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Hammer Films' Psychological Thrillers, 1950-1972
Hammer Film's is justly famous for Gothic horror but the company also excelled in the psychological thriller. Influenced by Henri-Georges Clouzot and Alfred Hitchcock, Hammer created its own approach to this genre in some of the company's very best films.
This book takes a chronological, film-by-film approach to all of Hammer's thrillers. Well-known classics such as Seth Holt's The Nanny (1965) and Taste of Fear (1961) are discussed, together with less well known but equally brilliant films such as The Full Treatment (dir. Val Guest, 1960) and Michael Carreras' Maniac (1963). The films' literary ancestry, reflection of British society and relation to psychological theories of Freud and Jung, architectural metaphor, sexuality, religion, and even Nazi atrocities are all fully explored.
This book takes a chronological, film-by-film approach to all of Hammer's thrillers. Well-known classics such as Seth Holt's The Nanny (1965) and Taste of Fear (1961) are discussed, together with less well known but equally brilliant films such as The Full Treatment (dir. Val Guest, 1960) and Michael Carreras' Maniac (1963). The films' literary ancestry, reflection of British society and relation to psychological theories of Freud and Jung, architectural metaphor, sexuality, religion, and even Nazi atrocities are all fully explored.
- GenresNonfictionFilm
204 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 7, 2013
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July 29, 2021
I love Hammer's psychological thrillers that were made alongside their gothic horror films of the 60s and 70s. They were a complete surprise to me when I went through a bunch of the Hammer films a while back. Basically ALL of them are worth seeing, which is kind of more than I can say for the horror films, unfortunately. (Although, those are mostly worth seeing even if for the cheese factor.)
This book gets a little scholarly at times and references other works that you would have to be a hardcore Lit major to have heard of. But it's never boring and always enlightening. I love that there's a book about these under-seen movies. I know it will really only appeal to people who are already interested in them, but it's out there waiting to be discovered, just like the movies.
This book gets a little scholarly at times and references other works that you would have to be a hardcore Lit major to have heard of. But it's never boring and always enlightening. I love that there's a book about these under-seen movies. I know it will really only appeal to people who are already interested in them, but it's out there waiting to be discovered, just like the movies.
Displaying 1 of 1 review