espite woefully low budgets and at times rather stiff acting, from the late 1950s through the early 1970s, few motion-picture studios could match the consistently terrifying output of Hammer Film Productions. With creepy Victorian settings, atmospheric locations and stars such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, movies like Taste the Blood of Dracula, Hands of the Ripper and The Curse of the Werewolf unfailingly frightened and delighted fans of old-fashioned gothic horror. A vital ingredient within each adventure was the music, which was recently celebrated on a tremendous two-CD set with the suitably larger-than-life title Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood!
The first disc is devoted entirely to the work of James Bernard, the renowned composer who, over the years, essentially originated the sinister, symphonic Hammer sound. "The Dracula Suite" is a nine-cut tribute to the studio's principal franchise, and includes daunting themes from Dracula; Dracula, Prince of Darkness; The Scars of Dracula; Dracula Has Risen From the Grave and Taste the Blood of Dracula. A similar, albeit much shorter, three-track arrangement dedicated to the 1968 classic The Devil Rides Out is also featured, along with brief melodies from Frankenstein Created Woman and Kiss of the Vampire.
The rest of the collection is subtitled "Other Hammer Themes," and focuses primarily on contributions from different artists. Four linked cues to One Million Years B.C. open this platter, followed by key motifs from When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth and Creatures the World
Forgot, all written by Mario Nascimbene. Subsequent numbers highlight cuts from five more composers, offering works from The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, The Abominable Snowman and Vampire Circus, among others. Bernard is also represented again, with excerpts from She, Quatermass II and his final opus, The Vampire Hunter.
Formidable, frightening and fun
While perhaps not as ubiquitous as the science-fiction music anthologies that seem to regularly arrive in record stores, compilations accentuating Hammer horror themes have been issued intermittently in the past. Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood! is certainly among the most comprehensive
and competent of these packages. Despite the fact that none of the 28 selections are original score performances—the tunes are all re-creations played by such well-regarded ensembles as The Philharmonia Orchestra, The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and The Westminster Philharmonic
Orchestra—the collection magnificently reproduces the emotive, fear-provoking melodies that accompanied many of the studio's most effective films.
From the deep, foreboding percussion of Dracula's "Main Theme" to the soft, undeniably tragic strings of the "Love Theme" from The Scars of Dracula, Bernard's cues are imposing and impressive. Melancholy violins punctuated by a blissful flute imbue "Christina," a quiet cut from Frankenstein Created Woman, with a genuinely moving air, just as The Vampire Hunter's "Main Themes"—created for a Discovery Channel documentary where the producers "requested a score that was to be an affectionate tribute to Hammer Films"—is an appropriately eerie aria that's
truly spooky and spectacular.
Although at times works from the other composers fail to equal the steady eloquence of Bernard's repertoire, there are quite a few powerful pieces, including Nascimbene's weighty "One Million Years B.C. Suite," Humphrey Searle's Oriental-tinged "Main Title" from The Abominable Snowman, David Whitaker's brassy Vampire Circus "Prologue" and Benjamin Frankel's atonal yet amazing The Curse of the Werewolf creations. For motion-picture buffs who fondly remember the Hammer horror heyday, or fans who're simply longing to hear superbly scary movie music, Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood! is a filling and frightfully fun album.
