Hammer House Of Horror - The Complete Series

I haven't watched them all yet, savoring each episode, but so far I love it. I did not know about this show until I became obsessed with Hammer films several years ago. I had found a single dvd used at Rasputin's in Concord CA, but it only contained 2 or 3 episodes. I was extremely stoked to find the complete set for such a low price. The show is really cool as it comes complete with gore, nudity, and that unmistakable Hammer style. If you like anthology horror, you can't go wrong. Belongs right next your Tales From The Crypt and Twilight Zone sets. **update** Still enjoying this set and wanted to comment to others about this show not being scary enough. I seriously don't understand why people except older shows to have the same impact as modern day productions. If you watch the original King Kong it doesn't seem scary to our contemporary eyes, but that doesn't make it bad! It's from another era and without the old shows we wouldn't have progressed to where we are now. It's like saying old Rock N Roll isn't that good because of the one track recording process! How was Elvis considered shocking?

Having become obsessed with Hammer's library over the last few years, I simply had to have this set as a completist. While there are no special features, the episodes themselves are generally at above average quality for a horror anthology (especially compared to more recent anthologies Masters of Horror and Nightmares and Dreamscapes). Many episodes take on a twilight zone approach where once you know what is going on you are impressed with the idea, but not much else, as many are predictable by today's standards. But don't let the first disc fool you, production value and substance soon picks up. While never on par with some of Hammer's classics, House of Horror provides a quick dose of Hammer Horror. There are a couple of stand outs... 'Growing Pains' and 'The Silent Scream' are my favorites. It was neat to see a Young Brian Cox battle Peter Cushing. And if you liked The Number 23 with Jim Carrey there is a far superior and similar tale in 'The Mark of Satan'.

A couple years ago, if I'm not mistaken A&E released Hammer House of Horror on DVD. For the longest time it has been out of print, and the cheapest price used is $32, and new $70. I will not pay that much. But thankfully Synapse company, who has recently been releasing Hammer on Blu-Ray, just a few though, has decided to re-release this set. I know I will be buying this wonderful 80's Hammer tv show. Hopefully so will a lot of people so it stays in print. Pre-order now, and be filled with awesome Hammer Horror. Edit: Also the picture for this set and sound quality is great. The reason I give the set 4 stars and not 5 is because, unfortunately there aren't any commentaries or behind the scenes looks at what Hammer House of Horror was like. Before every episode there are little intros talking about each episodes cast and a little trivia that any DIE HARD HAMMER FAN would love, but this is about as far as the special features go. Episodes are wonderful especially "Children of the Full Moon" which is a nice werewolf adaption considering that Hammer only made one werewolf movie in "Curse of the Werewolf" which is also one of my favorite Hammer movies. Overall wonderful set and very enjoyable for any Hammer Fan or and regular horror fan. NOTE: If you were lucky enough to acquire an A&E DVD copy of Hammer House of Horror, the only reason for you to acquire this set as well would be the updated picture quality and sound quality and if your into a little bit of back story before every episode, the pre episode intros. Other than that if your A&E version still works, than you should be in good shape. Hope this answered everyone's questions. Thanks.

all episodes were excellent . arrived fast and no damage, FULL SCREEN and Sound are great. for this type of Horror i say, YES buy it and Enjoy. recommend having someone watch with you and plenty of popcorn.

I love the old Hammer films and so ordered this set sight unseen. I was not disappointed! There are some episodes that are ho-hum, but there are others that pretty much freaked me out - and I'm a real fan of horror! (Check out "The Two Faces of Evil" - OMG!! CAH-REEEEEEPY!) Each episode is like an hour-long mini-movie; the characters are well-developed and the plot moves along at a good rate - not rushed, but they do build up the suspense quite nicely. Loved seeing some familiar faces, too: Peter Cushing, Denholm Elliot, Pierce Brosnan, and others. I have watched each episode three times now and am still not tired of them!

A must for every Hammer Horror fan !

Uneven but still entertaining TV series from Britain's greatest purveyor of cinematic shocks. It's worth owning for the "Silent Scream" episode alone. Starring Peter Cushing, it is every bit as good as any big-screen creation from Hammer Films. Cushing is a kindly pet store owner who gives a parolee a shot at redemption -- and that all-important place of employment to satisfy the terms of his release. Don't be surprised if the recipient of Cushing's largess looks familiar. The character is played by Brian Cox, the first actor to play Hannibal Lector ("Manhunter"), Helen Mirren's love interest in "Red I & 2" and the keeper of the keys in "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," as well as many more memorable movies. The plot twists are unpredictable right up to the shocking climax. Another winner is the episode starring Denholm Elliott ("Raiders of the Lost Ark") as a real estate salesman who begins to question the strange thing happening in his life.

hammer made a pretty cool tv series back in the early 80's. It's well acted by many stalwarts of british film too. This features many types of stories. madmen, witches and the like so some horror fans may not be happy with every episode. But true horror has to feature human monsters too and this one does. You get the whole series here and sadly this was hammers last gasp as a company. They were trying to come back but couldn't. Anyways as a horror fan i was glad to get this cool series that I hadn't seen for so long. The series looks pretty good too here with little damage to the film prints. And this one was shot on film not video tape something most brit series did till the mid 80's. This is old school varied horror and worth collecting.

tutto ok

I first got introduced to Hammer Studios through a lot of the classic Dracula movies- many starring the greats Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. I thought I'd give this series a whirl. Though I don't consider it as good as many of the stand alone Hammer movies, there's still some great material here. Since each episode is about an hour, it's nice to watch one if you don't feel you have the time to see a full 2 hr movie. I started getting into a ritual of watching a new one each night, and wished there were more once I made it thru the whole series. One thing to realize is that many of the episodes deal more with thriller/mystery type stuff over straight up horror. A lot of the stories are the sorts you might find in those old pulpy thriller comics or Twilight Zone style affairs. It's nice to soak in the atmosphere of it all where a deft building of suspense, a thought provoking story and classy atmosphere can take predecence over some other 'mindless' types of horror out there. As for the technical stuff, I'm reviewing the DVD with the mostly blue cover with the big mansion and gravestones and mist out front. I haven't owned the green cover one with a screaming Peter Cushing and a lady standing over a grave with a kid lying on it..so I can't speak for quality or features of that one. As for the red cover with the sort of castle silhouette, that's a British region code so do NOT buy that one if you want to play it in a North American DVD player. The whole series is included here, with 13 episodes total. The transfer quality is good, with nice picture and sound. There are no major edits and all gore and nudity is intact. 5 discs are neatly kept inside a standard size DVD case. There are two double peg slots for 4 of the discs and then a single peg one for the 5th disc. As long as you take out and replace discs carefully there should be no issues with scratching etc. It's nice to save the shelf space too! Each disc contains 3 episodes except for the 5th, which only has the final episode and then special features. The special features are kind of lacking, probably the closest thing to a complaint I have over the set. There's just a short interview with actress Kathryn Leigh Scott, then another interview with Mia Nadasi (both of which starred in episode #11-'Visitor From The Grave'). Then there's a slideshow of still pics with some music playing in the back. That's it for special features. If you go to the Hammer House of Horror fansite on the web you can find all kinds of interesting stuff on shooting locations, props, production sketches etc. This kind of stuff would have been nice in the special features, but at least you can see it on the web. It just seems if they are to have almost an entire disc devoted to special features you'd think they'd make it chock full of goodies. Also, for all discs there are no subtitles or closed captioning or audio options, yet there are little intro bits to each episode you can choose to watch where a film historian gives you a little bit of background to the story and the actors. On that thought, here's a list of the episodes with some short teaser notes (trying to not give away any plot spoilers): 1.'Witching Time' : Could have been a stronger first episode, but not too bad. It's fun to see Patricia Quinn as the witch, who played 'Magenta' in the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'. Nice to see Prunella Gee (wot a horrible name to a pretty face) running around in her knickers too. 2.'13th Reunion' : Interesting and intriguing. Kind of weaves a web and you wonder how it will all turn out, then you're caught in the web as the spider's dinner in the end. 3.'Rude Awakening' :My fav episode, or right up there. Directed by Hungarian Peter Sasdy, who made some great Hammer films like 'Taste The Blood of Dracula'. I think he's very good at delivering a superb story onscreen. This episode also features dapper British actor Denholm Elliott (was in a zillion movies but one very famous series was Indiana Jones). Also cool to see pretty face Lucy Gutteridge go through many chameleonic changes! 4.'Growing Pains' : I found this the biggest pain of the series maybe. Something very cheezy about it, you might laugh more than scream. 5.'The House That Bled To Death' : Reminded me a lot of a British version of 'Amityville Horror'. It even had a British Margot Kidder lookalike as the housewife. This one was pretty entertaining. 6.'Charlie Boy' : About an African idol with voodoo like powers. Fairly good. 7.'The Silent Scream' : Some call this one the best of the series. I liked it a lot but would not rank it the best. Peter Cushing's in here as a crazy pet shop owner. Director Alan Gibson did two Hammer drac flicks-- 'Dracula AD 1972' and 'Satanic Rites of Dracula'. 8. 'Children of the Full Moon': About werewolves. Howwllllll. 9 'The Carpathian Eagle': Excellent. Director Francis Megahy does a much better job than he did with 'Growing Pains'. Much like Lucy Gutteridge in 'Rude Awakening', you see Suzanne Danielle go through many interesting changes and disguises. A young Piece Brosnan makes a brief appearance. 10.'Guardian of the Abyss'. I was wondering why I liked this so much, then I found out it was directed by Don Sharp, director of 'Psychomania' (a film I love). If Satanic craziness and nice cultish ambience is your cup of tea, you'll love this. 11. 'Visitor From The Grave' : Peter Sasdy does it again. Maybe his episodes are my fav of the whole series. Very good acting featuring Kathryn Leigh Scott of 'Dark Shadows' among others. 12. 'The Two Faces Of Evil': Maybe one of the more realistic episodes if not a bit pedestrian and slow at times. Interesting building of dread and a bit of mind twisting. 13. 'The Mark of Satan' : The final and 'lost' episode. Well, lost to America that is because it was banned there due to the very graphic gore. You know those shows where they show live surgery? It's like that, lots of blood and guts and medical mucking about (so not so much slasher gore). The main character's paranoia is simultaneously appalling and funny, like he's so afraid of the number 9 for example. That's it! So in conclusion, if you are a Hammer die-hard, I'd strongly recommend this. If you are more of a Hellraiser or Halloween or Friday The 13th person, you might not like this as much (or maybe you will since I like those kinds of films too).

I miei alcune volte mi facevano rimanere alzato fin dopo il drive in su italia 1. Questo cofanetto malgrado la semplicità mi ha fatto fare un salto nel tempo, quando avevo 8 anni.

Excellent!!

didnt like it because its not region 2 very diappointed i like the hammer house films.