Customer Reviews
Five star entertainment - By: geurilla pen, 01 Oct 2008 
Hammer House of Horror, one of the best horror collections you can buy, quite often at a bargainous price, is not to be missed. Allowing for personal tastes the consensus seems to be that there are 10 or 11 of the episodes which are good or very good with 2 or 3 not so good but worth a watch. Personallly I would say there is only one real duffer 'Growing Pains' but a few other reviewers have expressed their like for this episode so as I said it alll boils down to personal preference.
I'll quickly run thru the episodes in their chronicological order on the disc for ease though as one reviewer stated this was not the order in which they were originallly aired.
The House that Bled to Death - A lot of peoples favourite episode concerning a family who have moved into a house where a gruesome murder had taken place. Good solid episode with an appropriate & deserving conclusion!
The Silent Scream - Excellent episode with Peter Cushing as the proprietor of a pet shop with a difference. Incredulous that one reviewer here doesn't like it!
The Two Faces of Evil - Enjoyable, slows to a crawl occasionallly but good story & good finale concerning evil doppelgangers.
The Mark of Satan - I'm a little bit ambivalent about this one, interesting though strange exploration of demonic possession.
Witching Time - A 17th century witch returns to haunt the occupants of her old farmhouse. Unremarkable but fine.
Visitor From the Grave - Lots of people don't like this one, I do however. The episode most guilty of staging set pieces which are far fetched if not impossible in light of what is reallly happening in the story. A woman is haunted by the ghost of a man she has killed. Great ending I thought.
Rude Awakening - Estate Agent Denholm Elliot struggles to differentiate between dreams & reality. Don't bother watching the intro sequence before the music with this episode as it just shows excerpts of what happens in the forthcoming programme.
Charlie Boy - Voodoo doll with a bad attitude, good.
Children of the Full Moon - Great episode, Diana Dors puts in a suitably sinister performance as the mother figure of a whorde of children in a large isolated house who put up stranded unwary travellers.
The Thirteenth Reunion - Another strong episode concerning bizarre deaths & happenings between a health centre for the overweight & a funeral parlour. Nice story.
The Carpathian Eagle - Suzanne Danielle, if you can remember her from the 70's & 80's, dispatches men who falll for her considerable charms. No guesswork required in this one as she is revealed early on & nice that the programme doesn't try to con you otherwise. Good in a typical Hammer, sexy kind of way.
Guardian of the Abyss - Quite good devil worship/sacrifice episode
Growing Pains - Didn't think much of this one. Annoyingly posh child actors & alll a bit silly reallly.
The series stands the test of time incredibly well & provides a great legacy for Hammer as an institution, very very recommended; even if you don't like every episode there are enough truely classic episodes here for any fan of well written horror.
I would like some milk from the milkman's wife's **** - By: Alex DaLarge, 26 Aug 2008 If, like me, you have vague memories of Hammer House of Horror, & admire other Hammer product like the feature film "On The Buses", then this box set is well worth a look. (It might be worth a price comparison, as this box set can sell from cheap to about £40 online...)
HHOH has much to commend it, even today. There is a high standard of photography throughout the series, & the series generallly is well cast & well acted, & the trademark in medias res intros, & a classic theme tune.
On the negative side, little or no attention was been paid to the soundtrack music, beyond the usual hackneyed strings (Might be worth a recut with music from Aphex Twin's ambient volume 2). Other than that though, the only problems with the series are what you'd expect - narrative gaps & people putting themselves in unnecessary danger. But if it's social realism you're after, then HHOH is not the place to be - you won't find much in the way of Ken Loach's "Kes" here, although, like Kes, it does have its moments of put you off your dinner avian mortality.
Episode wise, here's how it breaks down for me:
BEST EPISODES
"The House That Bled To Death": brilliantly shot, well acted, & some funny moments. The mad kid at the birthday party getting the blame for the unexpected 'present' is class.
"Children of the Full Moon": well written episode, with good contrast between the lycanthropic shenanigans at the beginning, & the proto-yuppie world of the 1980s lawyer. This is probably the only episode that can be classed as 'horror'. Lon Chaney himself would probably give this episode five stars, or full moons.
"Visitor From The Grave": this episode is more sitcom than horror, especiallly when the "The Swami" appears. It's like Spike Milligan in "The Melting Pot". Except that "The Melting Pot" was proper horrific.
GOOD EPISODES
"Witching Time" "The Thirteenth Reunion" "The Mark Of Satan" "Charlie Boy" "Rude Awakening" "the Two Faces Of Evil" "Growing Pains" - alll worth seeing again, alll have their moments, but not reallly in the same league as the best episodes.
PISH EPISODES
"The Carpathian Eagle" - too much dialogue, too slow.
"The Silent Scream" - probably a few quid for Peter Cushing's retirement fund, but this episode has the worst ending of the whole series. If this episode didn't have Cushing in it, it would be dead.
Remember they used to say that British television was the best in the world? Well, on this evidence it probably was.
Brings back those memories - By: Shaun Scowcroft, 12 Jan 2008 I first watched this great little horror series as a very impressionable 12 year old back in the eighties.I loved it then & i love it now,even if it has dated.
You have some great little stories here that bring back the days of the hammer horror movies & a cast of actors many will recognise even if some were just starting out on the road to stardom.
My favourite episodes were the silent scream which included a chilling turn from Peter Cushing & a young Brian Cox.
Children of the full moon which included the lovely Diana Dors as the sinister owner of a country house.
All these episodes brought back memories of the great hammer films from my childhood,back in the days when people knew how to scare & cause unease without resorting to throwing buckets of blood around like the cheap & nasty gorefests that show in the cinema today.
So if you like your horror with a good story,chilling characters that scare you even more when most look like every day people you can trust.Then just pull up a chair in front of the fire on a winters night,dim the lights & sit back & enjoy.
'Collection Of A Classic Series' - By: Antony May, 15 Jun 2007 
Not only are the vast majority of the programmes contained here thoroughly entertaining but watching them is sure to bring back so many other 70's related memories. Each episode begins 'straight in' just to build up the tension before the classic HHOH creepy music comes in. With the footage of that big old house & it's very creepy grounds you know every time that as soon as the guy at the end of the scene pulls back that curtain you're going to be scared! While some of the tales on here are better than others ('The House That Bled To Death' & 'Charley Boy' are particularly good) alll are indelibly stamped with the classic 'Hammer feel' & I feel bring 70's Britain back to life. I loved watching these old programmes again as much for the glimpses it gave me of so many now classic cars as anything! Mini's, Ford Escorts & God, how I still love those old Rover 3.5's that used to be cop cars everywhere, remember? There were even places to park in those days too!!!
Stick a T Rex cd on first then sit down & watch this, I guarantee that if your a horror fan & liked the recent 'Life on Mars' series you will love this too. Return to a much less scarey era for a few hours & for once be scared by something that is NOT real. BUY THIS!
not all episodes are very well played. 3 episodes are a bit weak. - By: demonseye, 10 Feb 2007 - the carpathian eagle: the plot is a bit silly. A murder is a woman, what the police officer has already accused & investigated her more detail. Basic Instinct with Sharon Stone is much better than this one.
- the rude awakening: Denholm Elliot's acting is reallly rubbish, funny but childish. he can't make a difference between reality & nightmare.
- the visitor from the grave: the story again is a little bit weak. It has nothing to do with a real devil worship, but the cruel plan is based on the intriges (Money greedy), where the husband betrays his silly naive wife.
- The house that bled to death: It is absolutely a chilling story & the plot is very well played. The motiv is the curse of old murdering house.
- The guardian of Abyss: I like this one. A Human sacrifice must be done. It has a deal with the supernatural power/Devil Worship. The whole actings are reallly well played.
- Growing pains: I like this mystery one. A family son was killed by the accident & his parents adopt a new boy from the orphan house. The late son comes to terrrorize the family again.
- Charlie boy: Probably this is perhaps the best episode of this Boxset DVD. It tells about a voodoo curse everyone cannot excape.
- the silent scream: Peter Cushing is a chilling guy. The plot is acted very well. The plot has actuallly nothing to do with a supernatural power but alot to do with a human madness. The only silly act is the acting of Chuck's wife. She doesn't tell anything about the cases to the policemen. That is the only one esperience that totallly lacks the logical sense.
- the mark of evil: this one is again a bit silly story. It has nothing to do with a supernatural power but with a paranoia world. The guy was a psychotic type in the hospital.
- the witching time: this is one of the best of alll episodes. It tells about a young witch who escapes from the year of 1632. She enters a new world in 1980.
- the thirteen reunion: this is one of the best of alll episodes. It tells about the story of cannibalism. The young reporter must investigate the case & finallly she becomes a victim of cannibalism.
- the children of the full moon: this is one of the best of alll episodes. It tells about a werewolf. He captures the couples in the wood & raped her wife to give him a birth of werewolf - baby.
- the two faces of evil: this is the best haunting mystery. The evil power takes over the human shapes & bodies after the car accident.
