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May 31st sees the release of The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection 2 from Severin Films, bringing more cult classic Christopher Lee films to Blu-ray, including Uncle Was a Vampire and Dracula and Son! We have all the details below, along with a trailer, and a look at the box set artwork:

The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection 2

To celebrate the centennial of the legendary actor, Eurocrypt Collection 2 presents five of the most unexpected, underrated and underseen films of the iconic actor’s European career. Immediately following Horror Of Dracula, Lee reprised the role in the quirky 1959 Italian comedy Uncle Was A Vampire. Lee speaks fluent German opposite Klaus Kinski for the crazed 1962 krimi Secret Of The Red Orchid. In the 1974 UK psycho-thriller Dark Places, Lee toplines a cast that includes Joan Collins, Herbert Lom and Jane Birkin. Lee’s final performance as The Count in the 1976 French comedy Dracula And Son...

Everything I knew about British culture as a kid I learned from TV. Canada has always been inundated with programming from our Commonwealth pal; Monty Python, Benny Hill, The Two Ronnies, et al paraded before my eyes but nary a horror. And then I discovered the Amicus and Hammer films; worlds unto themselves for exploration. While I’m still knee deep in cleavage and cobwebs, I’m compelled to check out the indie scene; and I happened to come across Psychomania (1973): a well known to some, unknown to many, and now beloved by me Occult Biker film that is absurd as it is entertaining.

Absurdity really is the prominent compound in this heady mash of free spirits and (un)deader ones; the mix of motorcycle mayhem with splashes of Satan works better than it should. That’s probably (at least partly) because the lower budget makes for lower stakes...

Barbara Shelley in Dracula: Prince Of Darkness

Hammer Horror was known for its leading ladies but few put across as much force of personality as Barbara Shelley. Now the much loved actress has died, aged 88, after contracting Covid-19 in the run-up to Christmas and developing a secondary infection.

The London-born star, who began her career as a model, worked with Hammer during its heyday in the Sixties, on films including The Gorgon, Rasputin: The Mad Monk, Dracula: Prince Of Darkness and Quatermass And The Pit. She enjoyed a wider range of roles than most of her contemporaries, playing heroines and villains, vulnerable upper class ladies and capable scientists, always bringing a keen intelligence to her work. She had a passion for science fiction and horror and described Hammer as a family, considering herself very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. She continued to attend related events.

By Lee Pfeiffer

British actress Barbara Shelley has passed away from Covid-19 related ailments. She was 88 years-old. Shelley became popular with horror movie fans in the 1960s when she became one of the resident leading ladies at the legendary Hammer Films where she made several movies with another studio legend, Christopher Lee. Among Shelley's Hammer films were "The Camp on Blood Island" (a rare non-horror entry), "The Gorgon", "Dracula: Prince of Darkness", "Rasputin: The Mad Monk" and "Quatermass and the Pit". Shelley played the lead female role in the 1960 MGM cult classic "Village of the Damned" opposite George Sanders. She also played a recurring character in the 1984 "Doctor Who" television series. She appeared in other iconic British television shows including "Blake's 7", "The Avengers", "EastEnders", "Danger Man", "The Saint" "Man in a Suitcase" and "The Two Ronnies" as well as international favorites including "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and "Route 66". For more,...

Barbara Shelley, a renowned British horror movie actress and Doctor Who star, has died at the age of 88 after contracting coronavirus.

Shelley was best known for her work in horror films made by British production outfit Hammer. She starred alongside Christopher Lee in 1966’s Dracula: Prince of Darkness, while other notable films included Rasputin: The Mad Monk and Quatermass And The Pit.

Shelley also did plenty of TV work, most notably appearing in a string of 1984 Doctor Who episodes, in which she played Sorasta in the Planet of Fire story. Peter Davison was playing the Doctor during her time on the show. Co-star Nicola Bryant tweeted:

So very sad to hear of the passing of #BarbaraShelley. A darling person and a talented actress. When we worked together on Planet of Fire she was so kind to me. She gave me a little owl, still in my possession and some good advice.

Barbara Shelley, best known for her numerous appearances in Hammer Horror titles across the 1950s and 1960s, has died. She was 88.

The actress died from underlying conditions on Monday after contracting Covid-19, her agent revealed.

Shelley starred in some of the best known horror titles from Brit production house Hammer, including The Gorgon, Dracula: Prince Of Darkness, Rasputin: The Mad Monk and Quatermass And The Pit, appearing alongside other icons of the genre such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Her regular appearance as the glamorous gothic leading lady in these films helped earn her the nickname the ‘Queen of Hammer’...

Barbara Shelley, best known for her numerous appearances in Hammer Horror titles across the 1950s and 1960s, has died. She was 88.

The actress died from underlying conditions on Monday after contracting Covid-19, her agent revealed.

Shelley starred in some of the best known horror titles from Brit production house Hammer, including The Gorgon, Dracula: Prince Of Darkness, Rasputin: The Mad Monk and Quatermass And The Pit, appearing alongside other icons of the genre such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Her regular appearance as the glamorous gothic leading lady in these films helped earn her the nickname the ‘Queen of Hammer’...

We have a relatively quiet week of home media releases coming our way tomorrow, with the first season of the newly revamped The Twilight Zone series leading the charge. Scream Factory is giving both Rasputin The Mad Monk and X: The Unknown the HD treatment this Tuesday, and Mvd Rewind has put together a special edition Blu for Mind Games.

Other releases for February 18th include Killer Weekend, Clown Fear, The Girl in the Mirror, Submission, Feedback, and American Zombieland.

Mind Games: Special Edition

Maxwell Caulfield stars in this taut psychological thriller from director Bob Yari (producer of the Academy Award® winning Crash) about a family's battle for survival against a cruel, scheming stranger.

Trapped in an unhappy marriage, Dana Lund and his wife, Rita try to breathe new life into their relationship by taking a trip through northern California with their 10-year-old son Kevin. Along the way they pick...

Curious about all those Region B Hammer Blu-rays from overseas, the ones requiring a region-free player? As a public service, Savant has solicited an expert opinion (you'll have to take my word for that) of a film restoration/transfer specialist who is also an informed fan of the filmic output of the little horror studio at Bray. I know, real Hammer fans buy first and worry about quality later, but this little guide might be of help to the rest of us budget-conscious collectors.

A 'Guest' article Written by a trusted Savant correspondent.

(Note: I receive plenty of emails asking for advice about the quality of Region B Blu-rays, most of which I don't see. I have access to industry people qualified to compare and judge the discs, but they stay off the record, because their employers forbid them to go online with their opinions. They must sometimes simmer in...

'Henry V' Movie Actress Renée Asherson dead at 99: Laurence Olivier leading lady in acclaimed 1944 film (image: Renée Asherson and Laurence Olivier in 'Henry V') Renée Asherson, a British stage actress featured in London productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Three Sisters, but best known internationally as Laurence Olivier's leading lady in the 1944 film version of Henry V, died on October 30, 2014. Asherson was 99 years old. The exact cause of death hasn't been specified. She was born Dorothy Renée Ascherson (she would drop the "c" some time after becoming an actress) on May 19, 1915, in Kensington, London, to Jewish parents: businessman Charles Ascherson and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman -- both of whom narrowly escaped spending their honeymoon aboard the Titanic. (Ascherson cancelled the voyage after suffering an attack of appendicitis.) According to Michael Coveney's The Guardian obit for the actress, Renée Asherson was "scantly...

★★★☆☆ After the success of the Daniel Radcliffe-starring chiller The Woman in Black (2012) earlier this year, Hammer Films are on a bit of a high once again and you can now treat yourself to the latest high definition releases from the extensive back catalogue of the horror giants. The newest wave of entries in the studios ongoing restoration series sees three Blu-rays of enjoyable horrors from the latter half of the 1960s; Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966), The Mummy's Shroud (1967) and The Devil Rides Out (1968).

Read more »...

Hammer Blu-rays The Devil Rides Out (1968, dir. Terence Fisher)

Hammer applies its trademark Gothic veneer with considerably greater care than usual in this, the second and best of the company's three stabs at the satanic stylings of author Dennis Wheatley. Christopher Lee comes over to the light for a rare foray as central hero the Duc de Richleau, teaming up with friend Rex van Rijn (Leon Greene) to prevent the evil Satanist Mocata (Charles Gray) from enmeshing the son of his old friend (Patrick Mower) into a devil-worshipping cult.

The Devil Rides Out is perhaps best remembered for what Lee argues in his commentary to be Hammer's most enduring image, that of our heroes fighting a series of spectral and psychological nemeses from within the protective confines of a ritual circle. And yet the most chilling scene contains no special effects, but is instead a simple conversation between the wife...

The acclaimed Italian master of horror Dario Argento, creator of films like Suspiria and Giallo, is to make a personal appearance at the biggest Film4 Frightfest yet. A new third screen means that the festival has room to expand and show 48 feature films, including 15 world premieres.

Alongside home grown British horror like The Seasoning House, Berberian Sound Studio and Guinea Pigs, this year's event will see Spain's Paco Plaza introducing [Rec] 3: Genesis as his compatriot Jaume Balaguero brings the audience his new thriller Sleep Tight. Actor Michael Biehn's directorial debut The Victim will feature alongside zombie Nazi thriller Outpost II: Black Sun and Gff favourite Wang's Arrival. There will also be a Hammer Horror retrospective including Rasputin: The Mad Monk and The Devil Rides Out.

Alongside all this will be the ever-popular short film showcase and quiz, plus there'll be further guest appearances and special events.

Frightfest will run.

On May 27, British film icon Christopher Lee turns 90 years old. In his long and storied career, he's delivered countless fantastic performances in everything from medieval adventures to gothic scary stories. (You may know him as Saruman, Count Dooku, the Man with the Golden Gun or even Count Dracula.) And he has no plans to slow down, as indicated by recent roles in the Oscar-winning"Hugo" and this month's "Dark Shadows" -- not to mention an upcoming return to Middle Earth with this December's "Hobbit." Lee is not just an actor, but a decorated military man and bombastic heavy metal singer, with a crazy family lineage to boot. To celebrate the legend's 90th birthday, we present 90 reasons why Christopher Lee is awesome. 1. He's the step-cousin of "James Bond" creator Ian Fleming, and was the author's first choice to play Dr. No in the film adaptation. 2. He's in the Guinness Book of...

Bosses at Britain's famed Hammer horror film studios have appealed to the public to help recover lost scenes edited from classic films like The Curse Of Frankenstein.

A number of scenes were cut from the studio's releases after U.K. censors deemed them too gory or shocking for audiences and Hammer Film Productions executives have since discovered that the film reels containing the edited clips have not been archived.

Peter Naish, Hammer's senior vice-president of distribution, says, "We're fairly sure they exist in private collections, instead of official archives.

"There's a network of Hammer fans and collectors who snap these things up, so we need to scour the whole world and appeal to the fans at large to see what we can come up with."

Nine key clips from six of the studios' most iconic movies, including The Mummy and Rasputin: The Mad Monk, have been identified - and one of the most sought-after features actor Peter Cushing in 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein, in which a severed head is dropped into a bathtub full of acid.

Naish adds, "I think that one's iconic - that would be the one people would most want to see. But if we can find any others, that would be great."

Studio bosses hope the worldwide appeal will prove a success and aid them as they work to restore all of the edited films as part of an ongoing project.

The newly revived Hammer studios have put the call out to film fans everywhere for their help in track down some lost scenes from their back catalog that were previously cut by a villain even deadlier than Dracula, the censors!

Hammer have identified nine missing scenes from six of their most beloved films, which back in the 50′s and 60′s were deemed too shocking, violent, sexy or gory for British audiences by the film censors. The film studio’s search is a worldwide one with the hope that uncut versions of these scenes may be owned by private collectors who own the original film reels in other countries.

Here’s the nine clips being sought, which are listed on their website;

The Reptile – an extended “knife in neck/snake bite” scene The Curse of Frankenstein – the “eyeball” and “head in acid bath” scenes The Mummy – “under-dressed maidens”, “tongue-cutting” and/or...

Hammer Horror director Don Sharp has died, aged 90.

The Australia-born moviemaker passed away in Cornwall, England earlier this month, according to Variety. No other details of his death had been released as WENN went to press.

Sharp was best known for being brought in to revive the flagging Hammer Film studio in Britain in the 1960s after the company suffered a drop in popularity. He went on to direct numerous horror pictures for the firm including The Kiss of the Vampire, The Devil-Ship Pirates and Rasputin: The Mad Monk.

His other film work outside of Hammer included directing The Face of Fu Manchu and The Brides of Fu Manchu with Sir Christopher Lee. He was also behind the 1978 remake of The Thirty Nine Steps, starring Robert Powell, a 1974 film version of TV drama Callan with Edward Woodward, and 1979's Bear Island with Donald Sutherland and Vanessa Redgrave.

Some really sad news has emerged this holiday week as we've lost a true icon of our industry. While his name may not jump out at you unless you're as obsessive as we are, his movies have been making people leap out of their skin for decades.

According to Variety, Don Sharp, an Australia-born film director who was brought in to revive Hammer Films' sagging horror franchise in the mid-1960s -- and succeeded -- despite having no experience in the genre, died December 14th in Cornwall, England. He was 90.

Though the names most closely associated with Hammer are Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, it was director Terence Fisher who shaped the Gothic horror films that starred those actors. Fisher had directed films like Horror of Dracula and The Revenge of Frankenstein in the late 1950s, but the company lost its confidence in the helmer when his 1962 entry The Phantom of the Opera,...

Director of eerily atmospheric Hammer horror films including The Kiss of the Vampire

In 1962, Don Sharp was a minor ex-actor, hack writer and jobbing director of British B-films, when he was offered the chance to make a gothic horror movie for Hammer, "the studio that dripped blood". In the event, The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) rescued both Sharp, who has died aged 90, and Hammer from the doldrums.

The studio, which had suffered several expensive flops, turned to Sharp due to his experience in low-budget film-making. Sharp, who claimed to have never watched a horror movie, let alone directed one, quickly steeped himself in the Hammer style by spending a week or so watching past successes, principally those directed by Terence Fisher and Freddie Francis. The Kiss of the Vampire, made with a smaller budget and an unstarry cast, recruited mostly from television, scored at the box office, and Sharp became associated with horror movies thereafter.

Everyone thinks that Dracula is dead after Professor Van Helsing killed him ten years earlier. Four English tourists stray into his old castle in the Carpathian Mountains and are met by Dracula’s servant, Klove.

After being welcomed and treated to a meal, the tourists settle down for the night but one of them is curious when they see Klove dragging a case down into the basement. He follows Klove down there who proceeds to kill him and uses his blood to resurrect Dracula, unleashing his evil on the world once again.

The third installment of the Hammer Dracula films is the first true sequel to Horror of Dracula and sees the welcome return of Christopher Lee into the title role. He had decided to wait eight years before donning the cape again for fear of being typecast (which is ironic since he went on to star as Dracula in...

For this, a very special Halloween edition of Video Home Invasion, we're going to take a look at Severin Films lovely collection of rare and unsettling cult horror films.  I love horror movies as much as the next guy, but many of these titles had me scratching my head.  The Sinful Dwarf, while not strictly horror, is certainly horrifying.  Crucible of Terror is a blip in horror history, but a landmark in the career of Mike Raven.  Then there are the lesser known works of Lucio Fulci, a personal favorite.  Many films that deserve to be viewed at least once, given perhaps more recognition and attention than they sometimes deserve by a company dedicated to bringing evil into your home.

Lucio Fulci is a master of horror who is, by far, best known for his sizable and reputable collection of zombie films.  However, he did make other films as well,...