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It's all well-written and enlightening, managing to tread the line between academic depth and easy readability. --Filmstar
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Critically neglected after the decline of Hammer Studios, the British horror film remains a significant and steadily growing body of genre works within a nationally grounded cinema. Deeply rooted within the Gothic tradition, these post-Hammer films place their threats within contemporary Britain, allowing werewolves to roam the Moors; a family of cannibals to dwell beneath the London Underground; a virulent plague to be unleashed throughout the country and for a plague of zombies to stumble through middle-class suburbia. The juxtaposition between these unreal elements and the very real 'Britishness' of the characters and locations provides film-makers the opportunity to generate a body of work that examines the fears of contemporary Britain. Written in a format accessible to the student, tutor and general horror film enthusiast, Beyond Hammer provides new critical readings of classic, contemporary and lesser-seen films of the post-Hammer British horror canon, including The Vampire Lovers, The Wicker Man, Death Line, An American Werewolf in London, Hellraiser, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, 28 Days Later, The Last Horror Movie, Shaun of the Dead and The Descent.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
`Beyond Hammer' is a chronological anthology of some of the best British horror to have been made during and after the demise of the much-loved production company. It is an area that has not been considered extensively, as most texts tend to rush through this post-Hammer period or ignore it altogether. For that alone, this book should be welcomed, as the author clearly demonstrates a number of these films are worthy of study.
Sitting somewhere between cult enthusiasm and academic consideration, each chapter assesses one film, analysing the narrative themes and subtexts with the occasional diversion into production values and micro aspects, particularly mise-en-scene. As a result, this book has something for students studying the horror genre as well as horror fans wishing to read something more substantial than fanboy praise and gore-drenched detail.
Naturally, any book of this nature will be selective and as such is open to criticism - and it is true that Rose fails to consider any of the Amicus anthology films such as `Tales from the Crypt' and completely ignores the work of both Norman J. Warren and Christopher Smith - but on the whole this is a well-balanced selection. Curiously, Rose's analysis gets stronger the further he moves away from secondary sources and relies more heavily on his own interpretations. The later chapters on films made during the New British Horror Revival are stronger than his more research-based considerations of earlier films and his final chapter on `The Descent' is one of the best considerations of a horror film I have read in a long time.
However, this book does have its faults. To begin with it contains a number of typos, and while the introduction understandably considers Hammer and its legacy, did we also really need a first chapter on Hammer's `The Vampire Lovers', a film that has been considered many times previously. However, in my opinion, the book's biggest weakness is Rose's definition of British horror. Several films he selects are questionable in terms of their `Britishness' (`An American Werewolf in London' is bordering on the edge and Branagh's `Mary Shelley's Frankenstein' surely crosses right over it), yet given this loose interpretation, Rose then proceeds not only to ignore a horror film that has just as much right to be considered British in terms of production, he does not even list it in his horror timeline at the end of the book. Perhaps `The Shining' was just too American in its subject matter for the author's tastes but surely it at least deserved a mention.
Having said this, `Beyond Hammer' is a strong overview of British horror from 1970-2005 and is thoroughly recommended. I can only hope that, in a future edition, additional chapters will be added for `missing' films and the time-frame will be extended to incorporate subsequent releases such as `Eden Lake'.
Sitting somewhere between cult enthusiasm and academic consideration, each chapter assesses one film, analysing the narrative themes and subtexts with the occasional diversion into production values and micro aspects, particularly mise-en-scene. As a result, this book has something for students studying the horror genre as well as horror fans wishing to read something more substantial than fanboy praise and gore-drenched detail.
Naturally, any book of this nature will be selective and as such is open to criticism - and it is true that Rose fails to consider any of the Amicus anthology films such as `Tales from the Crypt' and completely ignores the work of both Norman J. Warren and Christopher Smith - but on the whole this is a well-balanced selection. Curiously, Rose's analysis gets stronger the further he moves away from secondary sources and relies more heavily on his own interpretations. The later chapters on films made during the New British Horror Revival are stronger than his more research-based considerations of earlier films and his final chapter on `The Descent' is one of the best considerations of a horror film I have read in a long time.
However, this book does have its faults. To begin with it contains a number of typos, and while the introduction understandably considers Hammer and its legacy, did we also really need a first chapter on Hammer's `The Vampire Lovers', a film that has been considered many times previously. However, in my opinion, the book's biggest weakness is Rose's definition of British horror. Several films he selects are questionable in terms of their `Britishness' (`An American Werewolf in London' is bordering on the edge and Branagh's `Mary Shelley's Frankenstein' surely crosses right over it), yet given this loose interpretation, Rose then proceeds not only to ignore a horror film that has just as much right to be considered British in terms of production, he does not even list it in his horror timeline at the end of the book. Perhaps `The Shining' was just too American in its subject matter for the author's tastes but surely it at least deserved a mention.
Having said this, `Beyond Hammer' is a strong overview of British horror from 1970-2005 and is thoroughly recommended. I can only hope that, in a future edition, additional chapters will be added for `missing' films and the time-frame will be extended to incorporate subsequent releases such as `Eden Lake'.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
British horror cinema and Hammer Studios remain synonymous in the minds of many, but there's so much more to the UK's horror tradition than Hammer's creaky but colourful adaptations of Dracula, Frankenstein et al. With the international success of recent British films such as 28 Days Later and The Descent, this academically-rigorous but highly readable book is a timely account of just how far the genre has progressed since Hammer's final film in 1976. An impressive debut.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
i was looking forward to this book, since it dealt with my favourite period of cinema history but oh boy was i in for a let down.
neither as learned as "Hammer and Beyond", nor as personal as "Fragments of Fear", i felt this book read like some graduate's thesis - pretty f...ing dull.
and does "An American Werewolf...", count as a British film ?
overall a big letdown.
neither as learned as "Hammer and Beyond", nor as personal as "Fragments of Fear", i felt this book read like some graduate's thesis - pretty f...ing dull.
and does "An American Werewolf...", count as a British film ?
overall a big letdown.
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