Ranking the 20 best Hammer horror films, from 'The Resident' to 'The Devil Rides Out' (original) (raw)
Hammer Film Productions, the venerable British studio behind some of horror's buzziest titles, was established in 1935 by William Hinds, who named the company after his own stage name, Will Hammer.
In 1957, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who became the two names most synonymous with the horror studio, starred in The Curse of Frankenstein. That film was directed by Terence Fisher and written by Jimmy Sangster, both of whom would contribute a great deal of Hammer's most well-known and respected horror pictures over the years. Fisher and Sangster followed hot on the heels of their Frankenstein film with The Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959), both of which brought the world of black-and-white Universal Studios monsters to Technicolor life.
Hammer had an unprecedented run of success through the end of the 1970s, before closing up shop in the wake of decreasing interest in their trademark gothic horror melodramas. In 2010, Hammer revitalized itself as a new name in the horror game and released Matt Reeves' Let Me In, and, with any luck, Hammer will continue its reign of terror for decades to come.
Here's EW's ranking of the 20 best Hammer horror productions of all time.
20. The Resident (2011)
Hilary Swank in 'The Resident'. Everett Collection
Hammer's second addition to its 21st-century canon is certainly an adult thriller, but one of a different shade than Let Me In, the film that resurrected the studio. The Resident finds Hilary Swank as a recently divorced doctor moving into her dream loft in Brooklyn only to discover that her landlord (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has a bit of an obsession with her. Hammer veteran Christopher Lee appears briefly as Morgan's father.
The Resident is deeply indebted to the semi-erotic yuppies-in-peril thrillers of the mid-'90s, and it wears those trappings as well as any of its various inspirations. Swank has consistently proven herself an adept elevator of schlock, an unexpected though welcome career path for her. For his part, Morgan proves to be a perversely twisted villain, and though one could have hoped for Lee to be given more to do, it is lovely to have him on hand.
Where to watch The Resident: Amazon Prime Video
19. The Lady Vanishes (1979)
Elliott Gould and Cybill Shepherd in 'The Lady Vanishes'. Everett Collection
Hammer's final release during its peak period was this Anthony Page-directed, made-for-television remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 film. Cybill Shepherd stars as Amanda, an American heiress on a cross-country train trip in pre-war Nazi Germany, who befriends a kind older woman, Miss Froy (Angela Lansbury), during the journey. When Miss Froy disappears, and no one but Amanda has any recollection of her, the heiress enlists a photographer (Elliott Gould) to back her up in uncovering the truth behind the missing woman.
This energetic and colorful reimagining of the Hitchcock classic finds Shepherd in the prime of her comedic powers, playing splendidly off of Gould as her foil. Though it must be said that the sets and costumes never convince one that the actors are inhabiting a world outside of the 1970s, it hardly matters. The Lady Vanishes immediately hits the ground running and carries itself lithely over the finish line.
Where to watch The Lady Vanishes: Tubi
18. The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
Brian Donlevy, David King-Wood, and Richard Wordsworth in 'The Quatermass Xperiment'. Moviestore/Shutterstock
In 1953, The Quatermass Experiment — about a doomed space mission that results in two members of the crew going missing and a third returning to Earth possessed by an alien parasite — aired as a six-part miniseries on the BBC. It was one of the first examples of must-see programming, with TV historian Robert Simpson noting that the original series was "event television, emptying the streets and pubs for the six weeks of its duration." Cult science-fiction author Nigel Kneale wrote the original teleplay, and the film retains all of the best parts of Kneale's misanthropic sensibilities.
While The Quatermass Xperiment is beyond tame nowadays in its depiction of violence, it does feature a few scenes that are shockingly explicit for the time. The creature effects here are brilliant as well, used sparingly, but effectively, so that they ring out all the more when they do appear.
The Quartermass Xperiment is not available to watch or rent.
17. The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
Christopher Lee in 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula'. LMPC via Getty
Christopher Lee's penultimate turn as Dracula anchors this creatively wild combination of vampire lore, satanic horror, and political thriller. (The cult-meets-monsters plot plays as if one of the Cult-of-Thorn-obsessed Halloween sequels suddenly included bloodsuckers and bellbottoms.) Peter Cushing returns as Van Helsing to do battle one last time with Lee, disguised here as an eccentric real estate magnate. (This would be their final appearance together in a Dracula film.) Joanna Lumley of Absolutely Fabulous appears as Van Helsing's granddaughter, Jessica.
In less assured hands, the combination of genres might have backfired terribly, but director Alan Gibson shepherds the production through its various tones without ever straining credulity in a way that impedes the entertainment value. After Gibson's own A.D. 1972, which felt like the franchise running on fumes, Satanic Rites overloads on invention and breathes fresh life into the series.
Where to watch The Satanic Rites of Dracula: Tubi
16. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Robert Urquhart and Peter Cushing in 'The Curse of Frankenstein'. Everett Collection
Director Terence Fisher and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, who would fruitfully collaborate one year later on Horror of Dracula, paved the way for Hammer's most successful years with this reimagining of Mary Shelley's classic novel about the misguided Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) and his monstrous creation (Christopher Lee).
The alterations to the original story lend the movie an edge that other, more straightforward adaptations have lacked. In its early stages especially, as Frankenstein collects the pieces for his monster, the movie has an atmosphere of later, grittier films that examine the psychopathy of twisted men, like Maniac (1963) and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986). Before this iteration of Shelley's tale, the first modern version of the myth, there hadn't been a horror film that so graphically indulged in gore and violence, in bright and shining color photography no less.
Where to watch The Curse of Frankenstein: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)
15. The Mummy (1959)
Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in 'The Mummy'. Everett Collection
Terence Fisher and Jimmy Sangster teamed up once again for this take on Universal's tissue-swaddled stalker. Would you be surprised to hear that Peter Cushing (as heroic archaeologist John Banning) and Christopher Lee (as the titular Mummy) also return to the fray? After desecrating a tomb (stop doing that!), John's foolish father (Felix Aylmer) accidentally resurrects Kharis, a former high priest who now finds himself mummified and on a quest for revenge against those who invaded his territory.
The Mummy is an exceedingly elegant and creepy horror picture that seamlessly blends its action and adventure elements. (Though it was derided at the time, Stephen Sommers' 1999 remake, also titled The Mummy, is a perfect contemporization of this movie's horror-to-adventure ratio.) With the earlier Mummy, Fisher and Sangster distilled what works best about the monster movie genre into a compact 90 minutes of unadulterated fun.
Where to watch The Mummy: Tubi
14. The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
John Forbes-Robertson and Chan Shen in 'The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires'. Everett Collection
Has there ever been a more tantalizing-sounding subgenre than "martial arts horror"? Peter Cushing's Dr. Van Helsing is recruited to fight the seven vampires of the title, who have menaced a remote Chinese village for generations, in this Hammer and Shaw brothers co-production.
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is wildly absurd in the best ways, a feat of exploitation filmmaking that is astonishing for existing in the first place, all the more so because it works so well. The Shaw brothers were initially unhappy with the film delivered by Roy Ward Baker, so they hired Chang Cheh, a favored director of theirs, to spice up the fight scenes. The martial arts sequences are gorgeously handled in majestic wide shots; the vampires don't disappoint either, and Cushing commits admirably to his part as he always does.
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is not available to watch or rent.
13. Let Me In (2010)
Chloë Grace Moretz in 'Let Me In'. Saeed Adyani
Matt Reeves directed this remake of the Swedish vampire romance Let the Right One In (2008) which is on par with the original in terms of quality. Kodi Smit-McPhee stars as Owen, a bullied boy who takes refuge in his friendship with Abby (Chloë Grace Moretz), a weary vampire in the body of a young girl who lives under the thumb of her predatory guardian (Richard Jenkins).
Let Me In was Hammer's first foray back into features after its 30-year hiatus, and it heralded an intent from the studio to generate high-quality horror films for an adult audience. Let Me In is slightly more optimistic in tone than Let the Right One In, but Reeves is a keen enough director that it feels like a spin on the material rather than a concession to Hollywood storytelling.
Where to watch Let Me In: Tubi
12. The Snorkel (1958)
Peter van Eyck and Mandy Miller in 'The Snorkel'. Everett Collection
Paul Drecker (Peter van Eyck) murders his wife by drugging her tea and leaving her in a locked room with the gas turned up. He then hides under the floorboards, using a snorkel to breathe while an Inspector (Grégoire Aslan) investigates the scene. When the dead woman's daughter, Candy (Mandy Miller), arrives, she immediately accuses Paul of murdering her mother, just as he did her father several years earlier in a boating incident that everyone but Candy believes to have been an accident. Paul then sets in motion a series of events so that he may remove Candy from the equation as well.
Guy Green's neat and tidy thriller is lent a significant scope by its Alassio setting. The Snorkel blends its straighter dramatic strands nicely with more blatant exploitation elements. Through it all, we keep watching to see the increasingly dastardly Paul's undoing at Candy's hands, and the denouement certainly does not disappoint.
The Snorkel is not available to watch or rent.
11. Taste of Fear (1961)
Susan Strasberg in 'Taste of Fear'. Everett Collection
Penny Appleby (Susan Strasberg) returns to her father's home on the French Riviera, only to find her stepmother (Ann Todd) making excuses for his absence. After Penny spots her father's dead body, only for it to vanish later, she enlists the help of the family's driver (Ronald Lewis) to help her crack the case. Christopher Lee appears as the doctor who sides with Penny's stepmother and attempts to convince the young woman that she never saw her father's corpse.
Taste of Fear (known in the U.S. as Scream of Fear) is similar in plot and construction to The Snorkel, in that both are murder mysteries constructed around a young woman who is convinced she knows the truth and yet is not believed by any of those close to her. Seth Holt's film (Jimmy Sangster penned the screenplay) does not exploit its French backdrop as elegantly as The Snorkel did its Italian setting, but it is a more mysterious twist on the same formula. The audience remains unsure of who to trust until the final moments, and even then it is not entirely clear who your allegiances should lie with. It's a superbly crafted gothic thriller with a modern edge, certainly one of the best in this sub-genre that Hammer produced during its golden period.
Where to watch Taste of Fear: Tubi
10. Maniac (1963)
Donald Houston in 'Maniac'. Everett Collection
Drifter Jeff Farrell (Kerwin Mathews) stumbles into a bar in southern France, where he immediately becomes enraptured with the owner's stepdaughter, Annette (Liliane Brousse). Annette's stepmother, Nadia (Eve Baynat), begins to seduce Jeff as well, in the hopes that he will assist her in springing her estranged husband, Annette's father, from the prison in which he is incarcerated after blow-torching the face of a man who attacked his young daughter.
Jimmy Sangster's script for Maniac owes a few debts to classic French noir such as Diabolique and Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows, and director Michael Carreras is owed a great deal of praise for crafting a film that contains the same amount of excitement and devious pleasure as those movies. Plus, Wilkie Cooper's cinematography is some of the best in any Hammer production (for that matter, any genre production from this time).
9. The Old Dark House (1963)
Tom Poston, Janette Scott, and Fenella Fielding in 'The Old Dark House'.
Columbia Pictures/Getty
William Castle's remake of James Whale's 1932 original film concerns an American car salesperson (Tom Poston) who, while abroad in London, finds himself at the eponymous mansion, where murders begin to occur around the convening of a family to hash out the details of their inheritance.
Castle's tone here is more openly jocular than Whale's original, which chose a satirical approach over a parodic one. In fact, this appears to be a movie entirely unconnected from any reality yet discovered. It is certainly not scary, but in its zany silliness, it is often quite funny. Remaking a film such as The Old Dark House is, in fact, one of the more worthwhile endeavors if one is to remake anything. Castle takes ample advantage of the jokes that hang at the expense of tropes that have endured since Whale's send-up, and the ones that have emerged in the interim.
Where to watch The Old Dark House: Tubi
8. The Lodge (2020)
Alicia Silverstone in 'The Lodge'. Everett Collection
Grace Marshall (Riley Keough) moves with her stepchildren-to-be, Aiden (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh), into an isolated cabin just before the Christmas holidays, to await the arrival of her fiancée. It's to be anything but a holly-jolly Christmas, however, as Grace and the kids begin experiencing bizarre events that seem to harken back to Grace's past as the sole survivor of a mass suicide initiated by the cult to which she belonged.
Much like directors Veronika Franz's and Severin Fiala's earlier film, Goodnight Mommy, The Lodge takes a relatively straightforward story and energizes it with a slick nihilism that lends it the patina of the best downbeat horrors from the 1970s. Keough gives one of the strongest performances at the center of any genre film; her characterization keeps the second half of the movie a guessing game, where a lesser actor would have shown their hand by that stage.
Where to watch The Lodge: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)
7. Straight on Till Morning (1972)
Rita Tushingham and James Bolam in 'Straight on Till Morning'. Moviestore/Shutterstock
Brenda (Rita Tushingham), a children's book author living at home with her mother, decides to venture out to London and find a father for the child she is not yet pregnant with, but is determined to have. She meets Peter (Shane Briant), a sociopath preying on the city's women who lures Brenda into his bloody game of deceit.
Snugly fitting the bill of '70s nihilism, Peter Collinson's bracing thriller would likely never be made nowadays, not for what it says or shows but for how unremittingly dour the whole production is. Like the best thrillers of this ilk, though, its darkest impulses do not weigh it down but rather give it a sadistic, jet-black comic edge. There was something in the water in the filmmaking community at this time where even the nastiest material could be directed with a flourish that would send it down smoothly.
Where to watch Straight on Till Morning: Amazon Prime Video
6. Horror Express (1972)
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in 'Horror Express'. Everett Collection
Passengers aboard the Trans-Siberian Express from Shanghai to Moscow are stalked by a humanoid creature that can absorb the skills of its victims. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing play the doctors on board tasked with stopping the chaos. Horror Express is a prime example of Hammer at the peak of its powers, operating outside of the Universal monster blueprint. Eugenio Martín's thrill ride has an enduring wit, not to mention a bloodlust to match that of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. At their best, the Hammer period horrors approached a serious-minded costume drama as invaded by a variety of murderous predators.
Horror Express, which was shot in Madrid, feels like the work of a director who was a fan of the horror genre and wished to elevate the material beyond pure camp. Its rollicking pace is reminiscent of Tremors, quite a different alien-buddy movie, but a relative nonetheless.
Where to watch Horror Express: Tubi
5. Hands of the Ripper (1971)
Eric Porter and Angharad Rees in 'Hands of the Ripper'. ITV/Shutterstock
As an infant, Jack the Ripper's daughter Anna (Angharad Rees) witnesses her father stab her mother to death. Now a young adult experiencing troubling blackouts, after which freshly eviscerated bodies always seem to be present, Anna the Ripper decides to take up with a psychiatrist (Eric Porter) who attempts to cure her of her murderous affliction.
Hands of the Ripper is a potboiler in the truest sense of the word. It's a beguilingly mounted period piece, the type that Hammer was so skilled at churning out, but it also catches you off-guard with its emotional impact. Unlike his terribly inert Countess Dracula, director Peter Sasdy finds an exquisite balance between character drama and alarming jolts within a larger story that plays closer to a Polanski-esque version of creeping madness than a typical gothic horror melodrama.
Where to watch Hands of the Ripper: Amazon Prime Video
4. The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
Herbert Lom in 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Everett Collection
Terence Fisher's version of Gaston Leroux's novel was not received well critically or financially at the time of its release. Indeed, behind-the-scenes problems led to significant alterations to the overall film. Originally, Cary Grant had reached out to Hammer about starring in one of their upcoming films, though his agent talked him out of doing a low-budget horror flick.
Yet, Fisher's adaptation is a worthwhile one. It is visibly compromised in its presentation of violence — you can practically feel the crew straining to hold back their splattery impulses — but, presumably by accident, The Phantom of the Opera turns out to be a (mostly) family-friendly horror made on a grand scale that such films are rarely afforded. Perhaps it is not as grisly as Fisher's other Universal monster riffs, but it's a wonderful gateway horror movie for younger audiences that perhaps aren't yet ready for the more extreme stuff.
Where to watch The Phantom of the Opera: Peacock
3. The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (1957)
Forrest Tucker in 'The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas'. Everett Collection
Val Guest reteamed with Nigel Kneale for this top-notch yeti thriller. A team of explorers — led by Dr. John Rollason (Peter Cushing) and his wife Helen (Maureen Connell) — on an expedition to the Himalayas with members of a local monastery collide with a second team of explorers who are searching for the abominable snowman.
The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre of monster movies. It's as much about man's folly as it is a great, big, hairy monster tromping around the snow-capped mountains. Kneale's stories were always subtextually rich, and here he does not disappoint. In addition to being a rollicking adventure and a bone-chilling horror picture with the ethereal dread of Kubrick, it's a parable about the quest for fame and fortune versus the quest for scientific explanations, and how both of those things can potentially lead to ruin.
The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas is not available to watch or rent.
2. Horror of Dracula (1958)
John Van Eyssen in 'Horror of Dracula'. Universal/Getty
In many ways, Horror of Dracula (or simply Dracula abroad) is the film that made Hammer's name. Christopher Lee stars in this retelling of the classic tale, and he gives perhaps the most iconic performance as the blood-sucking Count. Though sex appeal has become rather synonymous with both the character of Dracula and vampires at large, Lee was the first to imbue the role with a swagger where others had simply gone for the creep-out factor. Peter Cushing appears as Dr. Van Helsing; he would go on to appear as Van Helsing in four further productions.
Terence Fisher's direction seems to preempt Italian horror baron Dario Argento with his use of lighting and camera movement, which coupled with the quintessentially late-'50s color palette makes the film absolutely leap off the screen. The shock scenes, too, still hold up all these years later.
Where to watch Horror of Dracula: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)
1. The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Christopher Lee, Paul Eddington, Sarah Lawson, and Patrick Mower in 'The Devil Rides Out'. Everett Collection
After more than a decade of directing Hammer interpretations of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Mummy, Terence Fisher helmed this, his third-to-last feature film and the final that would not have "Frankenstein" in the title. Set in 1929 and based upon the novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley, The Devil Rides Out stars Christopher Lee as Nicholas, a sophisticate investigating the whereabouts of his wayward charge Simon (Patrick Mower). Along with his compatriot Rex (Leon Green), Nicholas liberates Simon and Tanith (Niké Arrighi) from a cult of devil worshippers, during which they disrupt a ceremony and are subsequently pursued by a vengeful spirit.
The Devil Rides Out is a supremely creepy occult thriller that treats its subjects with documentary-like precision. There are moments in The Devil Rides Out that still strike one as being quintessentially "horrific," the sort of unspeakable, distorted images that linger from your nightmares.
The Devil Rides Out is not available to watch or rent.