Hammer
Hammer House of Horror

Anyone who considers themselves a fan of the horror genre cannot ignore the films of the prolific English production house Hammer.
If skies with altered colors and gothic atmospheres were the trademarks of their productions from the '50s to the '70s (The Quatermass Xperiment, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Gorgon, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, etc.), in the eighties, just a few years before its end, the production house had adapted to the new demands of the public.

It is precisely with these premises that in 1980 a series for TV composed of 13 episodes was released and called "Hammer House of Horror". Behind the camera, we find the same directors (Don Leaver, Peter Sasdy, Tom Clegg, Don Sharp) who had elevated the company's name in previous decades.
As mentioned, time had passed since the golden years, and the stories had to be modernized, but this did not prevent the use of classic schemes that have always been very effective; so it moves from stories of bloodthirsty cults worshiping some demon (Guardian of the Abyss), to the delirious obsessions of a young man haunted by the number 666 (The Mark of Satan), and onto the thriller genre with brutal ritual murders, where the mysterious killer tears out the hearts of their lovers like in an old legend (Carpathian Eagle). More generally, we are faced with stories that are never predictable and often have unexpected endings, rarely reassuring and not at all happy! This fact, combined with the rawness of certain scenes, struck me, as it was a series intended for the small screen, and it made me think that today we would never see anything like this on TV!

Personally, I found these 13 enjoyable 50-minute films as the closing point for this way of making horror cinema; it is here that all the experience cultivated in the field over the years emerges and manifests itself in all its suspense, blood, and anguish.

The complete list of titles is as follows (simply the titles stimulate a genre enthusiast like myself to search in the worst video stores... and good luck to anyone trying to find them, given their not-so-easy availability)

1. Witching Time
2. The Thirteenth Reunion
3. Rude Awakening
4. Growing Pains
5. The House That Bled to Death
6. Charlie Boy
7. The Silent Scream
8. Children of the Full Moon
9. Carpathian Eagle
10. Guardian of the Abyss
11. Visitor from the Grave
12. The Two Faces of Evil
13. The Mark of Satan