1960-1961

1960: Finally with a larger budget to work with and freed from the constraints of his back to back movies Roger Corman begins a cycle of horror films based upon the works of Edgar Allen Poe, many starring Vincent Price and all borrowing liberally from Hammer’s style of filmmaking. The first in the cycle is House of Usher. Hammer itself releases Brides of Dracula a sequel to their first Dracula movie, again Fisher directs this visually stunning film and Cushing appears as Van Helsing. Lee however is absent as the character of Dracula is not in this film. He does however appear in Fisher’s other movie for Hammer The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll. Hammer also plans it’s own version of The Invisible Man although the film is never made. Alfred Hitchcock releases Psycho. This film will spawn dozens of imitators over the coming decades and goes further than any film so far in the horror genre in it’s portrayal of sex and violence. The screeching violins that make up the soundtrack become iconic and the ‘slasher’ movie is born. Another taboo breaking film released in this year is Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring. Set in Medieval Sweden the story follows a father as he takes revenge on the men who rape and kill his daughter. The film is banned in Fort Worth, Texas due to its disturbing rape scene but wins many international awards. It will later spark a cycle of rape revenge movies in the seventies.

1961: Corman releases The Pit and the Pendulum. Hammer’s answer to The Wolfman is released. Curse of the Werewolf is once again directed by Fisher but this time has Oliver Reed in the title role.

1962: Almost unnoticed and forgotten by the medium in which he had pioneered so much, Tod Browning dies. Hammer releases remakes of Phantom of the Opera and James Whale’s classic The Old Dark House.

1964: Inspired by Hammer Corman shoots his last two Poe films The Mask of the Red Death and The Tomb of Ligeia in England. Hammer itself releases The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb and Evil of Frankenstein, the latter is noteworthy for only one reason, Universal come to an agreement with Hammer and allow the British Studio to use Jack Pierce’s original make-up designs from the thirties.

1965: US deploys ground troops in Vietnam.

1966: Hammer releases two double bills, Dracula Prince of Darkness is paired with Plague of Zombies while The Reptile is shown with Rasputin the Mad Monk. In true Roger Corman style, the films are shot back to back Prince and Rasputin on one set and Plague and The Reptile on another. By pairing them in such a manner, nobody notices that the same sets are used.

1967: Hammer releases it’s last Quatermass adaptation Quatermass and the Pit.

1968: ‘The Summer of Love’, the hippy counterculture leaps into the mainstream. Roman Polanski makes Rosemary’s Baby, the film is a genre landmark and although ostensibly about the abuse of a young woman at the hand of Satanists it can be viewed as the first in a sequence of films that will run through the seventies that are the genres response to the youth revolution of the sixties, all exploring issues of fear and paranoia as society seemingly loses control of it’s young people. Another genre making film is released in the form of George Romero’s low budget Night of the Living Dead. This low budget black and white shocker uses local villagers who volunteer their services to play the ambling flesh eating zombies. The action starts in the first scene and the tension never lets up as a group of strangers are stranded in a remote house and struggle with one another as much as their undead foes. An utterly bleak ending stuns audiences and ensures that this film that cost $114,000 to make becomes a cult smash. Romero approaches make up artist Tom Savini to work on the film but Savini is drafted to Vietnam. The film spawns dozens of imitations across the world but most importantly breaks new ground and taboos with it’s graphic depictions of gore. In the UK Hammer releases Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, Christopher Lee appears but complains bitterly about the portrayal of his character who is becoming increasingly sidelined. Over the next few years Hammer releases many Dracula films which become increasingly exploitative.

1969: Boris Karloff dies aged 82 and with him the last link to the Golden Age of Horror is lost.