There was more to Hammer than horror and this is a long-over due book, focusing on their fantasy and sci-fi films (the completist in me wishes that someone would do a similar one for their psycho thrillers, swashbucklers, war tales and crime dramas... not really their comedies, though). The introductory summaries of science fiction and fantasy feels perfunctory but the book gets better once it start talking about Hammer's films.
In hindsight, Hammer's record with sci fi and fantasy is very impressive - the Quatermass movies that put them on the map, X the Unknown (which really started Jimmy Sangster's writing career), The Abominable Snowman, One Million Years BC (which produced the most famous Hammer image), She, The Damned... these movies rank with the best the studio ever came up with. However when they went wrong they really went wrong - Creatures that Time Forgot and Moon Zero Two helped wreck the company and rank with the worst movies Hammer ever made.
This is an enthusiastic book which perhaps over relies a little too much on secondary sources and could have had more detail but has plenty of pictures and is full of interesting stories, like the troubles making When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth and The Lost Continent (major head ache epics). Michael Carreras was more of a creative figure for these films - not always to their benefit. I enjoyed the critical round ups of the movies, particularly the appreciation of The Damned.
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