Jonathan Rigby

Documentary from Hammer Historian Marcus Hearn tracking the career of director Jimmy Sangster.

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This feature-length documentary is one of the main features on the House of Hammer Volume 1 blu ray set. It explains the censorship system in the United States and why so many movies were subject to it. It also covers aspects of the UK's BBFC in the 50s and 60s.

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Part 1 of a new, feature-length documentary about AIP, one of Hammer's main competitors in '60s/'70s British horror.

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The Last Sacrifice delves into the real-life 1945 witchcraft killing of Charles Walton—the terrifying event that inspired The Wicker Man and birthed the folk horror genre. This unsettling true-crime interrogation probes into the eerie, enigmatic cultural undercurrents that shaped 1970's folk horror genre, leaving an indelible mark on cinema and public psyche.

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A look at Hammer’s progression from a back office in London’s Regent Street to its iconic status within the horror film genre. The company, started by comedian and businessman William Hinds in 1934, made films such as The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Quatermass Xperiment during the period for which it is best known, making stars out of the likes of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

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Aristocratic Italian roots, a close family connection to James Bond novelist Ian Fleming, wartime experiences in the British and Finnish military, post-war Nazi-hunting adventures and a side career as a heavy metal rock singer. And one of the most iconic actors of all time.

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It’s 1881, and Old College, Oxford plays host to three very different academics. Abercrombie Smith is a model of Victorian manhood, clean of limb and sound of mind. Monkhouse Lee is a delicate and unworldly student from Thailand. And occupying the rooms between them is the strange and exotic Edward Bellingham, whose unnatural researches into the secrets of ancient Egypt are the talk of the college. Can Bellingham’s experiments truly bring the breath of life to the horrifying bag of bones that is the mysterious Lot No 249?

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Set in the last days of World War II, a small band of Russian soldiers led by intelligence officer Brana Vasilyeva, who is tasked with trafficking the remains of Hitler back to Stalin in Russia. En route, the unit is attacked by German ‘Werewolf’ partisans and picked off one-by-one. Brana leads her surviving comrades in a last stand to ensure their ‘cargo’ doesn’t fall into the hands of those who would see it buried in order to hide the truth forever.

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A revealing insight into the short life and times of Michael Reeves.

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First there was Father Brown. Now, say hello to Sister Boniface. This clever, moped-riding nun is the police's secret weapon for solving murders in this divine Father Brown spin-off.

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An exploration of the cinematic history of the folk horror, from its beginnings in the UK in the late sixties; through its proliferation on British television in the seventies and its many manifestations, culturally specific, in other countries; to its resurgence in the last decade.

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Documentary on the Hammer film

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A documentary about the making of Brain Dead (1990)

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Mark Gatiss explores and celebrates Dracula, an icon of popular culture, asking just why we keep coming back to the count.

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A documentary on The Revenge of Frankenstein

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The interviewees cover Bram Stoker's life around the time he wrote The Jewel of the Seven Stars, the movie's producers, Leon's onscreen persona, technical & creative decisions, and the movie's supporting players.

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A short documentary on the Hammer production of The Camp on Blood Island

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The untold story of Hammer at Warner Bros, and the relationship that produced some of the British company's finest films.

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A series of interviews between film historians Jonathan Rigby, Kevin Lyons, John J. Johnston and several others that tracks the events which led to the making of the film The Horror of Frankenstein and the state of the Hammer studio at the time.

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A behind the scenes featurette focussed on Hammer Film Productions' 1971 film 'Doctor Jekyll & Sister Hyde.'

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A series of interviews between film historians Jonathan Rigby, Kevin Lyons and John J. Johnston as they discuss the troubled production of the film and how it relates to the end of Hammer’s horror run for some time.

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From the team that brought you the West End hit Round The Horne…Revisited comes Horne A’Plenty, with scripts by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke. Horne A’Plenty is written as a tribute to one of the great Radio and TV performers, Kenneth Horne. Two weeks before they were due to start the next series of Round the Horne, Kenneth Horne passed away. It was the 14th of February 1969. Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke had successfully written half of the fourth series with Barry Took, and had spent many months working on what would have comprised the fifth. Fast-forward 48 years, and Brian Cooke took these ‘pieces’ out of the drawers they’d been consigned to and read them all again. The show consists of many of those ‘pieces’, along with brand new material – and includes no less than four film parodies!

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The greatness, fall and renaissance of Hammer, the flagship company of British popular cinema, mainly from 1955 to 1968. Tortured women and sadistic monsters populated oppressive scenarios in provocative productions that shocked censorship and disgusted critics but fascinated the public. Movies in which horror was shown in offensive colors: dreadful stories, told without prejudices, that offered fear, blood, sex and stunning performances.

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An animated documentary chronicling famed paranormal investigator Harry Price’s research at Borley Rectory, renowned as the ‘most haunted house in England’.

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The story of how famed psychical researcher Harry Price became involved in a real-life plan to build a lighthouse that could be used to direct a beam at Mars, contacting the aliens who supposedly lived there.

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The Making of DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS

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A look back at a 70s cult classic, Tower of Evil.

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David Prowse is an eighty years old actor, who has lived behind Darth Vader's mask during three decades. A group of Star Wars fans find out why he has been apparently forgotten by Lucasfilm during thirty years, and decide to give him back the glory he never had. This is their last opportunity.

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Diabolical. Seductive. Immortal. Vampires have been an icon of evil in folklore and popular culture for more than three centuries, yet only one name still personifies the ultimate aristocrat of bloodlust. Now join the world’s foremost experts on Dracula – including academics, authors and horror historians – as they explore the untold story of the Transylvanian Count, from the legend of Vlad The Impaler and Bram Stoker’s celebrated novel through its landmark stage productions and classic movie adaptations.

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Down Place will forever be associated with the company that turned a quiet English countryside mansion into a film making powerhouse, responsible for countless stomach churning, skin crawling, jump out of your seat horror greats. Hammer re-christened Down Place as Bray Studios. The community that developed amongst the crew was unique, facilitated by the fact that at its height a film was completed every six weeks. Watch as many of the most prominent members of the crew recall their time at Bray in this remarkable five part series.

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Drama following WPC Gina Dawson, the first Woman Police Constable to join Brinford Constabulary, a fictional police force in the West Midlands, in 1956. The show focuses on WPC Gina Dawson's struggle to gain acceptance in the male-dominated police station whilst having to deal with the sexist attitudes that were commonplace at the time.

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Father Brown is based on G. K. Chesterton's detective stories about a Catholic priest who doubles as an amateur detective in order to try and solve mysteries.

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Dennis Wheatley biographer Phil Baker provides a brief history of author nearly 80 book career, covers the whole of Wheatley’s contentious relationship with Hammer studios, including his displeasure with The Lost Continent (1968) and his utter loathing of To the Devil a Daughter (1976). The feature is a examination of one of horror fiction’s influential voices and paints a picture that informs both The Devil Rides Out and Hammer’s occult output in their latter years.

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Documentary that chronicles the making of the third film in Hammer's Dracula series.

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Contemporary news coverage of the William Hartnell era is examined in this new documentary presented by Mary Tamm.

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A profile of John Lennon in the late 1960s as the Beatles are set to fall apart.

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From Beneath the Vault of Terror: a history of portmanteau horror movies

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