Hammer House Of Horror (1980)

And so we reach the 40th anniversary of Charlie Boy. It's pretty mediocre and unoriginal with some honking dialogue that was dated even in 1980. Livened slightly by the gore but one of the weakest episodes in the series.

I remember hating Charlie Boy on watching, can't recall Growing Pains in any great detail so I'd say it was merely mediocre.

Growing Pains. Does everyone agree that this is the worst episode of the series? They should; it is.

The House That Bled to Death. My viewing coincided with the 40th anniversary of its first showing. It still holds up well, being easily the best bit of media ever to be inspired by the bullshit of The Amityville Horror. This satire on that phenomenon is clever and cruel.

I've finally got round to starting the Network BD set and blimey but it looks stunning! They've done a really fine job on this series.

Witching Time. You've got to admire the fact that they set out their stall immediately with bare bum and boobs ... inside the first minute! Hammer promises, Hammer delivers, and this was certainly the talk of the common room on Monday morning back in the day. It remains a fun, middling episode in the series.

The Thirteenth Reunion. Fun at the time, a little overlong now and not one to re-watch often once you know the story.

Rude Awakening. One of my favourites in the series, largely thanks to Denholm Elliott who does sleazy, sweaty and paranoid as well as anyone and it doesn't hurt that the lovely Lucy Gutteridge gets to sport several kinky outfits.

Just realised I haven't watched the BD since I bought it so I might start to remedy that shortly. Meanwhile, I saw this mentioned on Twitter earlier and tracked down the original transcrip of this interview with Reece Shearsmitht: https://dodoswords.wordpress.com/2019/04/10/in-conversation-reece-shearsmith-guru-live-glasgow-2019/

"Fans took immense pleasure from the fact Reece entertainingly proffered several revelations during the discussion: He and Steve almost brought back 1980s TV anthology ‘Hammer House of Horror’ but a reboot of the series fell through...

Yeah. I’ve been in meetings where we’ve pitched ideas… we very nearly – don’t know if I should say this – brought back ‘Hammer House of Horror’. Hammer… and me and Steve for a long… lots of meetings about that and, er, it all fell apart through various reasons, but I was in meetings about… we wrote two scripts, the pilot, which was really good, actually one of the most horrible things we’ve ever written (audience laughter) and um, it was a sort of ‘Monkey’s Paw’ thing and I was telling them the notes, the ideas… ‘It’s a W.W. Jacobs thing.’ ‘Sorry, who’s that, what’s that?’ ‘Oh for fuck’s sake’ (audience laughter) That’s hard to go… cos ‘You’ve not heard of that reference at all? You know Alfred Hitchcock?’ (audience laughter)"

"Growing Pains" wasn't too bad. It just lacked luster, which could be said of the series in general. Also, I was kind of put off by the boy actors. Firstly, the real son's death throes, staggering about the garden with long hair and flared jeans, wasn't any better than my own performance in a home movie from 1973. And that second actor, who played the newly adopted son, had no charisma at all. I looked at the computer, and he's now a fairly normal-looking author, but back then he reminded me of what Arthur Scargill probably looked like at that age. So I went to see photos of him now, to see if he turned into Scargill circa 1982, and no, he's more normal.

I have only Children Of The Full Moon and Growing Pains to revisit. I watched the former fairly recently, and I can't be arsed to sit through Pains again, I remember it was absolute shite.

I haven't got the Dee VDs, so I'm catching up with these on the Tube - or at least I was. "Witching Time had blotted out Patricia Quinn's tits (there's a "Shout"logo in the corner of the screen throughout - what's that?), but she's fully be-boobed on Dailymotion, so I'm watching the other episodes there - amd they seem to have all been uploaded, unlike on the Tube. Only downside of Dailymotion, apart from the obvious "non-BluRay quality" (which I'm not obsessive about anyway), is that the picture is stretched to fit the widish screen. Not too distracting though.

So, "The 13th Reunion"- Yeah, I quite enjoyed it, but it's "thin" (tee hee) stuff, and I only really enjoyed it because of the (now) politically incorrect "fat" comments from James Cosmo, or "Cosmos" as he appears in the end credits. Undemanding.

Best for me so far was last night's "Rude Awakening". Denholm the Elliott is always worth watching, and I liked the switching roles of what's-her-name, playing Elliott's sexual fantasies (but not based on his real life, probably), contrasted with his marriage to a battleaxe. It's rather let down by very flat direction - it could have done with some more "oniric" visual approach - but it kept me watching, and I was never bored.

The Two Faces Of Evil gave us the finger. It's a shame ITV don't have a Genome to go to.

Looking at jotter in a scrutiny way. Mark of Satan, Sat 6 Dec. In summer '81 they were repeated on Monday nights, if that helps.

I think I looked at my jottings too quickly. Wicky Peedeah has it going on into early Dec, according to "Mark", of Satan. What was the fingery one?

What was the title of the one with the finger what you saw? I'll tell you when it was on in South Lanarkshire, if that helps.

Well, in Lincoln I'm sure it was on in December...maybe I'm wrong. I'll try to dig out the Atlas to see if the loving dedication is dated (even more than me).

Thanks Mike. "Hammer House of Horror" was shown for the first time on STV (and all ITV?) on Saturday September 13, 1980. "Witching Time". The last episode shown was "Visitor From the Grave", on Sat Nov 22 at 9:15 pm. "To the Devil a Daughter" was on after it, on BBC1. What was the one with the finger?

I didn't much like that "Witching Time" last night? Why were the tits blotted out? Someone mentioned the fact on Facebook, and I told them there WERE tits on YouTube. Yesterday there weren't. Anyway, it wasn't very good. I found the characters unlikeable, and the acting... truly diabolical, from everybody, but particularly Prunella Gee. And it was bland. I never did like the '80s. It might have worked better as one story in a (Natalie) Portman's (camel) Toe, but one from the early-to-mid '70s, not in THE MONSTER CLUB. And with a bit more (intentional) humour and genuine nastiness.

Back in 1980 I was a long haired stoodent way out west (Bristol) and only recall seeing one episode on TV at the time of release - I'd driven my then girlfriend all the way to Lincoln to spend the weekend with her sister and better half (if you're reading this Cathy, I've still got the AA Atlas Of The British Isles you bought me for the occasion, with your loving dedication "hope you get more miles out of this than you do from me'). I remember it was freezing cold and snowing and they were living in a converted farmhouse - converted from house to draughty shack, so we sat round the TV draped in blankets and watched HHoH on the Saturday night. It was either November or December, around 9-10pm and the episode was probably the one with the finger. Alcohol was consumed, and probably something else. What I do remember clearly is reading Spike Millington's 'Rommel - Gunner Who? while sitting in a bath half full of tepid water. I hope that answers your question, Graham.

Hello playmates! I went to Bookface for a while, but they didn't understand my humour. I might have been banned even for saying that there ARE tits and bums and just the hint of a bunch of fannies on YouTube AND on Facebook in general.

I've got a new big TV in my bedroom, so the novelty is that I can just lie there drinking beer and watching films on Netflix in High Deaf - I watched the opening of Quentin Crisp-Barnabas Collins-Tarantino's "The Hateful 8" and intend to watch the rest this year, before the British Consulate's website updates its answers to "Brexit - 100 Most Frequently-Asked Questions" (at the moment, whatever the question, all the answers are cut n' paste exactly the same - "It's an undoubdedly serious question which is being addressed and will be resolved before Hogmanay 2020").

I also wanted to be one of you again, and was surprised that low-rez YouTube uploads actually look better on my big telly, from the bed, with beer in. I watched the start of "Hammer House of Horror" - "Witching Time" five times, but kept getting interrupted. I intend to watch it later from the start. My memories of it are that, in 1980, I knew Jammy Barnyard's musical style, and wasn't surprised when his name came up in the End Creds. The other day, and last night, and this morning though, when the wench-actress shows her bum and gets stabbed, it's not Jammy Barnyard's music. I think it's Jon Finch's music to the film within the film. I could get my jotter out and tell you exactly when it was on the telly. STV. Was it at the same time across all ITV regions?

See you later!

The Silent Scream is probably the best of the bunch. Cushing is terrific, the direction by Alan Gibson is a big plus and the whole ethos of the story is quite chilling.

The Thirteenth Reunion is 'the golf story' of this anthology, an amusing black comedy played tongue in cheek due since the transparency of the plot (notwithstanding the feeble 'limb transplant' red herring) really precludes playing it too straight.

The Carpathian Eagle is both tedious and ridiculous as well as rather pointless. Not one I enjoyed.

I watched Rude Awakening and Children Of The Full Moon (a satisfying little dark fairy tale) quite recently, but will probably take another look while I'm at it. Growing Pains was a dreadful mess last time I saw it and I don't feel like seeing it again.

That's a good lot of little summaries.

Witching Time I enjoyed, Mark of Satan makes little sense but is disturbing and atmospheric, and paranoid, and that's good if you're in the right mood for it.

I must admit I really like Guardian Of The Abyss and have rewatched it the more than the others, sure the ending is obvious, but some of it I find really pleasing - the escape sequence with lots of running. And trying to work out how much Allison is manipulating things at certain points. The scrying mirror is an interesting McGuffin - and (which made me go and look up John Dee afterwards).

People have charted plots trying to working out when things are realised by certain characters or when things occure in TV and film (The Thing, being a good example), I don't know why but I've always had the slight urge to chart Abyss episode (and Who's Terror of the Vervoids) in some way.

Look forward to your opinion of The Silent Scream and the Thirteen Reunion