Hammer House Of Horror 1: Witching Time. I hadn't seen this since I first bought the DVD boxset 'some years ago'. More fun than I had remembered, a brisk pace and a nice bridge between Hammer's gothic features and this new contemporary TV series.
Hammer House Of Horror 5: The House That Bled To Death. Rather dated, low rent rip off of The Amityville Horror, and fairly humdrum, although it's one many people seem to remember fondly.
Hammer House Of Horror 6: Charlie Boy . Entertaining pastiche (sort of "The Omen meets Craze"), with set piece demises and a downbeat ending.
Hammer House Of Horror 10: Guardian Of The Abyss . Entertaining in a 1970s TV show kind of way. NIce to see John Carson again in Squire Hamilton mode and doing a quasi reprise of the Charles Gray schtick from TDRO (and the very little girl from said film all grown up). Barbara Ewing has little to do and the Wicker Man twist is too obviously signposted.
Hammer House Of Horror 11: Visitor From The Grave. Kathyrn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans in Dark Shadows) guest stars in this lacklustre Anthony Hinds potboiler which fails to hold the attention.
Hammer House Of Horror 12: Two Faces Of Evil. This story makes the most of an eerie atmosphere and creepy performance by Gary Raymond as the husband and Ana Calder-Marshall as the freaked out wife. Better than I'd remembered.
Hammer House Of Horror 13: Mark Of Satan. I hadn't seen this since I first bought the DVD boxset 'some years ago'. More fun than I had remembered, gruesome, weird and disturbing (and plotwise bringing to mind the old BHF Death Is A Number, an odd little film from 1951). Various verbal references to Count Dracula and a couple of effective 'hallucination' scenes.
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.