Over the last 19 Blog posts, I have mostly celebrated Hammer Productions and their remarkable output of British-made films.
It will come as no surprise that Hammer Film Productions did come to an end.
Hammer was originally founded in 1935 but the sweet spot for Hammer as a business started in 1957 when they owned Bray Film Studios they had shut down “Exclusive” the film distribution side of the business they were making “Dracula” (1958) and were about to land the five-year deal with Colombia Pictures who invested in Hammer by buying 49% of their studio business… they had a really good run for six years making 30+ films at Bray Studios with their filmmakers, actors and technicians.
When that deal with Colombia Pictures came to an end in 1963, Hammer had to settle up financially with Colombia Pictures so Hammer boss James Carreras sold shares in Hammer to “Associated British Picture Corporation” (ABPC). This deal meant Hammer was obligated to move productions to Elstree Studios. They were now booking sound stages and rubbing shoulders with personnel who were not part of Hammer and it must have wrecked the “Cottage industry vibe” they had built up at Bray.
Bray still belonged to Hammer and was used as a production base of operations containing their technical departments and workshops. The last Hammer Film to be completely made at Bray was “The Mummy's Shroud” (1966). Hammer completely relocated to Elstree by late 1966 and Bray Studios was sold off in 1970.
As far as distribution post Colombia Hammer signed a deal with Seven Arts/20th Century Fox which did facilitate another run of gothic films, but Seven Arts/Fox was also keen for Hammer to make films that have become known as “Prehistoric Adventure” films such as “She” and most famously “One Million Years BC”.
Very famously there was a “cultural revolution” that took place in the UK, Europe and North America post World War Two. In England Hammer embraced the new BBFC “X certificate” in 1955 to entertain young people by offering a cinema experience which was fresh and totally different from what would have been broadcast on Television in the late 50s and early to mid-60s but by 1969 into the early 1970’s TV in the UK was now in colour and you would have definitely be seeing films and programming that would have been as daring as late 50’s Hammer on TV… So Hammer had to move with the times to get people into the cinema to offer what they could not get at home! That meant SEX!
A common misconception about Hammer is that the second it was the 70’s their horror went all “sexploitation” and they quickly nose-dived.
The truth is they had been ramping up the SEX since 1966 mostly by testing the limits excepted by the BBFC via their “Prehistoric Adventure” movies with fur bikini-clad warrior women but Hammer did have to spice up its output with a series of highly charged vampire pictures more steeped in eroticism and nudity, as well as a touch of lesbianism.
Hammer did slowly nose-dived until 1974 then limped to 1976.
The fundamental landscape of Horror Cinema was rocked in 1974 by William Freidkin’s “The Exorcist” and Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” so what kind of chance did Hammer really have? They did respond with “Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell” (1974) a Frankenstein picture starring Peter Cushing and it is more gory than “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” but is still a frilly shirt gothic horror!
Hammer made five movies in 1974, then “To the Devil a Daughter” (1976) and they made a remake of “The Lady Vanishes” (1979) then Hammer went into liquidation.
There were 13 hour-long episodes made for a television show called “Hammer House of Horror” that was broadcast in 1980 and 13 hour-long episodes were made for a television show called “Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense” and was broadcast in 1984.
I don't know who made these and how the Hammer name was used post liquidation but this is a movie blog.
In the 2000s, Hammer was resurrected,
On the 10th of May 2007 It was announced that Dutch film producer John De Mol had purchased the name “Hammer Films” and the rights to over 300 Hammer films via his private equity firm “Cyrte Investments”. In addition to holding the rights to the Hammer’s back catalogue, De Mol's company also planned to restart the studio.
The new Hammer Films was to be run by film executives Simon Oakes and Marc Schipper. In addition, Guy East and Nigel Sinclair of L.A.-based Spitfire Pictures were on board to produce two or three horror/thriller films a year for the U.K.-based studio.
The first output under the new owners was “Beyond the Rave” (2008), a contemporary vampire story which premiered for free online, exclusively, on “Myspace” as a 20-part serial of 4-minute episodes. ("Beyond The Rave" featured Britt Ekland's last acting role before her death)
Backed by the Irish Film Board in 2008 Hammer began shooting a film in County Donegal “Wake Wood” a supernatural folk horror film starring English actor Timothy Spall.
It was scheduled for release in the United Kingdom in the autumn of 2009 but it was premiered at LIFFF (Lund International Fantastic Film Festival) in Sweden on the 25th of September 2009 “Wake Wood” was produced in collaboration with the Swedish company “Solid Entertainment”. It was given a limited UK/Ireland theatrical release in 2011.
In the summer of 2009, Hammer produced “The Resident” a thriller directed and co-written by Finnish filmmaker Antti Jokinen and starring Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Christopher Lee. It was released in the US and UK in March 2011.
Hammer was the company that released the 2010 film “Let Me In” directed by Matt Reeves which was the English language remake of the Swedish vampire film “Let the Right One In”
Hammer Films in association with Alliance Films made the film “The Woman in Black” (2012) based on Susan Hill’s 1983 Gothic horror novel of the same name. The film starred Daniel Radcliffe.
“The Quiet Ones” (2014) is a British supernatural horror film that starred Jared Harris as a university professor attempting to prove poltergeists are manifestations of the human psyche and not supernatural beings.
“The Woman in Black: Angel of Death” (2014)
This is the sequel to the 2012 film “The Woman in Black”, and is produced by Hammer Film Productions and Entertainment One.
“The Lodge” (2019)
After a few quiet years, the film The Lodge had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 25 January 2019. It was released in November 2019, and it was distributed by NEON
In September 2019, Hammer signed a worldwide distribution deal with StudioCanal for its catalogue of films.
In November 2021, it was announced “Network Distributing” had united with Hammer to form “Hammer Studios Ltd”.
In August 2023, it was announced “Hammer Studios Ltd.” had been acquired by,
The John Gore Organisation.
John Gore is a Producer with a background in theatre production who has won a “Tony Award” “Olivier Award” & “Emmy Award”
Doctor Jekyll (2023)
Directed by Joe Stephenson, Written by Dan Kelly-Mulhern, Based on “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson, Produced by Liam Coutts, Joe Stephenson & Guy de Beaujeu, Music by Blair Mowat, Cinematography Birgit Dierken, Edited by Joe Stephenson & Andrew Hulme, Starring Eddie Izzard, Scott Chambers, Robyn Cara, Morgan Watkins, Jonathan Hyde, Simon Callow, Lindsay Duncan.
Dr Nina Jekyll makes a fortune in the pharmaceutical industry and becomes a household name, but her success comes at a cost. A scandal forces her out of the spotlight and into seclusion. In need of an assistant, Jekyll hires Rob, an ex-con straight out of rehab who is trying to get back on his feet. It soon becomes clear that there are evil forces at play, and Rob's wits are tested in a game of cat-and-mouse with a manipulative entity.
So Hammer is back making new productions and I am sure the back catalogue must be making money via being licensed out to numerous streaming services and the sales of the films on physical media.
Just a little foot note about Bray Studios... I would love to say Mr Gore has bought them too but he hasn't.
Post Hammer Bray Studios was renamed the "Bray International Film Centre" and a fifth sound stage was constructed. Production continued at Bray, including special effects for series such as Doctor Who and Space 1999 In 1984 they were sold again to a property development company who planned to demolish the sound stages and convert "Down Place" the old mansion house into office buildings... But In 1991 television producer Neville Hendricks bought the complex and restarted film production on the site.
It was during Hendricks ownership sound-stages at Bray were used as a rehearsal facility for large musical events and touring acts, Pink Floyd would rehearse there for world tours and the rehearsals for all the collaborations for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert took place at Bray
In 2014, Hendricks intended to sell the site, explaining that it was not economically viable as a studio being so close to studios such as Pinewood and Shepperton, He sold the complex to a property development company who submitted a planning application in 2015 for luxury apartments and demolition of the sound stage buildings; demolition of buildings at Bray began in 2017... However I think due to the site being on what is now Green Belt has prevented the complex from being rezoned to residential... So filming resumed at Bray in 2019 with all three episodes of Mark Gatiss's "Dracula" for the BBC having scenes filmed at the complex .
In June 2020, Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council approved plans to expand the complex with new studios and workshops.
So sadly still separated from Hammer but Bray Studios are back!
That has been quite a journey!
Thank you so much if you have looked at all of these 20 Blogs I have written about Hammer. It was really interesting doing the research for this and I learned a lot and I even watched a few Hammer films that had passed me by!
