A Hammer Horror Extravaganza

And now for a look at a collection of Hammer films from Universal. 
The Hammer Horror Series: The Franchise Collection 

First things first, it's great to have a chunk of the Hammer oeuvre all in one place.   All eight of the films included were new to me.  There's nothing in the way of extras but the packaging is nice and complements the packaging for the Universal monsters collections.  Though I find the double-sided discs to be annoying not  because of disc-flipping (I'm not necessarily annoyed by having to get up and flip a disc.) but because of the increased potential for damage. 

This is an eclectic collection with two vampire films, one werewolf, one Frankenstein, the Phantom of the Opera, two psychological thrillers and one pirate movie.  6 color films, 2 Black & White. 
We'll be looking at the films themselves in detail in the next few entries.   They span from 1960-1964 and represent the second wave of classic Hammer Horror.   With the continuing series/sequels we can already see some aspects of sequel decay and redundancy.  On the other hand this collection is a really good introduction to the variety of Hammer films at the apex of their productivity.  One-offs like the Phantom were to eventually disappear from the Hammer repertoire as were pirate films (and adventure films in general) and the psych-mysteries that would be dubbed "mini-Hitchcocks" would also go away by the end of the 1960s as Hammer concentrated on vampires and evil scientists. 
At least one film in this collection doesn't come close to qualifying as a horror movie any more than the Indiana Jones films would qualify as "horror."  I suppose there's an argument to be made for either side of the inclusiveness of the genre heading. 

At any rate, here's the rundown of what we have to look forward to:

Brides of Dracula (1960)
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
Phantom of the Opera (1962)
Paranoiac (1963)
The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
Nightmare (1964)
Night Creatures (1962)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)