Hammer Films: The Ultimate Collection

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Twins of Evil (released on a double bill with Hands of the Ripper), tells of two young and beautiful twin sisters, Maria and Frieda (Mary Collinson and Madeleine Collinson), who are recently orphaned and have come to live with their uncle and attend a school for young girls. Their uncle, Gustav (Peter Cushing), is a puritanical Christian who roams the countryside with his brotherhood of followers stamping out so-called “witchcraft” wherever he finds it. Nearby, Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas) is attempting to lure Maria and Frieda away from their uncle and turn them into vampires, but he must eventually confront Gustav in a battle to the death. NEW 2 hour Directors cut of “The Flesh and The Fury: X-posing ‘Twins of Evil'” feature length documentary exploring Hammer’s “Karnstein Trilogy” from Ballyhoo Productions (2021)

For its new box set Hammer Films: The Ultimate Collection, Mill Creek Entertainment gathers twenty of the Columbia released titles (spread across ten discs), spanning the years 1957 – 1970, including: The final film of this boxed set, Vampire Circus truly goes off the beaten path. The evil Count Mitterhaus (Robert Tayman) is defeated by the local villagers, cursing them and vowing to return one day. Years later, a traveling circus comes to the village, entrancing many of its patrons, especially its young children. Talented performers though they are, this circus turns out to be made up of a band of vampires who are the loyal disciples of Count Mitterhaus. Once the villagers and their children begin disappearing, it becomes clear that this circus is more than it seems and that the performers are attempting to resurrect the long dead Count Mitterhaus. Since its Sundance premiere, the energy surrounding the film has steadily grown with RogerEbert.com calling Onyx the Fortuitous “a handmade horror gem.” For Twins of Evil, the differences are not as obvious. The Synapse presentation is cooler with pinker flesh tones and, once again, a slightly more narrow aspect ratio. The Imprint presentation is not as bright, though only by several degrees. Which is the more favorable is difficult to say as being darker benefits certain shots, yet slightly hampers others. The same level of detail and grain are on display, the latter much more moderate and even than the previous two presentations. It’s also the cleanest presentation thus far. As far as which is superior, it’s a toss up, though I tend to prefer Synapse’s cooler color palette overall.When the Blu-ray market was starting out Hammer fans waited impatiently, hoping for some of the studio’s horror titles to start hitting the new format. It took several years. This was the first, released in the U.K. by Eureka. A middling entry in the sub-genre of Psycho- inspired movies Hammer cranked out in the mid sixties, it was an odd choice to be the first of their horror entries to hit HD. The film’s detriments are offset by the fantastic transfer however, which is razor sharp with a great grayscale. It’s an exciting peek at the promise the new format could provide the Hammer library, a promise displayed only intermittently with the releases that followed.

Based on Andrew Bowser’s viral character of the same name , Onyx tells the story of an amateur occultist who learns that sometimes when you raise HELL… you get a little burned .Madhouse: Inside Hammer’s ‘Nightmare’ (2016, 15 mins): Hammer historians Alan Barnes, John J Johnston, Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby revisit the production

Here, he joins Bartok and his mysterious delegation to raise the spirit of an ancient demon for a once-in-a-lifetime ritual. The Mossman Legacy (2014, 7 mins): Kinsey discusses the contributions of transport historian and collector George Mossman to Hammer productions Presented on Blu-ray, this film has been upscaled to deliver the best possible visual presentation of this documentary.The situation I gather from their comments is that they have rights to certain titles, which will be done first over 18 months. Then after that, they'll talk to rights partners about restoring other titles if this first wave does well. I imagine that would include the Universal and Sony titles. Rights seem to have shuffled around a bit recently so I have no idea who has what anymore.