In 1974, Hammer considered filming Bryan Cooper’s novel Stones of Evil which was published the same year by Macdonald. The project got at least as far as the treatment stage and Tom Chantrell produced an impressive piece of concept art: http://www.chantrellposter.com/Stones-of-Evil-Chantrell-Hammer-Artwork-1972-Original/611.
The Bronze Age, circa 3,000 BCE; Haril, a stonemason, is returning from his great travels, during which he learned secrets of working in stone from a distant tribe. He is captured by a village led by the evil Karn who plans to kill him after he has learned his secrets. Haril escapes, also rescuing Nam, a girl of the forest tribe whom Karn’s people hate and fear. Haril is wounded but the forest people heal him. Nam gives him a bronze talisman before he sets out to return to his own village. On the way home he teams up with Brond, a bronzesmith. But it appears that Karn’s men have been to Haril’s village before him and all that is left is ruins, ashes and the mutilated bodies of the women. Haril vows revenge but Brond persuades him that this will require warriors and they will require payment, so they set out to seek work at the site of the great temple (a “henge of stone”) that is being built. Thanks to Brond’s advice Haril is able to impress Vardon, the obsessive and cruel high priest in charge of building the temple, and becomes a key man in its construction. Haril is seduced by the beauty of the building that he is creating but sickened by the slavery that is involved … and the human sacrifice. Brond leaves the camp because of the barbarity but is captured and sentenced to be sacrificed to the Sun-god. Haril helps Brond escape but both men are recaptured, thanks to the treachery of Haril’s woman, Lileth. Both men are sentenced to die. When Haril is stripped for torture Vardon sees Nam’s talisman and demands to know where it came from. Haril refuses to tell him despite terrible torture but Lileth reveals the truth. Vardon, for reasons of his own, now decides to keep the two men alive but puts them to work in the stone quarries. So as not to be entirely without a sacrificial subject Vardon orders Lileth to die. This time, Vardon sacrifices the victim to a new god, one greater than the Sun, the Dark One! Put to back-breaking work at the quarry, Haril and Brond discover that Karn’s men did not attack Haril’s village; it was Vardon’s men that did the deed and attacked Karn’s village too. Karn himself was captured and is a fellow slave, as is Haril’s brother, Torm. Brond is badly beaten and thrown into a cave where the corpses are put to rot. There he discovers a strange material that he had learnt the secret of in a distant land – iron ore. Brond, Haril and Torm secretly prepare a supply of iron weapons and enlist the aid of Karn in overthrowing the guards, a triumph that Brond does not live to see. The freed slaves, together with some guards and Selem, a Druid priest who is horrified by Vardon’s rejection of the Sun-god, pledge to destroy the temple of evil once and for all. But first they need a place to forge more weapons and train in their use while avoiding Vardon’s soldiers, so Haril negotiates shelter for them with the forest people. Nam feels herself betrayed that Haril did not kill Karn. Karn fears that Nam will take her revenge on him. Months later, a small army has been trained and equipped to attack the temple. Haril and Selem set out in disguise on a spying mission to the enemy camp. There they witness Vardon, disguised as a goat-headed devil, burn sacrificial victims in wicker effigies. Selem, overcome with anger at the blasphemy, reveals himself to be a priest and tries to rouse the crowd against Vardon, but the dark priest has so convinced everyone that he has real supernatural powers that Selem is captured instead and marked to play a special and horrific role in the ceremony to complete the temple. Returning to the forest, Haril discovers that Karn has kidnapped Nam and taken her to the temple to ingratiate himself with Vardon. Knowing that Karn will also reveal their plans of attack all seems lost. However, thanks to a clever trick with some sheep (!) and adopting the disguise of slaves, Haril’s men are able to avoid Vardon’s trap and their iron weapons overcome the superior numbers of their bronze-wielding foes. Haril kills Karn, rescues Nam and lops off Vardon’s goat-masked head. Selem sacrifices his life in destroying the evil temple which will never rise again.
Lots of sword, not much sorcery. Vardon is a silly character of absurd one-note cruelty. It’s not terribly clear what he hopes to achieve since his “powers” all appear to be achieved through the aid of trickery, potions that invoke visions etc. His interest in Nam’s talisman is something of a red herring since it turns out to do bugger all. All-in-all, what we get is a sort of historical adventure with a bit of The Wicker Man and a bit of The Devi Rides Out chucked in. Although it would obviously have resulted in a much better film than the plotless and depressing Creatures the World Forgot that is a very low bar to set. It’s hard to imagine that this would have been any more successful than the likes of The Viking Queen or that it would have done anything to halt Hammer’s 1970s demise.
That didn't help Creatures the World Forgot which is a really nasty film.
I suppose it would depend on the amount and explicitness of the tortures and female nudity the film would have shown.