In between the Universal horror films of the 1930’s and the Lions Gate era of horror we’re in now, there was Hammer Studios, a film company that began in the early 50’s but didn’t achieve great success until 1957 when it released The Curse of Frankenstein, and with that film a new era of horror was ushered in that would last until 1975 and would forever leave a mark on the history of the horror genre, a history of flesh and blood.

Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror is an amazing in depth look at one of the most prolific and profitable movie studios of all time and one that supplied a lifetime of thrills and chills to it’s unwavering legions of fans, that is still growing to this day. If you ‘re a fan of modern day horror, then you owe it to yourself to take a stroll back into time and gain a greater appreciation of the horror that came before and to pay respect to the horror elders.

Narrated by Hammer icons Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, Flesh and Blood takes you deep into the studios beginnings and let’s you be privy to all of the events that lead to the studios incredible rise and to it’s eventual fall. And by the time it’s over you will feel as if you have taken a lifetime tour of a horror museum.

After the release of The Curse of Frankenstein, Hammer basically reinvented the entire horror genre by giving the classics such as Dracula, The Mummy and many more a revamped, more adult style of movie making. Hammer added more blood, more violence, more make-up and more flesh than had ever been seen before and they did it with style.

Hammer also became a victim of it’s self however and by the late 60’s the studio was beginning to turn out too many vampire and creature movies, so they ventured into other genre’s to try to save themselves, but it didn’t work. Also the studio began to get lazy with the films it was now cranking out, sometimes five a year, and the values were dropping and many of the later films simply became T&A exploitation films. Hammer tried to save itself in 1974 when it released the swashbuckling horror film entitled Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, which the studio hoped to be it’s savior, but sadly it was not to be. Kronos was unable to achieve the status of the Frankenstein and Dracula films that fueled the studios through the 60’s.

In the end the true heritage of Hammer horror movies can be seen it the legacy of the films it has left behind with films like their Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy series, The Quartermass Project, One Million Years B.C., Curse of the Werewolf and even Captain Kronos, Hammer broke the rules and norms of anything that had been done before it and would go on to influence nearly all of the people who craft horror today and that is an amazing accomplishment indeed.

9 of 10.