An Introduction to Hammer Films

Brief History of Hammer Films

Founded November 1934, Hammer Films released several minor features before the advent of World War Two ceased production. Returning to movie-making in 1947, Hammer’s output consisted largely of modest B-grade pictures (crime thrillers and comedies, often adapted from successful stage or radio plays) but it was yet to find international success. With major stars beyond Hammer’s admittedly limited resources, a new audience hook was required, resulting in Hammer’s first foray into horror and the company’s first major success. Based on Nigel Kneale’s popular television serial, The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) struck a chord with audiences and led the enterprising studio to conclude there might be a quid to be made with this monster lark.

Key Films

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Cast

Peter Cushing as Baron Victor von Frankenstein
Christopher Lee as the Creature
Hazel Court as Elizabeth
Robert Urquhart as Dr. Paul Krempe
Valerie Gaunt as Justine
Noel Hood as Aunt Sophia
Melvyn Hayes as Young Victor
Paul Hardtmuth as Professor Bernstein
Fred Johnson as Grandpa

Dracula (1958)

Cast

Christopher Lee as Count Dracula
Peter Cushing as Abraham Van Helsing
Michael Gough as Arthur Holmwood
Melissa Stribling as Mina Holmwood
Carol Marsh as Lucy Holmwood
John Van Eyssen as Jonathan Harker
Janina Faye as Tania
Charles Lloyd-Pack as John Seward
George Merritt as Policeman
George Woodbridge as Landlord
George Benson as Frontier Official
Miles Malleson as Undertaker
Geoffrey Bayldon as Porter
Olga Dickie as Gerda
Barbara Archer as Inga
Valerie Gaunt as a Bride of Dracula

The Mummy (1959)

Cast

Peter Cushing as John Banning
Christopher Lee as Kharis
Yvonne Furneaux as Isobel Banning / Princess Ananka
Eddie Byrne as Inspector Mulrooney
Felix Aylmer as Stephen Banning
Raymond Huntley as Joseph Whemple
George Pastell as Mehemet Bey
Michael Ripper as Poacher
George Woodbridge as P. C. Blake
Harold Goodwin as Pat
Denis Shaw as Mike
Gerald Lawson as Irish Customer
Willoughby Gray as Dr. Reilly
John Stuart as Coroner
David Browning as Police Sergeant
Frank Sieman as Bill
Stanley Meadows as Attendant
Frank Singuineau as Head Porter

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

Cast

Clifford Evans as Don Alfredo Corledo

Oliver Reed as Leon Corledo/Werewolf

Yvonne Romain as Servant girl

Catherine Feller as Christina Fernando

Anthony Dawson as Marques Siniestro

Josephine Llewelyn as Marquesa

Richard Wordsworth as Beggar

Hira Talfrey as Teresa

Justin Walters as Young Leon Corledo

John Gabriel as Priest

Warren Mitchell as Pepe Valiente

Anne Blake as Rosa Valiente

George Woodbridge as Dominique the goat herder

Michael Ripper as Old Soak

Ewen Solon as Don Fernando

Peter Sallis as Don Enrique

Martin Matthews as Jose Amadayo

David Conville as Rico Gomez

Denis Shaw as Gaoler

Sheila Brennan as Vera

Joy Webster as Isabel

Renny Lister as Yvonne

Loraine Carvana as Young Servant girl

Charles Lamb as Marques' Chef

Desmond Llewelyn (uncredited) as Marques’s footman

The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

Cast

André Morell as Sir James Forbes
Diane Clare as Sylvia Forbes
Brook Williams as Dr. Peter Tompson
Jacqueline Pearce as Alice Mary Tompson
John Carson as Squire Clive Hamilton
Alexander Davion as Denver (as Alex Davion)
Michael Ripper as Sergeant Jack Swift
Marcus Hammond as Tom Martinus
Dennis Chinnery as Constable Christian
Louis Mahoney as Coloured Servant
Roy Royston as Vicar
Ben Aris as John Martinus
Tim Condren as Young blood
Bernard Egan as Young blood
Norman Mann as Young blood
Francis Willey as Young blood
Jerry Verno as Landlord

Key Actors

Hammer's horror films featured many of the same actors in recurring roles; the two most famous examples of this is:

Peter Cushing

Featured Hammer Films:

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
The Abominable Snowman (1957)
Dracula (1958)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) 
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
The Mummy (1959)
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960)
Cash on Demand (1961)
Captain Clegg (1962)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
The Gorgon (1964)
She (1965)
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Twins of Evil (1971)
Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
Fear in the Night (1972)
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
Shatter (1974)



Christopher Lee

Featured Hammer Films:

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Horror of Dracula (1958)
The Mummy (1959)  
The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) 
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) 
The Terror of the Tongs (1961)
Scream of Fear (1961)
The Pirates of Blood River (1962) 
The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) 
The Gorgon (1964)
She (1965)
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
Scars of Dracula (1970)
Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
The Resident (2011)

What Makes Hammer Films Unique

One of the things that made the films unique is that Hammer Horror was overall quintessentially British, frequently stylish, often sophisticated and characterised by a quaintly antiquated aesthetic.

How does mise-en-scene create meaning and provoke audience response in the film 'We Need to Talk About Kevin?'

The film I am focusing on is 'We Need to Talk About Kevin,' directed by Lynne Ramsay. The main focus will be about how does mise-en-scene creates meaning and provokes audience response. The extract I am looking at is from the beginning of the film and ends at the 4:33 mark, the scene shows Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton) at a Tomato festival in Spain whilst on a trip. It then show her alone in a broken down house covered in red. I believe that Lynne Ramsay's main aim in this was to show the audience the entire film at the beginning without showing the audience anything, she does this by using metaphors for what happens at the end.

The opening shot of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' is of an open door leading to a balcony, it also has a curtain covering the door whilst blowing in the wind. The room is dark making the audiences attention focus on the only thing in room that was light, the balcony door. In the background there is the sound of sprinkler that can be heard and the camera slowly moves closer and closer towards the entrance. The curtain is white in a dark room and I think that the director has done this not only to make the audience focus on the curtain but also because of what the colour white and also light represents. Its represents purity, hope.life and goodness which is surrounded by and black, dark room which could be representing evil, death and disturbing thoughts. This shot could be a metaphor for the mind of Kevin (Ezra Miller) that we get to see more throughout the film and we do see that he does have a mainly disturbed, dark mind in the film but despite that there are times of where the audience can see that there is some light and hope in Kevin's mind. On the other hand this shot may have a more religious meaning to it, as we know towards the end of the film Eva walks through that door when she discover the bodies of her dead husband and daughter and this is the moment where she is absolutely broken and destroyed, she basically died at that point so the doorway may be a metaphor for the doorway to heaven which is often described as a light place filled with the colour white and if this is a doorway to heaven it can be supported because that is where two of the characters are found dead and where the main character metaphorically "dies."

The scene then cuts to a crowd of people covered in tomato's completely covering the screen in a overhead shot. The people of seen barging into each other and it shows the audience what chaos looks like. All the people being crowded together could be the directors attempt at making the audience feel claustrophobic and trapped much like how Eva feels trapped throughout the film when raising Kevin. The colour red is very obvious on screen here and throughout the rest of the film as well, they use this colour because it represent many of the themes explored throughout the film, it represent caution, anger, danger and destruction but most importantly it represent blood which is quite clearly linked to pain and death. This whole section of the extract is Lynne Ramsay's way of foreshadowing the ending of the movie which is the school shooting scene. As I said before the screen is crowded and makes the audience feel like they are trapped which the shooting victims would of felt because of all the doors being locked up. Also the tomato's are representing the many deaths and pain that was a result of Kevin's actions. The metaphor is also supported with the fact that you can hearing children screaming and also because it is an overhead shot and Kevin was standing up high when he did what he did. There is then also a part where we can see someone pouring the bucket of the tomato on themselves instead of throwing it onto other people this could be representing someone sacrificing their own life to save others whilst all the other kids where just trying to make sure they survive.

Then afterwards we see that Eva is at this tomato-fest and she is also covered almost completely in redness, this could show the audience that she is suffering from the pain of losing her child and husband. She is then lifted up by the crowd and the way she is positioned shows another use of religious imagery because she has her arms out like Jesus when he was on the cross, I believe this was included because when Jesus was on the cross it was not because he committed any crimes, it was because the people did not like him but he was willing to take the punishment to cleanse all the people, even those who attacked him, of their sins. This is relevant because after the shooting Eva was despised by the town despite the fact that she did not commit any crimes but she is also willing to take the punishment and it may be because she hopes that one day her son can be cleansed of his sins even though he was the one who caused all the pain in her life. She is then thrown to the ground and people start surrounding her and covering her with tomato's which again supports the idea that she is willing to take the blame for all the blood that was spilled because of Kevin and even if she was not willing to the people would still be forcing her to anyway.

We then cut to Eva in her house and by looking at all the dirty plates and half eaten apple we can see that this is a place that has not been cared for very well which could again be a metaphor for the belief that some people may have that Eva also did not take very good care of Kevin when he was growing up. Also many of the items that stand out are predominantly red meaning the death of the children still haunts Eva even at this point. When we see Eva she is a mess making the audience question what has happened to her and so this is the directors way of dragging the audience because if you have the audience asking questions they will stay around to find the answer. Afterwards Eva leaves the house and we can see her house drenched in red paint and if the audience looks at the neighbourhood and we can see that every house is almost identical with their white paint and trimmed grass, all except Eva's her house stands out covered in paint the same colour as blood which I think is Ramsay telling the audience that every other household tries to present itself as perfect with a nuclear family but Eva's household has been shown to the audience she can't give of the illusion of a perfect life.

So in conclusion, I think Lynne Ramsay was very successful in creating layers of meaning and provoking a response from the audience and she does this by using what is on the screen such as colour imagery and religious metaphors. As I said before her aim was to tell the audience the entire story in the beginning using metaphor and foreshadowing and the aim is achieved very well.

Ananlysis of Sound and Editing from the Coen Brothers 1996 film 'Fargo'

The scene begins with diegetic sound of a conversation between Margie and an offscreen cop on the radio then she sees the car she is looking for and we start to hear a pleonastic offscreen sound of a wood-chipper. The wood-chipper gradually gets louder as Margie gets closer to the source of the sound, this builds up the tension as the audience has no idea what they are about to see. Also when Margie is walking through the snow the sound of her walking is pleonastic and I believe that the Coen Brothers again use pleonastic sound to build up the tension of the scene as she slowly makes her way to the unknown. We then find out that what has happened is that Gaer has killed his partner ,Carl, and is now making an attempt to cover up the evidence, again the wood-chipper is pleonastic to show the horror of the situation.Near the end of the scene the sound track starts of tense which is parallel to what is happening on screen with Margie about to catch Gaer but then when he starts to run the soundtrack becomes contrapuntal to what is on the screen because Gaer starts to run but instead of using fast-paced music that is usually used in film the soundtrack is more slow and peaceful as if the Coen Brothers are telling the audience that since the films gimmick is that they say that they are based on a true story they are now showing that in a true story there wouldn't be an epic 15 minute chase scene but it would more realistically end abruptly and quick. The scene the ends but the soundtrack bridges onto the next scene, perhaps to signify that this is not the end for cases like this in Fargo and that they will still carry on.

The editing is also very important in this scene. The editing is very slow with scenes lasting a few seconds without any cuts. This could at first be used to build up tension as Margie is walking very slowly towards Gaer but most of the films scenes last quite a while before cutting even the part where Gaer runs away. I again believe this is done to make Fargo seem more realistic and to make the audience believe that this is an actual case that happened, which is what they tell the audience at the beginning of the film. The scene also uses all straight cuts because they don't want to distract the audience from the tension onscreen, also again to make it have a realistic feel. The only time they don't use a straight cut is when the scene end and they use a dissolve, it is interesting that they used a dissolve instead of a fade to black because this along with the sound bridge again shows how the story of crime in Fargo is not over and there will still be crimes like this.

Analysis of Mise-en-scéne and cinematography in a scene from 'The Hours'

The scene starts with showing us a blue cake which can be associated with masculinity and how it is taking over her life or it could represent the depression she is going through. Also the blue cake looks out of place and highly irregular which could show how women actually killing themselves in the 1950s is also highly irregular. Then it pans out to show Laura alone with no-one around except the blue cake and because women in the 1950s were usually stay at home mums a lot of them were lonely. Also her outfit is brown and her name is Laura Brown this could show how simple lives were perceived as in the 1950s. Then she gets in the car with her son and begins to drive down the road. One thing someone could notice is that the neighbourhood also is seemingly perfect with all the houses looking identical with all cut grass and palm trees identical to each other, there is one thing that is not perfect with this neighbourhood and that is that someone is moving in to a house which could symbolise that the Brown family is going to have a new beginning after Laura does what she does.

Then she gets to the babysitters house and we notice that Laura is in a light side and the babysitter is in the shade this shows the child's mindset of these two people. He sees his mother as a pure good person and the babysitter as a horrible monster taking him away from his mother.

Continuity Film

Pros: 
          Some continuity edits work well such as the running to the alleyway scene.
         
          I used black and white filter so that it was not too obvious when clothes were changed because           it was harder to see the colours


Cons:
           I needed to edit the sound because at times you could hear things you were not supposed to                  e.g. people off camera talking
           
          Some continuity edits need to be worked on such as the running in front of the bush scene

          I needed to include a conversation
          

Film