Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 6, 2018

Mention “Diabolique” to most film lovers, and chances are they’re going to think of the film that has been called “the greatest Hitchcock film not directed by Hitchcock”. But there’s also a horror themed magazine and site bearing the same moniker, and they’ve now gotten into the Blu-ray business, offering this appealing documentary charting Hammer Pictures’ relationship with Warner Brothers, a release which is being offered first to some Kickstarter contributors, but which will reportedly soon have a retail presence on the Diabolique Films website. Anyone with either a general interest in (largely) sixties and seventies film history, or with a particular interest in Hammer (or even Warner Brothers - Seven Arts, for that matter) will find this piece extremely informative and almost consistently engaging.

I am someone who grew up in the era when Warner Brothers’ credits said Warner Brothers — Seven Arts, but until I watched this documentary I frankly had no idea of how the Seven Arts connection actually links to Hammer Films as well (I further had no idea that Seven Arts ultimately kind of actually subsumed Warner Brothers). But as Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years makes pretty clear, Hammer horror was already a “thing” before the deal with Seven Arts came along, though some of the marketing expertise from those on this side of the pond (also addressed rather winningly in the documentary) certainly upped the ante in terms of audience recognition of an identifiable brand and/or product.

The history side of the collaboration between Hammer Films and Warner Brothers — Seven Arts was frankly the most interesting part of this documentary for me, but others may be charmed by some fans who track down venerable locations that were used in many of the old films, and fans of efforts like Mad Men may enjoy some of the sidebars detailing some things like ad campaigns, some of which were extremely imaginative and maybe even groundbreaking.

Hammer has become such an institution that many film fans probably think of it as having existed from time immemorial, but this appealing piece proves that, as with many business successes, it was a kind of odd combination of serendipity and sweat equity that built Hammer into the legend it became during the Warner Brothers years.

Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of new label Diabolique Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (largely) in 1.78:1 (occasional archival moments are in varying aspect ratios). This is by and large a very nice looking transfer, though there are the expected variances between various film snippets. All of the contemporary interview footage looks fine, if not mind boggling, with appealing sharpness and good detail levels across the board. There are no issues with image instability or compression anomalies.

Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years features a perfectly acceptable DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix which more than capably supports the many talking heads sequences while rendering the film clips with generally excellent fidelity. This is a pretty typical sounding documentary that frankly doesn't have a ton of sonic "wow" factor (aside from the occasional blood curdling scream from a damsel in distress), but there are absolutely no problems to report.

Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Hammer's Lost Worlds (1080p; 14:57) is a really interesting if too brief look at some proposed Hammer productions that never saw the light of day for one reason or another.


• Trailer (1080p; 2:43)

Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Diabolique Films is off to a good start with this first Blu-ray release, both in terms of enjoyable and rather interesting and informative content, as well as a well authored disc with a nice looking and sounding transfer. This limited edition may be a challenge to come by, but for real Hammer Film aficionados, it provides a uniquely satisfying glimpse into a period of immense growth, both financially and artistically, for the iconic studio. Highly recommended.