The Hammer Horror Series [1964] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

Just an added note........2008-03-14

I agree with all those who love this set. It's brilliant."Night Creatures", however, is not really a horror film, more a costume drama, with Peter Cushing and Oliver Reed as 18th Century smugglers.It was originally released as a second feature to "Phantom of the Opera",(also in this collection),under the title of "Captain Clegg". It's actually a pretty faithful adaptation of Russell Thorndyke's novel "Doctor Syn".This may be of use to those who didn't recognise the American title.

Excellent set.......2007-10-31

These eight films are difficult if not impossible to get hold of on region 2 and hardly ever get shown on television. So this set which I bought from Amazon.com is well worth getting, and its quite a bargain, hence it gets 5 stars.

So far I have only seen three of the eight films. Although long ago I may well have watched them all.
Brides of Dracula is a minor classic starring Peter Cushing. Ok its missing Christopher Lee, but its directed by Terence Fisher who made all the best Hammer films.
Kiss of the Vampire has some classic moments although it is let down by a plot with some large holes in it and the absence of Christopher Lee is more important that in Brides of Dracula as they let Noel Willman try and impersonate him which doesn't work!
Paranoica is a clever psychological thriller in black and white with Oliver Reed which has some suspenseful moments and certainly merits a second viewing.

The set is on 2 double-sided discs (two films per side - four films per disc) and is nicely packaged.

Faulty Discs.......2007-10-31

This is indeed a fantastic collection of some of my favourite Hammer horror films. The prints that are used are of great quality plus the films have censored bits restored. Its only got one star from me because there is INHERENT FAULTS within these discs which make the films skip a second or freeze and stop the DVD player. I`m trying to contact Universal about this problem but from what I`ve read on Amazon US site about the same box set it looks like its not just me whose having a problem with this fault. Because these discs are dual sided that might be the problem thats causing the fault somehow. If the worse comes to the worse I can only hope that Universal release the same films, same prints, on their own. Big shame....

"Nightmare" and "Paranoiac" At Last!!.......2007-07-22

This little set is worth it alone for the above chillers, which have superb production values.
The BFI in London has the only 35mm print in the country of 'Nightmare' and a splendid film too, crisply shot in Black + White, superbly photographed as is 'Paranoiac' from the Francis/Sangster team. The others are entertaining too and seldom seen on Television, definitely worth adding to your collection!

some forgotten gems........2006-08-10

this is a collection of rather obscure hammer films that include both horror and thrillers.
best films here in my opinion, are "brides of dracula," "night creatures" and "curse of the werewolf."
the latter has been fully restored after spending years being broadcast minus about 5 minutes or more. now running at approximately 92 minutes, the film makes more sense.
the one and only peter cushing leads the way in three films including one of his most famous characters, baron frankenstein.
"kiss of the vampire" is one of the stronger entries in this collection. the weakest is "phantom of the opera."

Customer Reviews:

Rare and Remarkable.......2004-08-05

Lucrezia Borgia is a too rarely performed gem of the bel canto repertoire. No doubt the technical challenges of the title role and Genarro have deterred many. It's all the more satisfying to hear/see two of the great singers of the the last century in beautiful vocal form as late as 1980. Alfredo Kraus displays warm brilliant vocalism and Joan Sutherland reminds us why she was called by her Italian fans "la stupenda." For those of us too young to have seen either of these greats in a live performance, this is a remarkable find. Also, the production values of this now 25 year old audiovisual work are hard to beat.

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