Hammer Films

Book excerpt: Foreword by Peter Hutchings, Northumbria University. Wayne Kinsey reveals the story of Hammer Films from 1967 to the present day, following the highs and lows of the company as it bedded into its new home at Elstree Studios. Based on extensive oral history recording with Hammer personnel, the book describes in fascinating detail how the studio would plummet from one of the most successful British film companies and proud recipients of the Queen's Award for Industry, to the depths of bankruptcy within a single decade. As the British Censor relaxed, Hammer took full advantage, steeping their films in the seventies with sex and nudity as well as ever increasing gore. Even better than Kinseys previous volume, the acclaimed "Hammer Films: The Bray Studios Years", this book is heavily illustrated throughout by rare, never before published photographs and documents, many taken behind the scenes of the famous "House that Dripped Blood".