The horror genre has always been dealt a fickle hand. Since the early days of cinema, horror has been looked upon as a novelty at best, and an undesirable and uninspired genre at worst. From the early days of cinema, filmmakers realised the potential to shock and awe their audience. The creation of trick films was an early example of this, but rarely was used to frighten. While for a time the genre of filmmaking was popular in its campy and often Victorian melodramatic ways, with the forerunners such as Universal Horror and Tod Slaughter being the most notable with their classic films such as Frankenstein (1931, Whale) and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936, King), respectively, this would eventually die down due to World War II. Post-war, the void created was filled by a company that would become a genre defining and iconic force in the industry.
Hammer Horror was created by filmmakers James Enrique Carreras and William Hinds in the 1930’s, but it wouldn’t be until the 1950’s that they would begin producing films that would make them the known studio they are today. The most notable of these was The Quatermass Xperiment (1955, Guest), a story of an astronaut that has started to mutate after a space mission gone wrong. The film was a huge success, with the horror aspect appealing to audiences more so than the science fiction elements, and thus allowing the company to capitalise on the success (creating more Quatermass films, and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957, Fisher). This came at the perfect time, as their license with their distributor had run out and the invention of television was becoming a major and powerful rival. With this success, Hammer now had an audience and a direction, with Michael Carreras even stating “The film that must take all the credit for the whole Hammer series of horror films was really The Quatermass Xperiment” (Meikle, Denis (2009). A History of Horrors: The rise and fall of the house of Hammer). The release of The Curse of Frankenstein proved an even bigger success than Quatermass, earning 70 times its budget in box office revenue. It made use of (then) new actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as Frankenstein and the Creature, respectively, and the new ability to create feature length films in colour. All this would lead to their new domination in the genre.
But what made their films to be continually popular is slightly deeper. As Peter Hutchings theorises, the Hammer Horror film played into society’s social and political zeitgeist of the time. The Second World War had shook Britain to its core, and culture was beginning to radically shift as they were nearing the 1960’s. In this way, the films played into the increasingly old fashioned and conservative beliefs of traditional storytelling (with the concept of the masculine and learned expert coming in to save the working class from a mysterious “Other”), while hiding behind a dark and thrilling aesthetic that appealed to the younger audience. This is clear in Dracula (1958, Fisher), exemplified in the final confrontation, with the titular character fulfilling the Other role, and van Helsing playing into the Expert role, while saving the townspeople and damsel. The two are both upper class, learned and masculine in similar but differing ways, and ultimately clash both physically and mentally, with the learned Peter Cushing winning out by outwitting his foe. These conservative views reassured the public, feeding into the wish to be saved by those in power, the ‘Experts’ from far away. Hutchins describes it as “[…] these horror films do draw upon, represent and are always locatable to much broader shifts and tendencies of British social history. […] when we look at the films themselves [we need] to be aware of how they fit into […] the characteristic practices of and concerns of British cinema at the time of their production.” (Hutchins, Hammer and Beyond: The British Horror Film, 1993).
However, this success would ultimately not last. As the audiences and society moved on, the Hammer Horror became increasingly stale and could hardly compete with their competitor’s oversees. As The Wicker Man (1973, Hardy) was released, America saw the release of The Exorcist ( 1973, Friedkin). The cinematic landscape had changed, with cinematic phenomenon such as Jaws (1975, Spielberg), Star Wars (1977, Lucas) and The Shining (1980, Kubrick) on their way in just a few years. The sensibilities of Britain had changed, but Hammer had failed to change with them. Despite this, the studio’s legacy is still felt to this day, and like their undead monsters, may rise again one day to terrorise cinema once again.
Works Cited:
Meikle, Denis (2009). A History of Horrors: The rise and fall of the house of Hammer
Hutchins, Peter (1993). Hammer and Beyond: The British Horror Film
The Wider Screen 