Hammer House of Horror (1980 series)

Hammer House of Horror (1980 series)...

Summary

Journey to the Unknown was a 1968 British anthology series produced by Hammer Films about everyday people finding themselves put into unusual circumstances... many of them supernatural in nature. Hammer House of Horror was a 1980 British anthology series also by Hammer Films, with tales of haunted houses, demons, ghosts and other supernatural wonders.

Details

• Release Date: 1968 (Journey to the Unknown), 1980 (Hammer House of Horror)
• Country/Language: US/UK, English
• Genres/Technical: Horror, Crime, Mystery, Anthology
• Runtime: (generally formatted for a 1-hour television slot)
• Starring: (various)
• Director: (various)
• Writer: (various)
• Producer/Production Co: 20th Century Fox Television, Hammer Films; Chips Productions, Cinema Arts International Production, Hammer Films
• View Trailer: (link), (link)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: (not rated) (equivalent of TV-PG for Violence and Adult Content, especially in the 1980 series)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• s____ (One Tentacle: Debateably Lovecraftian, at best)

Really, not much "Lovecraftian" going on here, beyond the occasional Gothic theme, though the series does include some stories written by some fine contributors to the same sort of horror/fantasy/science-fiction Weird genre that Lovecraft contributed so much to, including Charles Beaumont, Robert Bloch, Oliver Onions. With the two series focusing mainly on crime, killers, and other such conventional horror topics, the suggested episodes listed below only represent the least non-Lovecraftian episodes.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

Review Links:

• (review needed)

Synopses of Suggested Episodes

• "The New People" (1968) - A young couple move into the country, and are taken aback by how friendly the locals are, unware that the town is populated by an evil cult.
• "Somewhere in a Crowd" (1968) - A television host spies the same mysterious faces at various accidents where people have died. (A different adaptation of this story appears in Ray Bradbury Theater (1985 series).)
• "The Beckoning Fair One" (1968) - A young artist recovering from a nervous breakdown moves into a house haunted by a beautiful girl, and falls in love with her, overlooking his living fiancee.
• "Witching Time" (1980) - A 17th-century witch uses her craft to transport herself to the 20th century. She brings spine-chilling terror to the present-day occupants of the old farmhouse in which she lived. She puts her mark on the man now living in the farmhouse while his wife tries to save him.
• "The Thirteenth Reunion" (1980) - A controversial and thuggish weight-loss club where the heavier clients meet untimely demises is investigated, revealing the involvement of a cult of cannibals....
• "Children of the Full Moon" (1980) - A married couple, lost in the woods, stumble across a creepy mansion and its inhabitants - an overly-kind old women and deadly wolf-children that scour the country-side looking for victims.
• "Guardian of the Abyss" (1980) - Completing a an ancient rite of human sacrifice is the unexpected consequence when an antiques dealer unwittingly buys a mirror with mysterious evil power, and crosses paths with a sinister cult, their hypnotic leader, and a slimy demon trapped in the mirror.

Notes

Associated Mythos Elements

• TO DO