Hammer Film Productions is a British film company known for its Gothic "Hammer Horror" films from the mid-1950s to the 1970s. With low budgets, Hammer films appeared lavish through quality actors and sets. Their formula of including blood, gore and nudity was risky but successful, particularly films like "Dracula" and "The Curse of Frankenstein." While competitors and lost American funding hurt Hammer in later decades, the company was acquired in 2000 and 2007 with plans to produce new horror films again through innovative techniques appealing to modern audiences.

1. Hammer Horror!

2. The history of Hammer House
of Horror
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the
United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a
series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until
the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, Film
Noir and comedies and in later years, television series. Hammer films had
low budgets, but nonetheless appeared lavish, making use of quality
British actors and cleverly designed sets. During its most successful
years, Hammer dominated the horror film market, enjoying worldwide
distribution and considerable financial success. This success was due, in
part, to distribution partnerships with major United States studios, such
as Warner Bros. In May of 1957, a British horror film called the curse of
Frankenstein opened in London. At the time Hammer Films was making 5
films a year and no one at the studio had any idea what a success this
film would be. Costing under 70,000 pounds, the curse of Frankenstein
was an overnight success.

3. During the late 1960s and 1970s the saturation of the horror film market by
competitors and the loss of American funding forced changes to the previously
lucrative Hammer-formula, with varying degrees of success. The company
eventually ceased production in the mid-1980s and has since then been, in effect,
in hibernation. In 2000, the studio was bought by a consortium including advertising
executive and art collector Charles Saatchi. The company announced plans to
begin making films again after this, but none were produced. In May 2007, the
company behind the movies was sold again, this time to a group headed by Big
Brother backers, the Dutch consortium Cyrte Investments, who have announced
plans to spend some $50m (£25m) on new horror films. The new owners have also
acquired the Hammer group's film library.

4. The key to their
success
Hammer Horror came up with a formula of film, of which
was very different to other films around that period of time,
this consisted of showing blood, guts and breasts. Which at
the time was very risky, and they were unaware of how the
audience would react.
They made films such as ‘Dracula’ & ‘The Curse of
Frankenstein’ which was in 1958. After this success they
decided to make more films like this as this made them
money, and they did not care what films they made.

5. Before Hammer Horror, most horror films were
about politics not showing blood and guts, so
therefore showing blood and guts interested the
younger generation who would only go to the
cinema to see something very extreme.
They were very careful with money, making films
very short and commercial, and gave the
audience the same thing each time, showing a lot
of cleavage, blood and guts.
So therefore the key to Hammer Horror’s success
has been showing the audience something
different that Horror can be a lot more scary,
however by showing the same thing over and
over, and not changing the audience lost interest.

6. In this modern day and age, horror films have
evolved tremendously from the first ever horror film
made in “1896”. Horror films that have made been
made in the 2000s usually contain some aspects of
realism and fear but goes to the far extent of facing
you with the most brutal result of that. In order for
hammer to survive this time round, they must be
able to appeal to todays audience, have originality,
and have uniqueness. Todays horror audience have
seen it all and current horror films are very similar.
Hammer house horror want to prevent previous
failings in the past, this can be achieved without
repetition. If a new theory is discovered they need to
develop it and not abuse it.
To thrive in this, it will be essential to innovate new
disturbing ideas with the purpose of entertaining the
audience and making them feel involved.

7. A piece of technology that has proven to be successful
and now has been recently introduced into the horror
industry is the use of “3D effect”. 3D effect gives a film
dimension and draws in the audience. The film “my
bloody valentine” used this technique in the cinemas
and was a triumph. This then lead onto the making of
saw3D which is out this month. If hammer where to
invest their money into this type of technology I believe
it may work in their favour.
The desired effect of a successful horror can be also
achieved with low budget techniques, such as the ones
used in the film “paranormal activity”. Hand held
cameras, one setting and a film crew was all it took, it
made the audience believe it was real and they felt as
if they were there. Both high budget and low budget
techniques can give hammer the methods to improve
their stability and it can give them the upper edge in
the horror industry market.