Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters

Enjoyable and fascinating new documentary focussing primarily on the period that the great studios were most famous for ie the horror films. The film makers have managed to track down many of the makers, executives, set designers, make up artists etc or their children who all talk with great reverence about the making of many good and not so good films. As usual, a strong pile of modern film makers - John Landis, John Carpenter, Tim Burton and Joe Dante talk with great affection about the many great films and with a smile about the more dubious ones that the studio produced on very limited budgets. As to the documentary itself, it very informative, full of fun anecdotes with many clips and interviews with all being interviewed in spooky sets. Good fun for true Hammer horror fans.

This was almost unwatchable for me. The film shifts from still to still, not lasting more than a second on each. The interviewees don't fare much better, they are reduced to a single sentence before interrupted by another shot or another person's interview. I lasted 15 minutes before turning it off. Which is a bit of a pity, because if you have the patience to sift through the dreck, there's probably a lot of good information regarding the history of Hammer Films to be had here.

If you want to watch a good documentary about Hammer Films, I'd suggest the 1994 release "Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror". Far superior in my opinion.

I love Hammer films, always have, always will, ever since I was a lad.

I have watched the main thrust of their horror output multiple times over and have several books detailing the history and the films of Hammer.

I was unaware of this brand-new documentary until it popped up on Sky Arts.

Always great to see new Hammer content even if a lot of this in terms of archive clips I had seen before.

The talking heads amongst which were Joe Dante, John Landis, Tim Burton and Jon Carpenter seemed to be genuine fans, I enjoyed hearing what they had to say.

It was also terrific to hear from Martine Beswick and especially Madeline Smith, who has always been a favourite of mine.

Although I was shocked to hear what Maddy had to say about how badly she was treated by one person in particular and I am sorry that she was put through that all those years ago.

It clearly left its mark on her.

One thing new that I did learn was about the talks with Marvel and Stan Lee in the 1970s, the potential slate of characters and films had me thinking "if only"!?

Perhaps my only gripes with this documentary are the clunky title and the awful CGI/AI version of Peter Cushing at the end.

This makes his earlier "return" in 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story seem like a work of genius.

To dream of a return to the halcyon days of Hammer is unrealistic, however one can hope, it will be interesting to see what new owner John Gore is actually able to achieve with this fabulous brand.

And on a final note, fascinating to read on IMDB that the hooded Tarot Dealer was none other than the delicious Valerie Leon!

Recommended for fans both new and old.