(1963)
Dir - Joseph Losey
Overall: MEH
This postwar, biker gang/sci-fi-esque outing from Hammer seems a bit out of place after the studio had already begun churning out successful monster redos at this point and other dark, black and white, science fiction productions had already hit their peak. These Are the Damned is based off the H.L. Lawrence novel The Children of the Light and is predominantly dull in its execution here. Right from the very first scene, the ridiculous theme song for Oliver Reed's teddy boy gang is quite annoying and the quarrel between Reed's King and a random American over the former's sister is rather silly. He trails her because she is pretty, she knowingly leads him to Reed's gang who then beats him up, then this American idiot invites her onto his boat and insists she ditch said gang, then they romantically go hide, and he of course proposes to her shortly thereafter. After what seems like eons of this, the actual sci-fi part of the story finally happens. Even with Reed being his usual, ridiculously enjoyable unhinged self, yawn.
(1966)
Dir - John Gilling
Overall: GREAT
Still two years before George Romero took the voodoo out of the film zombie and forever changed the rules, Hammer’s sole walking corpse opus The Plague of the Zombies is a deservedly well respected outing from the British film company. True that there is no Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee, but even without Hammer’s two golden boys, this is still solid stuff. Our first glimpse of one of the zombie slaves could be one of the best moments in all of classic horror and the main show-stopper in the cemetery is a prime example of why cemeteries are the horror film’s favorite set pieces in general. Voodoo zombies have not aged particularly well, being on the sidelines since Romero entered the scene, (Wes Craven’s Serpent and the Rainbow notwithstanding), but there is more than enough exceptionally macabre, somewhat Gothic atmosphere here to stand toe-to-toe with any other genre film from the period. It crosses off yet another go-to, cinematic monster type for Hammer and arguably results in one of the studio's most unique and excellent productions overall.
(1966)
Dir - Don Sharp
Overall: GOOD
Grigori Rasputin is pretty much a no-brainer character to make movies out of. In fact you barely need to fictionalize anything, though the ridiculously conflicting accounts of the man's life do not necessarily help get one's "facts" straight. More of a "pick your version of Rasputin and go with it" suffices. Enter Hammer's Rasputin the Mad Monk which pretty much paints the Russian, mystic healer as an ambitiously evil monster. With real super powers of course, making this fit easily in the studio's horror camp. Even by the varying accounts of the real Rasputin's exploits, the plot here is virtually 100% fabricated so do not come looking for anything remotely historically accurate. This is hardly attempted though as the film is instead just a lot of wicked fun. Christopher Lee is rather perfect as the title-villain as he gets to go wild drinking, hypnotizing, killing, dancing, and sinning all the way to infamy. There are sly references to the man's legend thrown in, (his healing abilities, influence over women, striking eyes, sinning nature), as well as references to his demise, (poisoning of the chocolates and wine, difficulty in killing, the conspiracy to assassinate him). It is all done on a much smaller, melodramatic scale with zero of the political elements or any mentions of Rasputin's family though. Yet as a tale of a dubious sorcerer gone wild and corrupt, it certainly delivers.
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