THE HAMMER VAULT: TREASURES FROM THE ARCHIVES HAMMER FILMS - ****

Written by Marcus Herrin, published in hardback in December 2011, 176 pages, RRP £29.99.

Hammer Film Productions have been around since 1933, through to THE LADY VANISHES in 1979, and now with the recent revival cumulating with the eagerly-anticipated THE WOMAN IN BLACK, starring Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe.

Hammer horror used to be the cinema’s most terrifying experience. As a teenager in the mid-60s, Hammer films were a staple of my regular Monday night jaunt to our local fleapit the Astoria Cinema. Here it was normal to ask any stranger to get you in to see the films, as most were rated X, which you had to be 16 to see. Once in, at a bank balance busting 1/3d, (7p) I would often sit through the double bill twice, just to make sure that I could savour the gory bits, and relate them to my chums in the school playground the next day.

When I opened this lavishly-illustrated tome, I was instantly transported back almost 40 years as the memories came flooding back. The book concentrates on Hammer’s most productive period, from the mid 50s through to the mid 70s (79 films), but also features the studio’s more recent work, beginning with WAKE WOOD in 2008.

The book contains posters, stills, press cuttings, pages from scripts and even drawings by Peter Cushing. As well as all this visual candy, Herrin clinically but informatively sums up each film and its importance to the Hammer canon. The book doesn’t just feature Hammer’s horror output, which they will always be best known for, but includes the less well known material, such as the studio’s biggest hit ON THE BUSES (thankfully not featured in this book). I remember watching television in the 60s, and sleeping with the light on after seeing the Hammer-produced THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN.

This book is a must for any selfrespecting horror fan, and a fine companion to the author’s HAMMER GLAMOUR and the ART OF HAMMER.

Ian Rattray.