In the 1950s Hammer, England’s world-renowned production company, initiated a new style of horror film-making that transformed the genre. At the end of the 1960s, the world that Hammer had helped to create was changing fast – the once-reliable business model was unraveling and audiences wanted something new from their films. Amid this uncertainty, Hammer’s short-term survival was secured by an alliance with American distributor Warner Bros. The films the two companies made together are among the most renowned in Hammer’s history. Classics such as Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1970) and Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) were produced alongside the Oscar-nominated epic When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), the disturbing thriller Crescendo (1970) and the bizarre sci-fi western Moon Zero Two (1969). The films became increasingly experimental in the 1970s, challenging the perception of traditional Gothic horror with Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974). HAMMER HORROR: The Warner Bros Years documentary features exclusive interviews with some of the key players from that period, as well as authors and popular culture historians like Sir Christopher Frayling and Jonathan Rigby. Also included are rare production stills, previously unseen film footage, Hammer’s original shooting locations, and access to previously unpublished archive documents.

The documentary is written, produced and directed by Derek Pykett and pays tribute to Peter Cushing, Freddie Francis and Roy Ward Baker. The actual documentary is essentially hosted by actor Geoffrey Bayldon, with most of the 3 hour-plus running time focusing on surviving cast and crew members, following some background information on the two producers. Best remembered for their portmanteau/anthology features, this documentary offers us a chance to hear from such directors as Peter Duffell ("The House That Dripped Blood"), Stephen Weeks ("I, Monster"), Kevin Connor ("From Beyond the Grave"), and Paul Annett ("The Beast Must Die"), owing to the recent passing of the more prolific Freddie Francis and Roy Ward Baker. We get particularly interesting glimpses of Barbara Ewing ("Torture Garden," "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave") and Angela Pleasence, who actually worked with lookalike father Donald Pleasence in "From Beyond the Grave" (and is scared by horror films!). There are anecdotes about stars like Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Jack Palance, Burgess Meredith, and character players such as Bernard Lee, Herbert Lom, and Patrick Magee, but only minute name dropping for Michael Gough, Nigel Green, or Anton Diffring. A pity about the amateurish sound quality but never the less, certainly worth a look for avid fans of Britain's Golden Age of Horror.

Broadcast as a Play For Today by the BBC in 1970, James MacTaggart's Robin Redbreast remains a unique proposition in British television history. An uneasy tale of human sacrifice deep in the English countryside and an early example of what we now refer to as 'folk horror', it has retained its power to unsettle despite the passing decades. It can even lay claim to being a prime influence on that most seminal slice of cinematic pagan horror, The Wicker Man, which arrived in all its sacrificial glory three years later. On 14th February 1945, the lifeless body of Charles Walton, a 74-year-old farm labourer, was discovered in Meon Hill, Lower Quinton, Warwickshire. Walton’s murder became known as the ‘witchcraft murder’ because his body was pinned to the ground with a pitchfork and there is an ancient Anglo-Saxon custom of slashing or sticking spikes into a murdered witch’s skin. This form of murder is called ‘stacung’ or ‘stanging’ – ‘stang’ being a two pointed stick witches associate with the Horned God. Scotland Yard became involved but the murder was never solved and became the stuff of local legend with added embellishments, such as a large cross carved into the victim’s chest which wasn’t in the autopsy notes. In his book Anatomy of Crime, the detective in charge of the case wrote, ‘I advise anybody who is tempted at any time to venture into Black Magic, witchcraft, Shamanism – call it what you will – to remember Charles Walton and to think of his death, which was clearly the ghastly climax of a pagan rite.’ The witchcraft murders provided inspiration for two pieces of writing that later became known as Folk Horror. The first was a teleplay by John Bowen called Robin Redbreast (1970, James MacTaggart) and the second was a book called Ritual by David Pinner, which became the 1973 film, The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy). Bowen wrote the play for a suspense anthology series but it was rejected and ended up with Graeme MacDonald, Producer of Play for Today – a BBC1 drama series, that ran from 1970 to 1984: The transmission of Robin Redbreast, which was broadcast on the 10th December 1970 , coincided with an electrician’s strike whereupon millions of houses in London and the Midlands missed the end. The play was eventually repeated in February 1971 but the original screening, which was in colour, was recorded over and it is now only available in a 16mm black and white telecine recording. John Bowen (1924 – 2019) was a prolific English novelist and playwright who worked on several long running drama strands including Play for Today and ITV Play of the Week. He also wrote two films for the BBC strand, A Ghost Story for Christmas which ran from 1971 to 1978 : The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (1974, Lawrence Gordon Clark), which is an adaptation of a short story by MR James, and an original drama called The Ice House (1978, Derek Lister). He wrote A Woman Sobbing (1972, Paul Ciappessoni) for Dead of Night, which was a 1972 BBC anthology of short supernatural films. Bowen also wrote another folk horror called A Photograph (1977, John Glenister) https://odysee.com/@Misty_Isles:a/A-Photograph-(1977):1 which can be seen as a loose follow up to Robin Redbreast.

A visual exploration into the origins of witchcraft in the UK and in particular the demystification of symbolism still embedded today within many modern religious artefacts and rituals