee. Before you can descend into The Basement, you must sign a waiver, asserting you are 18 years old or older. If you have a heart condition, respiratory problems, or are pregnant, you’ll probably want to avoid The Basement, which features a full menu of twists that will include… Low lighting, water, electricity exposure, and sometimes total darkness. Should you decide to enter The Basement, you can go alone or with only one other person.

 

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The Fear Experiment (Danville, IL)
“Are you familiar with the concept of lucid dreaming, Mr. Higgins?” the bearded man asks as he studies me from the other side of the table. I look up from the paperwork in front of me and assure the man that I am indeed quite familiar with the concept. The idea that I could recognize I’m dreaming and change the outcome of the dream is a tantalizing one and I’m apparently not the only one to think so. “Project Sandman,” the man continues, “will chemically induce lucid dreaming and allow you to confront your deepest fear. Once this fear is confronted, you will wake up and live a life without fear. Are you ready?” His offer sounds good to me. I’m just signing my life away to a secret government organization operating out of a basement somewhere in Danville, IL. I’m sure no harm will come of it. I’m sure the woman writhing in agony on the nearby TV screen isn’t problematic either. Nope, everything is good here! “Yes, I’m rea…” Before I can even finish my sentence, a young woman with unkempt hair and a tear-stained face bursts into the room and points a pistol right at the man’s head.

 

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Miasma (Chicago, IL)
‘This haunt isn’t for everyone. “We’ve had past guests leave angry because they didn’t think miasma was what horror should be and took offense to the non-traditional content and the sickening feeling they left with.” He explains that the Midwest is not accustomed to this kind of terror immersion and as such, “it’s important to me to make sure our guests know, as best as I can allow without spoilers, this isn’t a ‘boo haunt’ and they should be prepared for content they won’t experience in the local haunts. It’s too easy for a guest, new to this, to purchase a ticket, influenced by the commoditizing ideas proprietors of local horror have embraced and sold to them for years in Chicago.”’

 

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The Wicker Manor (Denver)
Our home haunt has been a labor of love for years. Each October, we transform our ordinary home into a nightmarish wonderland of scares and thrills. Expect a Halloween experience like no other. We’ve poured our blood, sweat, and fake cobwebs into creating a mesmerizing spectacle that will leave you breathless. From terrifying monsters lurking in the shadows to jaw-dropping special effects that will send shivers down your spine, our haunt promises to be a visual and emotional rollercoaster.

 

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Dominion of Terror (Sheboygan, WI)
We are celebrating 50 YEARS OF TERROR in 2024 and is the longest running haunted house in Wisconsin! Come celebrate half a century of screams and scares at Dominion of Terror, where nightmares come to life! With our 50 years of expertise in creating spine-chilling terror, you’re guaranteed a heart-pounding experience like no other. Get ready to navigate through our haunted house, packed with twisted corridors, eerie surprises, and horrifying creatures lurking in the shadows. Whether you’re a thrill-seeker or just looking for a ghoulishly good time, Dominion of Terror promises an unforgettable night of fear and fun.

 

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Kirby Farm Scary Train (Williston, FL)
‘The Scary Train is an intense environment with darkness, gunfire, strobe lights, fog machines, fire, live reptiles, spiders, other critters, loud noises, and small spaces! You may get wet! You are not allowed to touch actors. Actors will not touch you, you may experience a duster, grabber, or other harmless prop. No guests, under any circumstances may enter the event area in costume or with any costume makeup on for the safety of our guest and Scare Squad members.’

 

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The Haunted Hills Hayride (Partlow, VA)
Deep in the woods of Spotsylvania County (Partlow, VA) the hills come will come alive in 2024. It all begins with a DARK haywagon ride; dropping you off deep in the OMINOUS woods. You will fear your journey through nearly a mile of live ghouls, zombies, clowns, mazes, and various other scares. It is intense and not recommended for children under 12, those with medical conditions, or the faint of heart (see the WARNING link). You are paying to be scared and that is what The Haunted Hill intends to do.

 

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Hallowheelslv presents Trapped (Las Vegas)
The drive-in experience is designed to be enjoyed from inside your car as an innovative solution to the social distancing challenges. Trapped will take place all around your vehicle, which is located within a haunted pod, using projection technology and a spooky soundtrack on your car’s radio. “You will experience intense audio, lighting, low visibility, fog, strobe lights, special effects, sudden loud sounds and actions in this psychologically demanding environment,” the website warns. Trapped tells the story of a desolate earth where governments have fallen and ‘order has been replaced by chaos, hope by fear, and life by death’. Trapped features mobs, bombs, hostiles and deadly traps.

 

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Mount Mayhem (Phoenix, AZ)
Children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult. NO EXCEPTIONS! Only one time through the haunt and no repeat customers on the same night. Please be patient as we try to get the line in as fast as we can. Trust us, we want to scare you. Please respect our neighbors and do not sit or loiter after you have finished your scare. Our doors close at 9:30pm. Our last group will let in at 9:20pm. Plan accordingly. Reservations and walk ups will be allowed this year. No groups larger than 5 people at a time. Bigger groups will be split. NO EXCEPTIONS! We reserve the right to refuse entry to anyone!

 

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Wolfmans House Of Screams (Carl Junction, MO)
Wolfmans House of Screams in Carl Junction, Missouri, has been in operation since 2003 and was started by Reggie ‘The Wolfman.’ This family-friendly attraction is an old-school classic haunt with a grungy, vintage vibe. Wolfmans is a classic old-school haunt, and it really shows in the set design in a good way. It feels vintage, almost like you’re walking through a haunted antique shop, and overall gives a very grungy vibe while keeping in the Halloween spirit. It’s a classic haunt that makes appropriate changes and updates while keeping in the spirit of what it’s been since 2003.

 

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Haunted Hoochie (Pataskala, OH)
We set out to stand out. Haunted Hoochie is a full sensory assault. Taking you by the throat and dragging you down the rabbit hole and into the realm of a heart pounding in your face horror show. Performed nightly right before your very eyes. If you are wondering if your kids are too young then your kids are too young. So leave em at home. And that goes for babies. It ruins our good time to turn around and see your freaked out infant. Whats wrong with you??? If you’re worried about being touched don’t come. We want you to have a fun safe time but its large crowds in tight spaces. Our monsters will scare the shit out of you.

 

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Stabbys Funhouse of Horror (Roseburg, OR)
Annual haunted house put on by The Roseburg Fright Club is an all volunteer group, interested in helping the youth in our area….. Many of the folks involved in this nomadic haunt have been around for centuries…. Err since 1993. From our humble beginnings at Eastwood Elementary School, we have been located all over the greater Roseburg Area. From school gyms to empty warehouses, to the Fairgrounds and now back downtown at the Roseburg Elks Lodge. Come visit if you dare!!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhhaaaaaaaaaaaa! “This place is Hell’s waiting room.”

 

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Dread Hollow (Chattanooga, TN)
Chattanooga’s award-winning haunted attraction is back with 3 new haunted house experiences. Tortured souls, bewitching whispers, and monstrous evil exact their Vengeance in the tainted town of Dread Hollow! Dread Hollow is not recommended for children under the age of 12.

 

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The Blackness (Plainview, TX)
The legend of “The Blackness” started in the late 1950’s with a hideously deformed warehouse worker named Dominique. “Dom” worked night and day to repair the mechanical workings of the produce facility, but because of his condition, he couldn’t keep up. He was constantly the target of abuse and ridicule by people at work and around town. When the plant shut down in the fall of ’78, Dom was left penniless and homeless. With nowhere to live, he went back to the only place he knew, the old abandoned warehouse. Angry at how he had been mistreated, he took his anger out on the people that caused him pain. The city became victim to a string of bizarre disappearances. The community was stunned when detectives finally found the decomposing remains of all who were missing inside the old warehouse. The grounds of the produce warehouse are now tainted with the blood of many, and each Fall, its lights glow dimly as Dom returns to complete unfinished business. So do you have the nerve to enter The Blackness and make it all the way through?

 

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The Haunting Experience (Cottage Grove, MN)
Welcome to The Haunting Experience, the scariest of all the Halloween attractions and haunted houses in Minnesota. It is located just a few minutes south of St. Paul, along Highway 61 in Cottage Grove. We invite you to visit us this October…if you dare.

 

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Raisin Hell Ranch (Madera, CA)
Raisin Hell Ranch is one of the most terrifying haunted attractions in California’s Central Valley. Known for its extreme and intense scares, this haunt produces a nightmarish realm of psychotic freaks and depraved maniacs.

 

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Booger Jim’s Hollow (Blacksburg, SC)
Come with friends never alone. It is now time for you to start your epic journey through the seemingly endless hollow that is Booger Jim’s Haunted Trail. If you are brave enough to make it through the trail your horrifying night is not yet over. You exit the trail and you enter into an unguided nightmare of a Real Haunted House that will send chills so far up your spine that you’ll feel it for a year.

 

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The Haunted World (Caldwell, ID)
Since the year 2000, we’ve perfected the art of fear. As the largest indoor and outdoor haunted attration and haunted house in the state, we offer more frightening entertainment than anyone else. We offer a spooky experience that is guaranteed to scare the pants off you, your friends, or your family. Expect around 1½ hours on weekdays, and around 2 hours on weekends, to experience The Haunted World.

There is no need to travel to Knotts Scary Farm, Universal Studios, or Salt Lake City, when the Largest Haunted Attraction in the western United States is RIGHT HERE in the Treasure Valley. Make no bones about it, our haunt rivals them all. It is not uncommon to have sweaty palms, discomforts in the bowel regions of your body, an irregular heart beat, and an uncontrollable urge to run… fast.

 

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Stag (Saginaw, MI)
Using terrifying real-life situations, STAG is sure to have you calling quits before getting to the finish line. Rather than relying on jump scares, STAG utilizes intense psychological distress through its horrific scenarios. Two hours away from Detroit, this haunted house offers two different levels: Extreme Haunt and Extreme Immersive Horror (EIH). Addiction, abuse, and sexual taboos are only a few of the realistic horrors covered. Physical touch, total darkness, sensory deprivation, nudity, cramped places, and electricity are all things that participants may anticipate.

 

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The Dent Schoolhouse (Cincinnati, OH)
The Dent Schoolhouse is Cincinnati’s HALLOWEEN Tradition. 2024 marks 28 seasons of scaring Cincinnati as a haunted house. The attraction is known as one of the most detailed haunted attractions in the United States and has been featured on BuzzFeed, Travel Channel, HGTV, E! and many more. The attraction actually takes place in an old haunted schoolhouse that was built in 1894. The Dent Schoolhouse is one of Cincinnati’s oldest running haunted house but has evolved with the times to become one of the most high tech haunts. Projection mapping, animatronics, over-sized puppets, air bags and more! The movie like sets make The Dent Schoolhouse a must visit on anyone’s haunted house list.

 

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Cutting Edge Haunted House (Fort Worth, TX)
Located in a 100-year-old abandoned meat packing plant in a section of Fort Worth historically dubbed as “Hell’s Half Acre,” the Cutting Edge Haunted House is built upon a foundation of fear. The meat packing equipment from the Old West is still in use, but now it is a two-story human processing area. Realistic looking human mannequins are hoisted up to the second level and brought through the entire meat packing process until the conveyor system brings the butchered corpses back to the first level. The old meat-packing plant in downtown Fort Worth is a great home for the fantastic special effects that our loyal customers have come to expect. It takes visitors an average 55 minutes to explore Cutting Edge Haunted House. This walk-through haunted house is frighteningly realistic.

 

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Wilkes Family Halloween (Bensenville, IL)
Located in the West Suburbs of Chicago, the Wilkes Family has become known over the years for their elaborate interactive, walkthrough Halloween yard displays that pay homage to classic horror movies. This year’s Elm Street display includes an awesome nod to the iconic “Welcome to primetime, bitch!” death scene from Dream Warriors, and the Wilkes family even recreated Johnny Depp’s death scene from Wes Craven’s original film. They rigged up a “blood waterfall” and constructed a bed around it, making it look like blood is shooting up out of the mattress.

 

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The Victim Experience (Las Vegas)
Think of the Victim Experience as a realistic and visceral simulation of pretty much every violent crime you can imagine, with you in the role of victim, and you won’t be far wrong. The Victim Experience is not only physically brutal, but like any good rite of passage it will test your mind, body, and soul, and leave its marks on them all as well. It is not fun, not one second of it.

What’s Included in a Ticket Purchase: Orientation and safety class (on site) with refreshments. This is where you will meet your fellow “Victims”. Last Rites with Pope Satanus. Your official trip through the immersive “The Gates of Hell: Uncensored”, filled with various horrors, challenges, obstacles, and aberrations. Decompression and debriefing in heated tent with your fellow Victims and the creators of the event. This includes hot drinks, cold beverages, and snacks. Option to stay on site and watch other Victims in subsequent time slots attempt to make it through.

 

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Barrett’s Haunted Mansion (Abington, MA)
During most of the year Mary Costello is busy running her restaurant, the Abington Ale House, in Abington, Massachusetts. But every Halloween season, things get considerably more scary behind the beloved restaurant. Barrett’s Haunted Mansion is a labor of love for all involved. Along with their two haunted houses that are changed each year, they also offer special nights like Bite & Fright, a Lights on Tour, and extreme nights for guests who don’t mind being touched in total darkness for an extra scary experience.

 

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Twisted Fears (Clinton Township, MI)
‘Twisted Fears is an amazing Home Haunt, that does a killer job transporting you in to a creepy, Erie environment that will get plenty of jump scares out of you! when and if, you make it out, you will be surprised to know that you were only in a garage! lots of fun, well designed and executed Home Haunting excellence!’

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thanks. The festival was the most mainstream festival we’ve shown the film at it, and RT was kind of a fish out of water. But it went okay. Hof itself is very, very much not interesting. It was a long three days. But hey. How’ve you been? Love feeling very happy to be back in Paris, G. ** scunnard, Hi, J. If you mean interested in RT, we would love to show the film there if there is an opportunity. Cool: the Transmissions thing. Everyone, Here is the mighty Jared Pappas-Kelley with a hot tip: ‘We are putting together a new special writing theme edition of ‘Transmissions: Queer States’ that is being edited by Jordan A. Rothacker and me. Here’s more info about the open call if people are interested or want to get the word out. ** Dr. Kosten Koper, Hey! A conundrum indeed. Oh, awesome that you can make the Ghent screening and we can meet. I’ll be a little flustered as I always am in those situations, but don’t let that stop you. Great! ** Charalampos, I get it about being phoneless, but phonelessness is also very depressing. I’m okay with the poster. People seem to like it, so who am I to quibble, I guess. Nice flower action there. Greetings back from moody Paris. ** jay, Hi, jay! Cool, glad his stuff spoke to you. Good to know about the Haneke organ. I’ll try to pop in. I was in Ghent once before in the 80s when I was living in Amsterdam, and all I remember is its prettiness. ‘Try’ is from the title of a Bob Mould/Sugar B-side song called ‘Try (Again)’. ‘Guide’ is re: Guided by Voices. ‘Frisk’ and ‘Period’ don’t have sources unless my brain counts. Good to see you, pal. ** _Black_Acrylic, Yes, RIP Dave Ball. Those first two Soft Cell albums are so great. I’ll go see what Lauren Gault’s work is all about, thank you! ** julian, Lucky, lucky, lucky you about the haunted housing. My LA friends keep sending me pix and vids of the haunts there which is borderline killing me. What are you cooking up for that performance art class, pray tell? I think on Halloween I’m going to this park here that is doing some kind of spooky makeover for the night. There’s really no other option. Have so much fun! ** stephan, Hi, stephan. It’s really good to meet you. Thank you for coming in. Well, if you’d come to the festival that would have been really nice for me, but, honestly, the place and to some degree the festival were kind of dreary. We’ll show the film in Berlin at some point, and maybe elsewhere in Germany, so hopefully there’ll be another chance. Thank you so much for the kind words about my work and the blog. Hof was, well, … the three days we spent there felt like three weeks, to put it simply. And it rained non-stop the whole time. Still, it’s always nice to show people the film. Well, now that you’ve entered, do hang out here if you feel like it. I’d like to learn more about you and yours if you’re so inclined. Take good care. ** Bill, They’re fun. Most of them. His films. No huge beer steins, but there were lots of festival schmooze parties and things that I completely avoided. ** l@rst, Thanks! ** DonW, Hey, Don! Great to see you, bud! Oh, probably, about that incongruous gif. I rely on the accuracy of google’s gif providing function and its supposed accuracy, but of course that’s naive. Yes, my dad was close friends with Richard Nixon early on, and one of my brothers is named after him, yes. They had a big falling out while I was still very young. I only have one faint memory of seeing Nixon and Pat in our living room once. I can’t imagine he followed my writing. I think their falling out was pretty tempestuous. (My dad had been a Republican, but in the 60s he did drugs and started hanging pout at this hippie-ish place called Esalen Institute and turned into a liberal Democrat, and that was one of the big reasons that he Nixon parted ways.) I hope you’re great too! ** darbz (¬ ´ཀ` )¬, Howdy! I was in a town called Hof. It was in Bavaria. It was very boring. I never really liked sugary breakfast cereal for some reason. Raisin Bran is about as sugary as I got. Well, and Frosted Flakes sometimes, okay. I liked Grape Nuts. That was my go-to. In Hof I ate Turkish food, Indian food, pizza, and some kind of meatless German stuff that they served at my hotel because it was free. No, haha, it wasn’t Armin’s house … sadly? Just a little, extremely old fashioned hotel called Hotel Strauss. ** Steve, Hi. It was kind of a weird experience. Hof was at one time an important festival. Fassbinder, Herzog, and other directors of that ilk go their starts there. But it’s not that anymore. It’s a festival where directors who make somewhat artful conventional films go hoping to make connections and find distribution, and our film was a real weirdo there. We had three screenings. One was sold out and got a great response. The other two were barely attended and the audience seemed completely confused. So it was curious. I’m glad you found a way to create interesting associations with the colonoscopy. Good work! Hope the results are A-okay. Awesome about the Husker Du box. I’ll try to get it. I’m a little spaced this morning but I didn’t understand the question about song/album titles? ** Carsten, Yay, man! What great news! Wow, that wasn’t so lengthy and hard after all. If you’re ready to go with UnCollected Press then, yes, I would write to the others and say you’ve found a publisher just put of courtesy. We had one great screening at Hof, so we’re happy. The festival was not really our thing, but it was nice to see that the film could get a really good response in such an unlikely context. ** Nicholas., Dude, nice, congrats, enjoy, and all of that stuff. I haven’t worn a costume since I was a kid, and I don’t think I’m costume kind of guy, so I have no idea. But I want to hear what yours was. LA Halloween is great if you like haunted houses. I’m not sure what the other Halloween stuff is like. I’ll go look at your new misnumbered Vlog then. ** Michael Stamm, Hi, Michael Stamm. Welcome! Drat, another incorrect gif. I’ll go back and excise it. Thanks. What’s up with you and yours? ** Uday, Hi. I’m happy to hear the issues are resolving. I just looked to see if there’s a term for outsized bug movies, and it seems they’re just called Giant Insect Movies. How boring. Romantic infatuations that go nowhere can be good for one’s writing or at least one’s poetry. So there’s that if nothing else. ** Steeqhen, Hey. Halloween is very soon, so good luck checking everything off your list. Like I’ve said, I don’t have social media on my phone, so that keeps it under control. Those are some solid upsides. You can try to teleport some of those dreams into my head because, as you know, I remember a dream maybe once every two months if I’m lucky. ** HaRpEr //, Howdy. We won over one of our three screening audiences, and that was enough to make it worthwhile. Zac and I are going to the Ghent screening. Zac is going to the Bainbridge Island screening. And then we’re going to a screening in Houston which isn’t listed up there yet. Busy enough. The clocks changed? I wonder if that happened here. Weird. I only have one friend who saw Joy Division live. I think they were opening for Buzzcocks. I remember him telling me ‘the singer’ was an ’embarrassing spaz’. I doubt he still feels that way. ** Okay. Halloween continues today with a haunted attraction guide for you US folks and spooky window shopping for the rest of you. See you tomorrow.

The Old School Horrors of Terence Fisher *

* (Halloween countdown post #10)

 

‘Terence Fisher’s critical reputation rests almost entirely on the horror films he directed for Hammer in the 1950s and 1960s, but he was a more versatile filmmaker than his horror output suggests. Born in London on 23 February 1904, he served in the Merchant Navy before entering the film industry in 1933. From 1936 to 1947 he worked as a film editor for a variety of production companies, with his best-known project probably the Gainsborough melodrama The Wicked Lady (d. Leslie Arliss, 1945). His first three films as director – Colonel Bogey (1947), To the Public Danger and Song for Tomorrow (both 1948) – were short dramas produced at Highbury Studio, which was being used by the Rank Organisation to develop new talent. To the Public Danger, an impressively staged adaptation of a Patrick Hamilton radio play, was the best of these, and some critics have retrospectively seen it as anticipating Fisher’s later horror work. As a further sign of things to come, future Hammer star Christopher Lee made a brief appearance in Song for Tomorrow.

‘After Highbury, Fisher moved to Gainsborough where he directed (or co-directed with Antony Darnborough) four feature films. As with To the Public Danger, horror critics have identified the period mystery drama So Long at the Fair (1950), Fisher’s final Gainsborough film, as a horror-like project. But Fisher’s other Gainsborough films reveal him to be a talented director adept at a range of subjects – the plight of post-war refugees in Portrait from Life, tragic romance in the Noël Coward vehicle The Astonished Heart (1949) and light comedy in the portmanteau drama Marry Me! (1949).

‘When Gainsborough closed in the early 1950s, Fisher became a prolific specialist in the low-budget support feature that was becoming an increasingly important aspect of British film production. None of these films, nineteen in total, were strikingly original but some of them – notably the melodrama Stolen Face (1952) and the SF drama Four-Sided Triangle (1953) – contained flashes of talent and ambition. Eleven of these films were made for Hammer, an up-and-coming independent production company with which Fisher’s future career would become inextricably linked. When Hammer decided in the mid-1950s to remodel itself as a horror factory, Fisher became its main director. He was part of the team that produced all the ‘classic’ Hammer horrors – including The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) and The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) – and his measured and stately style was a key aspect of the Hammer formula.

‘Given the low budgets involved and the breakneck production schedules, the quality of these films was inevitably uneven, but some of them, and especially Dracula, were remarkable achievements, albeit ones that were not generally feted by critics at the time of their initial appearance. After the box-office failure of The Phantom of the Opera (1962), Fisher worked less often for Hammer, although his later Hammer films arguably comprise his best work, reflecting as they do both a technical maturity and a willingness to innovate. Although Fisher is regularly accused of representing a conservative moralistic force within British horror, films like Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) and The Devil Rides Out (1968) show a tentative and questioning attitude to social authority and morality.

‘Fisher’s other films from the 1960s – the SF invasion fantasies The Earth Dies Screaming (1964), Island of Terror (1966) and Night of the Big Heat (1967), and a German-produced Sherlock Holmes story – are less successful although interesting nevertheless. Fisher’s final film, the Hammer production Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, was completed in 1972 (although not released until 1974).

‘Fisher received very little critical attention throughout his career. Ironically, as that career ended, the publication in 1973 of A Heritage of Horror, David Pirie’s book-length study of the British horror film, led to a re-appraisal of his work. Since that time, Fisher has come to be seen as a major British film director, especially so far as his horror films are concerned, and as someone who embodies the virtues of a popular British genre cinema. It is still the case, however, that Fisher’s pre-horror work has not received the critical attention it merits. Terence Fisher died on 18 June 1980.’ — screen online

 

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Stills















































 

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Further

Terence Fisher @ IMDb
Terence Fisher, Hammer’s Horror Maestro – A Biography
Les meilleurs films de Terence Fisher
Lumière ! Réalisateurs : Terence Fisher
Book: The Films of Terence Fisher: Hammer Horror and Beyond
Terence Fisher Fan Page @ Facebook
TERENCE FISHER INTERVIEW: AN AFTERNOON IN “HOLLY COTTAGE”
The Cross and the Vampire: Religious Themes in Terence Fisher’s Hammer Horrors
Terence Fisher @ TSPDT
Book: Terence Fisher, by Peter Hutchings
Terence Fisher: Horror, Myth and Religion
Terence Fisher @ letterboxd
Terence Fisher, le roi de la Hammer
Situation historico-fantastique du château dans l’œuvre de Terence Fisher
DIRECTORS CUTS: TOP 7 FILMS BY HAMMER’S MAESTRO TERENCE FISHER
TERENCE FISHER – ACTERIEUR DU CINEMA
Terence Fisher and science fiction

 

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Extras


Terence Fisher – Films Posters Collection


Christopher Lee on Terence Fisher

 

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Interview

 

JVG: Before you became a director, you’ve worked as an editor for quite some time. You have often said that the cutting of a film is very important. Were you yourself deeply involved in the cutting of your own films?
Terence Fisher: I’ve always worked closely with the editor after the film was finished. But I don’t think I gave him as much material as most directors do. When I was working in the cutting room as an editor, I learned to cut in the camera. I was a good film editor and consequently I don’t have to waste time on shooting extraneous cover shots which I wouldn’t need in the end anyway. The film always jigsawed together without any pieces left over. We were never left at the end with one picture and three bits, or even more than three. I shoot to an average of footage of 3½-4 to 1. If you’re working on a moderate budget, anything counts that appears to be a waste. Every shot I ever did was used. Unless of course one ran over the maximum length of the film and wanted to reduce the time by cutting a whole scene, or a sequence, or half a sequence. But in the first complete edition of the film everything we had shot on the floor was in the film.

JVG: Your editors had an easy job then, they were just continuity editors.
TF: That is exaggerating it a little bit of course. You still have to intercut and cut in close shots and so on. Their choice comes in when they have to intercut a conversation between different characters. You are never quite sure in that situation, but you do know how you build up to that situation and how you come out of it. I didn’t supply the cutting room with a lot of wasted material. I cut quite largely in the camera. Basically I cut in the shape of a scene, but when one gets into close shots, showing the emotional reactions of the characters involved in a certain situation, one has to get the full emotional impact of that situation. The whole basis for cutting emotional scenes is reaction rather than action. Generally speaking it is more important to see the effect of a particular spoken word upon the person who’s listening, rather than upon the person who is expressing. If you sit in a theater and see a stage play in whole – in one long shot, to use the film expression – the audience’s attention is more fixed upon one person than another person and another person and another person, according to the development of the scene and what is said. I don’t think the audience is hypnotized by the person who is speaking. I think they automatically go to see the reaction of the character who is listening. I’ve tried to analyze this after I’d been to the theater occasionally, how my attention switched in that respect in certain scenes. But it is too difficult to remember afterwards, because one gets emotionally carried away and your emotion shows you what it wants you to see. You can’t remember afterwards which person caught your eye’s attention, the person who’s speaking or the person who’s listening. Maybe different people have different reactions. This is interesting to analyze. Maybe some people will always be more interested in and fascinated by the person who’s speaking, I don’t know. This may also vary according to the make-up the person is wearing. What is your opinion about this?

JVG: I don’t know, really… I think it will largely depend on the situation…
TF: This is the whole basis of cutting, whether it concerns close-ups in conversation or highly dramatic action scenes.

AF: It’s what you say and what’s been said to you, what makes the reactions rather than the words themselves.
TF: Yes, that’s right.

JVG: You have often worked with Bernard Robinson. He designed most of your Hammer films. You liked him very much…

TF: Tremendously! I liked him very much personally and professionally. He had a great feel for the emotional impact of a subject. One always knew in his sets what was going to happen. He was uncanny in knowing that you would need a certain kind of window design or wall or something at a particular place. He would know exactly where a certain action would take place, and he would give you a background which went well with the emotional impact of that scene. He had a great feeling for his work.

AF: Would you say that his use of the twisted pillars, which appear in most of his sets, were really designed to make you feel uneasy?
TF: Yes. I think so. because he used them right from the start. They gave a peculiar effect.

GP: Roger Corman also used them in some of his later films…
TF: I should think Bernie started the fashion. I’m sure he did.

JVG: The lighting and photography are of course also very important in your films… What exactly is everybody’s function in that respect when you are directing? Of the camera operator, the director of photography, you yourself…
TF: In England directors of photography don’t want to interfere with their operators, as they do on the continent. Continental directors of photography want to have more control over their operators than they do in England. It can work both ways, but I think it’s easier for a film director to work with the camera operator, without actually interfering. But let’s take the director of photography, or let’s call him lighting camera man. You’ve got to leave his style to him. Different lighting camera men have different styles of working. Within each one’s style you can get a certain type of mood if you tell him what you’re aiming at. If you want for instance an actor not to be seen in features but in silhouette, you tell him so. In the first rehearsal he will work from that. Then again it is a co-operative thing between the director and the lighting camera man. But you can’t tell him to change his style. Each lighting camera man has his own individual style. Jack Asher, who did the early Hammer ones, had a very distinctive style of lighting, which was quite different to Arthur Grant’s. He had a more realistic approach to the situation. Jack Asher’s was almost theatrical lighting with little tricks, like color slides placed over the lights and so on.

JVG: I think Jack Asher was also very emotional…
TF: Oh indeed he was. Indeed…

JVG: Much more so than Arthur Grant…
TF: Arthur Grant approached it with a more realistic interpretation. But Arthur would give you a good job if you told him what you were aiming at. If you asked him not to see people’s features and to do it with back-lighting, which is very important at certain moments within the field, he could give you almost theatrical lighting like Jack Asher did. Which of the two is the best I don’t know. I don’t know exactly how audiences react to this.

AF: They shouldn’t react at all on a conscious level.
TF: No, but it must be affecting them, one way or another, although they wouldn’t know why.

AF: The use of your exteriors was totally against the norms of the time. That was very much your own personal signature rather than say Jack Asher’s or Arthur Grant’s.
TF: Yes, that is correct.

JVG: Do you work close to the camera operator?
TF: Yes, very closely, shot by shot, where the camera should be at any given moment, when and how it should be moved. All this we work out together. The camera is the instrument for translating the script into a visual form.

JVG: In the early reviews of your films, you were very wrongfully criticized for not moving your camera often, for being “static” or even “pedestrian”, while on the contrary your plenty camera movements are very intricate and laborious, but probably so much in accordance with the action, that they remain unnoticed by the audience and the critics.
TF: I strongly believe that there always has to be a reason for moving your camera, or for changing an angle. You can’t move or change, just because you are bored with your angle. But I do move my camera! People who say that are maybe not conscious of it being moved all the time. If they would take the trouble to sit down and count how many times the camera moves, they’d be staggered. In a straight viewing you would not, and you should not be conscious of that movement. Unless I want you to be conscious of it, when it has a dramatic impact. A lot of people have misguided ideas in that respect. For me there has to be a definite reason, a logical or emotional and dramatic reason, for changing the position of your camera or for moving it. It could even be a movement for the sake of convenience, provided the audience is not conscious of it, if it does not intrude into the dramatic content of what you are showing. You can find all sorts of tricks for moving your camera. One of the simplest tricks in the world is to follow a side character. Take for instance a night club or a restaurant scene, where you want to show the whole thing and end up at a particular table with people in conversation. The simplest way to give a reason for moving your camera is by having a waiter enter from anywhere with a serving tray. He is moving towards the table you want to get into the frame. The camera goes round with him, showing the interior, and will end up precisely where you want to have it. The audience will accept this movement of the camera as natural, because it has been taken there by the waiter, for a reason. It’s a simple trick. And there are many ways of doing it.

JVG: Do you look through the view-finder yourself?
TF: I know lenses pretty well. I used to look a lot through the view-finder in the early days, but only very quickly, just to see the effect. After a short time one gets to know the different distances and all other things.

JVG: Did you use many trick lenses?
TF: I didn’t. Only when there was a definite reason to use one.

JVG: In THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, you used the zoom lens for the first time. Later you said you weren’t too happy with the result.
TF: When the zoom lens first came into use, people were mesmerized by it and misused it completely. The zoom is very useful and can get you out of an awful lot of tracking. Instead of tracking you can use a slow zoom, which is the same thing, but you avoid having to lay tracks on exteriors and sometimes even on interiors, which is very expensive. You can also combine a tracking with a zoom and make the camera move physically in a way you couldn’t possibly do on tracks alone. [Many marvellous examples of this technique became one of Terence Fisher’s trademarks.] These are ways to use the zoom intelligently. Today’s zoom lenses are perfected up to the point where you have full control over the speed. In the early days you didn’t have that control, it was a somewhat haphazard thing technically. If it is under control, however, it can give you a tremendous advantage, provided it is used properly. It is far less expensive than a travelling. There still is a slight difference between a zoom and a travelling because with a travelling you move your camera towards the subject and with a zoom you pull the subject towards your camera. It gives a different psychological effect, but the distinction is very subtle.

JVG: In fact, you don’t hold anything really against the way you used the zoom lens in THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, as one could conclude from the interview you gave to “Midi-Minuit Fantastique” about ten years ago?
TF: No, certainly not. Those people must have misinterpreted a lot of what I said in those interviews. I was not abusing the zoom lens but the misuse of it. I think it is a wonderful technical achievement. To misuse it, like the misuse of any other technical aid, is foolish. But you use anything technically that will help dramatically and if there is a reason for it.

JVG: When you discuss a film with your actors, do you seriously consider their suggestions?
TF: Of course, very much so. They are vital to consult. Many things come out of what we call the first rehearsal, the rough run-through. That is when you find out what the actors are going to bring to the film. Although you will also discuss the content and the line of direction on the set, that first rehearsal is the most exciting thing. Little twists and variations come in which no director could think of, but which an actor, who is really living the character he is to play, will bring in. Like how the characters will react under certain circumstances… how he reacts, what he does, what he says. You would never have thought of these things yourself, no director would. Many directors are rather definite about what they expect, they lay down the rules before the first rehearsal. I think that is ridiculous, because it is then when those impromptu things come from an actor who is really living the character he is supposed to portray. No director could think of these things. He could think of something else of course, but it wouldn’t be nearly as good or in the wrong place. I love that first run-through, the spontaneous expression of what the actor feels without too many preconceived ideas. And here we come again to this question of the intuitiveness of filmmaking…

AF: From what you say now, an actor is probably the least obvious person to direct a film…
TF: Indeed. I don’t think that any actor is, with that one great exception. Orson Welles is a tremendous actor and a tremendous director as well.

JVG: Do you think a film could be ruined by an actor who is miscast or who is not giving his best.
TF: Yes, in various degrees…

JVG: Don’t you think a director could still make something out of it?
TF: Well, he could make something out of it, but not what he should make out of it. Please. Bad casting is a tragedy, isn’t it.

JVG: Yes… On the contrary, do you think that when you have a bad script but a very good cast, you could still make a good film.
TF: No… One could make a better film, yes, but not a good one.

JVG: But better because of the actors?
TF: Yes, because of the actors. In what degree the actor will affect the film, for better or worse, is very hard to tell. That depends so much on the size of that actor’s talent and on the content. You can’t sit on the back of his neck all of the time, can you. You have to believe, with the actor, in the particular part he is portraying. It’s a bit of life, isn’t it. He’s got to emotionally portray to the audience. That’s communication again. The audience has got to believe in him as long as they’re looking. I don’t care much for what they say afterwards, but during those two hours they got to believe the whole thing. It’s like hypnotism really. They got to believe what they see, they got to move emotionally into the action.

JVG: You have worked with an incredible number of famous actors in your carreer. I’ve got an impressive list here of actors you worked with. It includes Dirk Bogarde, Mai Zetterling, Noel Coward, Oliver Reed, Jean Simmons, Eva Bartok, and so on and on, too many to name. You must have been directing every good actor in this country at one time or another…
TF: Yes… I hadn’t realized it so much until Alan here reminded me the other day and started reading all the names of the people I worked with. That’s a lovely thing, isn’t it.

JVG: Yes, indeed it is.
TF: It’s a most exciting idea…

 

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17 of Terence Fisher’s 64 films

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Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell is a 1974 British film directed by Terence Fisher and produced by Hammer Film Productions. It stars Peter Cushing, Shane Briant and David Prowse. Filmed at Elstree Studio] in 1972 but not released until 1974, it is the final chapter in the Hammer Frankenstein saga of films as well as director Fisher’s last film.’ — horror.fandom


Trailer

Watch the film here

 

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Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
‘The key image of this film occurs early on, as a hideous monster removes its face, only to reveal itself as Baron Frankenstein in a mask. Hammer’s fifth installment in the series sees the transformation of doctor into monster complete. Peter Cushing’s portrayal of the Baron here is all insanity and hatred, rather than the misunderstood (if unethical) genius of previous entries. Frankenstein transplants the brain of an insane doctor into Freddie Jones’ body, creating a pathetic, misshapen beast, while using blackmail and rape to control the people around him. This was director Terence Fisher’s favorite film, and his pacing and composition have rarely been better. Jones (the nasty showman in The Elephant Man) is great at communicating the disorientation and helpless agony of his condition, and while Cushing’s character is more one-dimensional than usual, he does his normal excellent job as the Baron. Hammer’s next installment was the silly Horror of Frankenstein before Fisher returned to end the series with Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.’ — RT


Trailer


Excerpt

Watch the film here

 

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The Devil Rides Out (1968)
‘In Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski builds the suspense by cloaking the evil in dark hallucinogenic dreams. Terence Fisher brings the frights to The Devil Rides Out by concentrating on the minutiae of the workings of black magic. Both films were made in 1967, the year of the first publicized Satanic baptism in history, when three-year-old Zeena Schreck, now a tantric Buddhist yogini, heralded the summer of love. The same year as The Rolling Stones’ sympathetic album Their Satanic Majesty’s Request and The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, almost twenty years, to the day, that the man who brought new parts to play, Aleister Crowley, died.’ — Tony Sokol


Trailer

Watch the film here

 

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Island of the Burning Damned (1967)
‘While mainland Britain shivers in deepest winter, the northern island of Fara bakes in the nineties, and the boys at the Met station have no more idea what is going on than the regulars at the Swan. Only a stand-offish visting scientist realizes space aliens are to blame.’ — The Movie DB


Trailer

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Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
‘In this “most conceptually wild and outrightly science-fictional of the Hammer Frankenstein films”, Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) and Dr. Hertz (Thorley Walters) are embarking upon an experiment to capture the souls of the dead and impose them into other bodies. When their assistant, Hans (Robert Morris), is unjustly accused of murdering his girlfriend Christina’s father and is himself put to death, the two men claim his body and trap his soul in their laboratory. Meanwhile, Christina (Susan Denberg) is consumed with grief over the death of her beloved Hans and commits suicide.’ — SHOUT


Trailer

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Island of Terror (1966)
‘Success invariably leads to imitation. With all the attention (and box office grosses) Hammer Film Productions was attracting in the 1960’s, it was inevitable that Hammer wannabes would start sprouting up like mushrooms from the loamy, light-starved soil of the English movie industry. Amicus and Tigon are probably the best known of the Hammer clones, but there were other studios out there playing Monogram to Hammer’s Universal. One of the most utterly forgotten was Planet Film Productions, the studio responsible for bringing us Island of Terror/Night of the Silicates/etc. The amazing thing about Planet was that they were able to pull off the very same trick as their richer, higher-prestige competitors, and dip into the Hammer talent pool. Amicus you expect to be able to pay Peter Cushing’s or Terrence Fisher’s price; a little fly-by-night operation like this is another matter altogether. And almost equally remarkable is the particular aspect of Hammer that Planet chose to copy— rather than producing knockoffs of the somewhat sensationalized gothics that Hammer is best remembered for today, Planet’s stock in trade (at least as far as genre movies were concerned) seems to have been clones of the clever little sci-fi flicks Hammer used to make in the mid-to-late 1950’s.’ — 1000 misspent hours


the entirety

 

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Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
‘Hammer’s second outing for the notorious vampire after their hugely successful Dracula (1958), with Christopher Lee returning as the demonic Count. Here he is revived by a devoted servant using the blood of an unwary guest and so begins his reign of terror once more.’ — RT


Excerpt


Behind the scenes

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The Earth Dies Screaming (1964)
‘Their target: Humanity. Their mission: Total Annihilation! The world has just been decimated by an unstoppable, merciless army of killer robots, and millions of innocent souls have been wiped out! Only a handful of survivors have managed to escape the deadly alien apocalypse, and they must endure a non-stop struggle to save themselves from destruction, and somehow find a way to defeat the marauding death machines… before the entire human race becomes extinct! Legendary Hammer director Terence Fisher (Horror of Dracula) directed this Sci-Fi thriller written by Harry Spalding (Chosen Survivors) under the pseudonym Henry Cross and starring Willard Parker, Virginia Field, Dennis Price and Thorley Walters.’ — Kino Lorber


Trailer


the entirety

 

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The Gorgon (1964)
‘An extremely bizarre offering from the renowned Hammer Film Productions, The Gorgon is the movie that asks, “What would happen if a monster from Greek mythology returned from the dead to terrorize East Prussia in the early 20th century?” Now, you might expect such a movie to be more fun than the proverbial barrel of monkeys, but sadly, you’d be wrong. The Gorgon may be plenty stupid, but it isn’t fun stupid.’ — 1000 misspent hours


Trailer

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The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
‘As usual, Terence Fisher and Hammer Studios take a concept already done exquisitely by Universal in the 30s and 40s and make it their own. This film stands out among a long hallmark of werewolf movies, going for the straight dramatic content of lycanthropy rather than the sensationalism.’ — classic-horror


Trailer

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The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (1960)
‘Hammer’s flop version of the overworked Robert Louis Stevenson classic grafts on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray for extra literacy amid the tired Gothic chills. This time the old and weak Jekyll (Paul Massie) transforms into a dashing and virile playboy with an eye for London’s cancan girls. Christopher Lee lends his usual excellent support as the lecherous best friend, crushed to death by a python when found in the arms of Jekyll’s wife (Dawn Addams).’ — Radio Times


Trailer


the entirety

 

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The Brides of Dracula (1960)
‘This is director Terence Fisher’s ultimate statement of his unusual and deductive aesthetic and it embodies the very best efforts of Hammer Films’ technicians and artisans. It’s about one of those remote castles in some indistinct hollow of middle Europe. There a handsome, young Baron is kept chained up by his mother who lives in fear of him. A lovely visiting schoolteacher is not afraid of him at all of course, so she turns the key to release him, which turns out to be a big mistake. Featuring the incomparable Peter Cushing as the vampire hunter. Thrilling, beautiful, and a little kinky naturally.’ — Austin Film Society


Excerpts

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The Mummy (1959)
‘Hammer’s The Mummy is absolutely cracking stuff. After the success of their first two gothic horrors, Michael Carreras – usually relegated to Executive Producer duties – got the job of properly producing this one, and it shows. While Anthony Hinds was undoubtedly one of the masterminds behind Hammers success, Michael’s love of spectacle is what elevates The Mummy to something greater than it might otherwise have been. Carreras’ input, a bigger budget, and the general increase in confidence of a company hitting its peak are all on display here. The movie ‘feels’ much bigger than either Frankenstein or Dracula, the cast is a lot larger, and just to put some truly spectacular icing on this particular cake, Franz Reisenstein’s score is there to tell you that this is Hammer doing epic. And for a tiny company filming all this in a few sheds near Windsor this was a tremendous accomplishment and should be viewed as such. Bernard Robinson’s set design feels epic, and Jack Asher’s cinematography is gorgeous. Jimmy Sangster’s script condenses a whole cycle of Mummy movies into one film, and even if he mistook Karnak for a god rather than the location in Egypt it actually was, we can forgive him. Terence Fisher’s unobtrusive direction ensures that everyone’s skills are displayed to their best advantage.’ — This is Horror


Excerpt


Excerpt

Watch the film here

 

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The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
‘After emerging as a potent force in the genre with Horror of Dracula, Hammer Films added their handsome Gothic touch to this lesser-known remake of the 1944 suspenser The Man in Half Moon Street (itself adapted from a play by Barre Lyndon). Anton Diffring stars as a century-old artist who maintains a youthful appearance by regularly replacing certain glands — in transplants that he receives thanks to the unwilling participation of healthy donors. Despite his outward physical vitality, his advanced years lead to an increasing mental instability, evinced by his mad obsession with an old flame (Hazel Court) whose newfound love for a suave doctor (Christopher Lee) compels Diffring to commit acts of diabolical cruelty that ultimately become his grisly undoing. Directed by Hammer regular Terence Fisher, who applies a high polish to this atmospheric period thriller.’ — Cavett Binion, Rovi

Watch the film here

 

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The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
‘Nothing holds Dr. Frankenstein back from his reanimation obsession. Narrowly escaping his own execution at the guillotine, the Doctor flees to Germany, where he changes his name to Dr. Victor Stein. In the town of Carlsbruck, Dr. Stein opens a medical clinic for the wealthy and a charity hospital to tend to the indigent. Of course, the need to fiddle with the creation of a new creature is forever with the doctor and, as usual, something goes wrong. In The Revenge of Frankenstein we see the charitable, socially conscious side of the doctor, who genuinely wants to assist the poor and destitute; he is paid handsomely by the affluent citizens for his medical services and turns that profit into caring for the impoverished. There’s only one hitch with his altruism: he’s also using the charity hospital as a supply house for his gruesome experiments.’ — MoMA


Trailer


Excerpt

 

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Horror of Dracula (1958)
Horror of Dracula for me ranks very highly amongst other Dracula films. I personally believe that the changes made to the original Bram Stoker novel are definite improvements when translating them to the screen. While I admire the stylistic approach that Francis Ford Coppola would later make with his adaptation many years later, Horror of Dracula is entirely about the eradication of Count Dracula and his dark minions. It’s what makes Lee’s portrayal of the character all the more menacing. He’s an out and out villain and not a misunderstood creature of darkness. On the other hand is the methodical Dr. Van Helsing, played to sheer perfection by Peter Cushing. Both he and Lee are actors in their prime and totally flipped sides of the same coin. Their battle at the end is one of the most enthralling set pieces of any vampire film, Dracula or otherwise. Cushing’s energetic jumps across the dining room table to retrieve two candlesticks in order to make a makeshift crucifix in order to subdue Lee is still thrilling, and all the more reason to continue to appreciate the film sixty years after its initial release.’ — the digital bits


Trailer


Excerpts

 

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The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
‘Released onto a market dominated by science fiction ‘creature features’, the success of Terence Fisher’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) revitalised and reinvented the ailing horror genre. Critics were horrified by the colourful blend of blood and sex, but the film was a huge commercial and artistic success. Despite the success of Hammer’s The Quatermass Xperiment (d. Val Guest, 1955) and X – The Unknown (d. Leslie Norman, 1956), and other studios’ efforts like Devil Girl From Mars (d. David MacDonald, 1954) and Fiend Without A Face (d. Arthur Crabtree, 1958), the science fiction genre belonged firmly to the Americans. Fisher’s retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic (which could itself be classed as science fiction) would prove to be Hammer’s first successful foray into the closely related but temporarily stalled horror film market.’ — bfi


Excerpt


Excerpts

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*

p.s. Hey. This afternoon I’m heading to Bavaria/Germany where ‘Room Temperature’ is screening at the Hof International Film Festival. While I’m there, the blog will be taking a short vacation — Thursday, Friday, Saturday — and it will reawaken on Monday. ** Dr. Kosten Koper, Greetings, Dr.! I do know that song, and I feel certain it derived from either the novel and the related film, yes. I hope you’re doing great. I’m going to be heading to your country, Ghent specifically, to show ‘RT’ in about a week and a half, apropos of, I guess, nothing really. ** _Black_Acrylic, I wouldn’t be a fraction of who I am if it hadn’t been for Grove Press and its author/minions. Yeah, the Richter. I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about that only because there was already a big Richter retrospective here about three years ago at the Pompidou, and the new retrospective is a sign of how the Vuitton ‘museum’ is only interested in having money-making blockbusters as opposed to giving shows to great artists who’ve never had retrospectives here. Plus it’s on the heels of their superfluous Hockney retrospective that followed a huge Hockney retrospective here a few years ago too. I might go anyway, but that does discolor the enterprise for me. ** Jack Skelley, Wazmo Nariz! Wow, I do faintly remember that now. Holy crap. Whatever became of that silly dude. Huh. Angelyne’s band was really sad. The weakest possible Blondie imitation with Angelyne sort of sounding like an even squeakier, very off key imitation of the singer from Missing Persons, and no one even applauded when they finished their songs. It was grim. Luv ya back! ** Dominik, Hi!!! I think the poster might already be making the rounds on social media, but I haven’t had the wherewithal to share it yet. Practice makes perfect? Maybe love can try that old homily on for size? Love wondering what he’s going to do for three days in Hof after googling it and reading that the only recommendation to visitors for things to do there is to look at a supposedly very nice organ in the local church, G. ** Carsten, I always think very well of Tibetan Buddhists until I remember that Allen Ginsberg was one, haha. Off to Hof today. I’m there until Sunday night. From what I saw in google searching, it looks very pretty and old but there seems to be very little to do there, so I suspect I’ll be spending my time seeing as many of the festival films as I can stomach, but we’ll see. No, I haven’t heard back from the BlazeVox friend. Hm, I will write him again and nudge. ** l@rst, Hey, buddy. The new Pynchon is awaiting me. It’s good or even great, I assume? Zine 7, gonna get it. And the new song collection! Dude, you’re really rocking it! Take care back big time. ** julian, Hi, j! Um, I think, push comes to shove, I prefer the novel. I’m good, really busy with the film rollout. I’m glad you’re upswinging, and I guess the good news is that it was only a foggy couple of weeks. What’re your plans? ** Thomas Moronic, Hey, Mr. M. Yep, yep, yep. You good? What your latest, bud? Love, me. ** Steve, There is the occasional slave guy who lists having a forced colonoscopy amongst his fetishes, so I naturally wondered, haha. Glad you got through that with your cogency in tact. ** Sypha, It’s an especially good one of hers in my book. A basketball novel called ‘Joy of the Worm’ … that I am going have to read! ** HaRpEr //, Hi. I remember when Joy Division was obscure. I don’t think I would’ve named my first novel after their album if they hadn’t been. Taylor Swift is so massive that she’s guaranteed to be a generational touchstone and stay in some kind of currency. I doubt she can act, so she probably will need to do a Madonna. The Fixx was one of the most successful bands in the 80s, and they’re barely a memory now, for instance. Her films are generally really good. If you haven’t read ‘Malady of Death’, I think that’s her ultimate. The more you maxmize your strength and related obsession with a writing project, the more you’re free to move on an innovate, I think. ** Steeqhen, I only listen to Spotify when I’m riding or driving in a car on roadtrips. My go-to is bandcamp. That’s where I buy and listen to the vast majority of music. I let some Dianetics wonks give me their ‘test’ when I was teenager, and it was so sinister that I’ve avoided everything to do with that like the plague ever since. ** Nicholas., Well, there you go. An arts schedule, um, okay, I’ll do my best. Porn star tattoos are eternal in every sense of the word. ** Bill, It’s a goodie. New Cristian Ponce … I’ll follow your lead. I need something for my plane trip today, and I’m very unprepared, so I guess the last 1/3 of the new issue of The Wire will have to do. ** Okay. The blog gives you a few days to spend with the old fashioned yet quite charmed horror films of Mr. Terence Fisher, if you’re so inclined. Have a great next few days, and I’ll see you on Monday.

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