The Countdown To Halloween Day 15 Hammer House of Horror (1980)

 

 Here we go with another anthology series from 1980 and created by Hammer Horror productions.  The series was a weekly broadcast on British TV and featured thirteen episodes.  I’m not going to discuss every episode, but I will give some info on some of the stories.  Three of the shorts were directed by Peter Sasdy who also directed Taste the Blood of Dracula and Countess Dracula.  Sasdy also directed one of my favorite stories in the series titled The Thirteenth Reunion.  13th centers on a reporter investigating a health farm (think “fat farm”) and she uncovers some shady goings on that are not all that healthy.   

 

 

Don Leaver directed two episodes and there’s good news and bad news here.  He directed on of the better stories (Witching Time) but also directed (The Mark of Satan) one of the stories I disliked the most.  Francis Megahy directed Growing Pains, not a good one, and Carpathian Eagle, a decent one.  Tom Clegg directed a very good short titled The House That Bled to Death and he also directed Children of the Full Moon.  Children of the Full Moon is hands down the best story of the series.  As you can probably guess it is a werewolf story.  A damn good one too!  The final director I will mention is Alan Gibson who also directed both Dracula A.D. 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula.  Here he directed The Silent Scream and The Two Faces of Evil.  Both good but I enjoyed Two Faces better.

 

 O.K. fine, I’ll mention the final director of the series and that is Robert Young.  No, not the Father Knows Best Robert Young, the Vampire Circus and The Worst Witch Robert Young.  Young directs Charlie Boy which is about an evil possessed African voodoo doll that not surprisingly, seems to be killing people.  Now it’s not Zuni fetish doll good but it’s close and close enough to make it my second favorite story of the series.  See, that’s why I added Young; the guy can’t direct one of the best stories of the series and not get mentioned.  So now that I’ve talked about the directors let’s talk about some of the people that acted in the series.

 

 

First I will mention Peter Cushing who stars in The Silent Scream short which was the final appearance of Cushing in a Hammer production.  Also starring is John Finch (Frenzy and Roman Polansky’s Macbeth) in Witching Time.  Also in Witching Time is Patricia Quinn who also starred as Magenta in Rocky Horror.  Denholm Elliott appears in Rude Awakening here but you might know him better from Raiders of the Lost Ark or Trading Places.  Barbara Kellerman (The Oblong Box and The Monster Club) appears in Growing Pains, but I won’t hold that against her.

 

Wait, there’s more, I’m not done yet.  In one of his biggest and earliest rolls we have Brian Cox (Succession, Nuremberg, and Adaption) starring with Peter Cushing in The Silent Scream.  OK, two more: Anna Calder-Marshall (Wuthering Heights and Uncle Vanya) stars in Two Faces of Evil that I mentioned earlier. And finally (there’s plenty more people starring in this but I’m cutting it off here) we have Christopher Cazenove who stars in Children of the Full Moon that is the best of the stories for me.  Cazenove can also be seen in Three Men and a Little Lady and Eye of the Needle.

 

As is the case with all anthology series and films the stories are usually hit or miss as they are here.  If you like Hammer Horror films, you’ll be fine here as well.  YMMV depending on your story tastes but I think there’s something for everyone.  Do your research and you won’t be disappointed.  I will put all this in the grading hopper, give that sumbitch a spin and what comes out?  Three country cottages out of five.