With Halloween almost upon us, I thought I would take a look back at a fondly-remembered British horror anthology series. Hammer House of Horror was essential viewing for horror fans on Saturday nights in the autumn of 1980.
The series was, of course, made by Hammer Films, famous for their horror movies in the 1960s and 1970s. It was something of a departure for them in several ways. Rather than being feature-length, each of the 13 episodes ran about 50 minutes. The stories for the most part eschewed the Hammer movies’ glamorous settings of castles and rambling stately homes, instead being based in London, High Wycombe and surrounding areas, giving the stories a more gritty, urban feel reflecting the mood of the time.. Likewise, the classic villains such as Dracula and Frankenstein are absent (though one episode does feature werewolves). In this series, the horror mostly focuses on the occult, the supernatural, and the psychological and physical horrors humans can inflict upon each other. Several episodes make the viewer question whether what is happening is real or merely in the mind of the characters.
I’ll give a quick rundown of each episode and say a little bit more about the ones I remember most clearly from when they were first broadcast.
Witching Time: This was the series opener and tells the story of a couple living in an old farmhouse. During a thunderstorm, David (a composer for horror movies, in a nice self-referential touch!) finds a young woman, Lucinda, hiding in the stable. She claims to be a witch from the 17th century. David brings her into the house and calls the doctor, but when the doctor arrives she is gone. So begins the story of Lucinda tormenting David and his adulterous wife Mary. I remember this episode quite vividly as it had a fair bit of gore and nudity for a Saturday night on ITV in the 1980s.
The Thirteenth Reunion: Ruth, a Fleet Street journalist, is sent to do an under-cover investigation of a weight-loss clinic that is rumoured to be using unorthodox techniques. She befriends another attendee, who mysteriously dies after taking a slimming pill. After an undertaker tips her off that the body isn’t being buried but being secretly delivered to another location, Ruth eventually uncovers a society of plane-crash survivors harbouring a gruesome secret.
Rude Awakening: This episode really stuck in my head when I first saw it because of its surrealistic atmosphere and several steamy scenes. In this one we meet Norman Shenley, an estate agent who appears to be in an unhappy marriage and engaged in an affair with his secretary Lolly.
He receives a call to go and view a manor house, which is in crumbling condition. Whilst in the house, he hears a voice asking him why he killed his wife, and her dead body tumbles out of a dumb waiter. Norman then wakes up with a gasp – it was all a nightmare.
What follows is a succession of increasingly terrifying experiences for Norman and Lolly, who appears in a series of flamboyant and unlikely outfits. Each time, Norman wakes up from a nightmare as his sense of what is real and what is not begins to unravel, with deadly consequences.
Growing Pains: A scientist and his wife adopt a boy after their own son dies. The adopted son has a strange, detached personality and soon bizarre things start happening around their home and car. The parents begin to suspect that the boy might be possessed by the spirit of their dead son. I remember this one as having a few rather gruesome scenes and being quite disturbing.
The House that Bled to Death: This is probably the best-remembered episode of the series because of one particularly blood-drenched scene. In a British riff on The Amityville Horror, a couple and their young daughter move into a house that they have bought at a bargain price, ostensibly because it needs some fixing up. What they are unaware of is that, several years prior, a gruesome murder had taken place there. Things quickly start to go wrong in the house, and a terrifying and inexplicable series of events begins to unfold. Are supernatural forces at work? Eventually the family is forced to flee from the house.
Of course, there is more to what is going on than meets the eye and soon the story veers off in another direction, culminating in a gut-wrenching twist ending. Several scenes from this episode, including an amazing set piece at a children’s party, have been seared into my mind ever since I first saw it in 1980. One of the strongest episodes in the series.
Charlie Boy: When Graham’s uncle dies unexpectedly, he and wife Sarah inherit the uncle’s art collection. One of the pieces is a carved African fetish doll. After Graham wishes ill fortune on a group of people in a photograph while in the doll’s presence, they begin to die in mysterious circumstances. Could the doll be imbued with sinister Voodoo powers?
The Silent Scream: This is arguably the best episode of the series, and stars Hammer stalwart Peter Cushing as Martin Blueck, an elderly pet shop owner who offers ex-convict Chuck Spillers (Brian Cox) a job at his shop-cum-private zoo. This seems like a great opportunity until Spillers is tempted by the sight of a safe and the situation begins to go rapidly awry. Blueck is a former Nazi concentration camp guard obsessed with creating an inescapable prison, which he proceeds to test using Spillers and his wife. The ensuing battle of wits effectively builds tension throughout this creepy, claustrophobic episode. It’s a riveting piece, with standout performances by Cushing and Cox. My abiding memories of this episode are of the sound of the buzzer going off as the doors of the prison lock, and of Spillers becoming increasingly frantic as the reality of his new imprisonment sinks in. Needless to say, there’s a twist ending that is particularly grim.
Children of the Full Moon: The title gives this episode away, though it’s no less fun for that. In this slow-burn werewolf story, a couple on their way to a weekend in the country encounter car trouble. They call in at a secluded house in the forest to use the telephone and encounter the kindly Mrs. Ardoy and her large family of polite but strange children. The couple are invited to stay the night, and there the trouble begins. I remember the scene in this one where one of the characters is supposed to be eating raw meat, but it is clearly slices of cooked beetroot!
The Carpathian Eagle: A detective is investigating a series of murders where the male victims have their hearts cut out. During the investigation, he hears of a book with a plot involving similar killings in the Middle Ages. He meets with the author, a beautiful woman who may be hiding some dark secrets of her own.
Guardian of the Abyss: An antique dealer buys an ancient mirror at auction for a bargain price. She soon receives a much higher offer from a rival dealer. Her interest piqued, she does some investigating and finds out that the mirror is in fact a scrying glass, believed by some to hold magical powers. The scrying glass is in fact being sought by members of an occult society wishing to perform human sacrifices and summon the demon Choronzon.
Visitor From the Grave: When a woman is attacked and almost raped by an intruder in her house, she defends herself with a shotgun and kills him. When her husband arrives home, as the shotgun is unlicensed, he helps her bury the body in the woods and clean up the scene. Soon, she starts seeing her attacker in various places. Are these visions the product of her psychologically fragile state or is she being haunted from beyond the grave?
The Two Faces of Evil: Martin and Janet Lewis are on their way to their house in the country with their son when they stop to pick up a hitchhiker wearing a yellow raincoat. As they are driving, the hitchhiker suddenly attacks the husband, causing the car to crash. Janet awakes in hospital and learns that her husband has serious injuries. When Martin is discharged home, Janet notices changes in his behaviour and begins to wonder if her husband is really himself or if someone else has taken his place.
I always remembered this one as “the one with the fingernail” as the hitchhiker has a long, discoloured fingernail on his right hand. For some reason, to my young self there was something very scary and troubling about that fingernail! This is a very creepy episode that mostly takes place inside the Lewis’ house, again adding an air of claustrophobia to the whole affair.
The Mark of Satan: The final episode of the series is also one that I remember very well. A mortuary technician, Edwyn Rord, pricks himself with a needle that has been used in the autopsy of a suicide victim. The man killed himself because he thought he was possessed by the devil.
Believing himself to be somehow infected by evil, Edwyn begins to see symbols of the devil’s influence all around him, and develops an obsession with the number nine. Everywhere he looks, he sees evidence of an evil conspiracy as he descends further into paranoia and madness. Like several of the episodes in this series, it is never made clear if Edwyn is suffering from a mental illness or if there is in fact something supernatural going on.
I remember a lovely moment in this episode where Edwyn’s neighbour proudly shows off her new hairstyle, with three curls across her forehead spelling out “666”. This episode also taught me an interesting mathematical property of any number that is a multiple of nine.
Over the course of its thirteen episodes Hammer House of Horror delivers plenty of edge-of-the-seat tension, chills and moments of horror that will stick in your mind long after viewing (some of these have been stuck in my mind for 46 years now!) It holds up well considering its age and the budget constraints of British television at that time (for example, once you have seen a few episodes you’ll start to recognise some of the recurring locations). The cinematography has that grainy, gritty feel that characterises productions in the 1970s and 80s, and the practical and makeup effects of the day are used effectively. There’s a fair amount of violence, gore and nudity for the time; though this is nothing compared to what is in a modern production like American Horror Story, some of it was quite shocking back in 1980. The pacing of the stories might be a little slower than modern audiences are used to, but it doesn’t diminish their tension or their impact.
If you feel like seeing some vintage horror for Hallowe’en, or you’d like to experience what was essential Saturday night viewing for a Gen-X kid like me, Hammer House of Horror is available on DVD and Blu-Ray as well as on a number of paid and free-with-ads streaming services. It’s a series that is well worth dipping into.
Did you watch Hammer House of Horror back in 1980 or did you see it more recently? Which episodes did you like the most? Please let me know by leaving a comment on this post, or if you prefer to send a private message visit the Contact Me page.
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