Vintage Hammer films Documentary "Flesh and Blood - The Hammer Heritage of Horror" is finally getting a release onto UK DVD this month.
Filmed in 1994, Flesh and Blood chronicles Hammer films humble beginnings as a distribution company, operating out of offices in Wardour Street, London. To its rise as the foremost producer of gothic horror films and its eventual decline due to changing tastes in horror.
Narrated by Hammer veterans Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, the documentary is packed full of specially filmed and archival interviews with Hammer legends Roy Ward Baker, Jimmy Sangster and Freddie Francis, along with Martine Beswick, Ingridd Pitt, Val Guest Hazel Court, Raquel Welch, Andrew Kier, Anthony Hinds and Caroline Monroe to name but a few, along with Cushing and Lee themselves. With clips from all their films and behind the scenes footage, which hadn't been seen before.
Fellow directors John Carpenter (Halloween), Joe Dante (Gremlins) and Martin Scorcese (Taxi Driver) also appear, talking about how Hammer influenced their careers, along with special effects legend Ray Harry Hausen, who talks about his work on "1 Million Years BC".
Made to celebrate Hammer films 60th anniversary and originally shown as a 2x one hour specials on the BBC back in 1994, the documenary has pretty much languished in obscurity since its original showing. Now thankfully, Flesh and Blood is finally getting a disc release courtesy of Wienerworld distribution and this version includes an additional 40mins of extra and extended interviews and behind the scenes footage, including the original uncut death from Dracula (1958) which only resurfaced in 2011 .
This revised and updated release also includes new material, acknowledging Hammer films newer productions from recent years, such as "Woman in Black" and "Let the Right One In"
With this originally being filmed for TV back in the 90s, obviously picture quality is not hi-definition hence the lack of Blu-Ray release and is presented in it's originally screened 4:3 aspect ratio, but don't be dettered by that.
With this originally being filmed for TV back in the 90s, obviously picture quality is not hi-definition hence the lack of Blu-Ray release and is presented in it's originally screened 4:3 aspect ratio, but don't be dettered by that.
This documentary is a must for all Hammer Horror fans and is also notable for being Peter Cushing's last recorded works, who sadly died 3 months after recording his dialoguefor this production.
"Flesh and Blood - The Hammer Heritage of Horror" comes to UK DVD July 30th from Wienerworld distribution.
View the trailer on YouTube
Pre-order the UK DVD from Amazon.co.uk
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