HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR (1980)
Hammer House of Horror had only one season, but was consistently well written, cast, and produced. Stars included Jon Finch (Frenzy), Denholm Elliott (A Room With a View, Raiders of the Lost Ark), Brian Cox (Red, Penny Dreadful), Peter Cushing (Star Wars), Diana Dors (The Unholy Wife), Rosalyn Landor (Star Trek: the Next Generation), Barbara Kellerman (The Oblong Box) Prunella Gee (Never Say Never Again), Rachel Davies (Midsomer Murders).
Witching Time
Jon Finch & Prunella Gee in S1 E1: Witching Time
The first offering, Witching Time is the story of a love triangle that has an unwelcome interloper from the past who livens up a boring bit of cuckoldry.
The Thirteenth Reunion
Julia Foster in S1 E2: The Thirteenth Reunion
A reporter that writes a women’s column is burning to move into hard news. She talks her editor into approving her investigation of a medical facility and gets much more than she bargains for in this eerie feast of a story.
Rude Awakening
Denholm Elliott & Lucy Gutteridge in S1 E3: Rude Awakening
A Real Estate Broker has fantasies about his assistant, and after a time is unable to divide them from reality. Denholm Elliott shines in this fair warning to philanderers everywhere.
Growing Pains
Barbara Kellerman in S1 E4: Growing Pains
Terence & Laurie Morton adopt a boy after the death of their son who managed to poison himself in his father’s lab. Scientific experimentation leads to a horrifying haunting in this solid entry in the series. The adopted James seems like a normal boy, but once he is moves in, strange things start occurring.
The House That Bled to Death
Nicholas Ball & Rachel Davies in S1 E5: The House That Bled to Death
A family moves into a house where a horrific murder was committed. Strange things begin happening not long after, but the best laid plans often go awry–don’t they?
Charlie Boy
Marius Goring & Angela Lawson in S1 E6: Charlie Boy
A carved African fetish can’t actually kill, or can it? Superstition often clouds common sense, but what happens when common sense isn’t enough?
The Silent Scream
Peter Cushing & Brian Cox in S1 E7: The Silent Scream
Peter Cushing, as a pet store proprietor who manipulates an ex-con into an experiment about confinement without bars. It turns out that he is not so much a pet store own as he is a mad scientist. Excellent performances all around in this eerie episode.
Children of the Moon
Diana Dors in S1 E8: Children of the Moon
Lost in the woods, a couple come upon an old mansion. They are invited in only to find not things are not as they seem. The children have a howling good time.
Carpathian Eagle
Anthony Valentine & Suzanne Daniels in S1 E9: Carpathian Eagle
A serial killer is cutting men’s hearts out. A police detective is working the case and finds that a long dead 300 year old Carpathian countess who murdered her lovers took their hearts. As he investigates, he get input from a writer that is writing about the Countess. Could it be a dead women doing the killing or a copycat?
Guardian of the Abyss
Rosalyn Landor, Ray Lonnen & Sharon Fussey in S1 E10: Guardian of the Abyss
A woman with an antiques dealer buy a box of junk at an auction and in it finds a antique mirror that turns out to be a scrying glass brings trouble to the antiques dealer as it brings him into contact with a woman that has escaped Satanists and the deranged hypnotist who leads them.
Visitor From the Grave
Simon MacCorkindale & Kathryn Leigh Scott in S1 E11: Visitor From the Grave
The Two Faces of Evil
Penny is alone at home when an intruder violently breaks into her house. He attacks her in attempt to rape her. Terrified she shoots and kills him. Her husband returns home and his wife is hysterical. Once he calms her down, he tells her the the man is someone he know, a gambler. He admits that he owed the man money. He convinces his wife that they should bury him in the woods, she becomes hysterical again and we find that she has been institutionalized before. Once the dead man is buried, she begins to see him everywhere. She even sees the car that he drove that her husband had disposed of in the lake. Is she insane or being haunted?
Gary Raymond & Anna Calder-Marshall in S1 E12: The Two Faces of Evil
The Mark of Satan
A family picks up a hitchhiker dressed in the same yellow raincoat and hat that Janet just saw on a scarecrow in a field they were passing. It is pouring rain and Martin almost runs over the hitchhiker. Martin offer him a ride and once in the car, the man attacks Martin causing a horrible crash. Janet awakes in hospital to find her husband recovering from serious injuries, but when he gets him home, he just isn’t himself.
Peter McEnery in S1 E13 The Mark of Satan
Working in a morgue as an assistant, Edwyn Rord attends the body of a man that died trying to drill a hole into his head because he believed he was infected by evil. Edwyn begins to believe that he has become infected by the evil virus and becomes obsessed with the number 9. His paranoia expands at every turn.