The decline of Hammer Horror?
 

I am a student currently in the process of writing a presentation essay, and conducting some research which brings me here.

The question/title of the essay is the same as the post title, my question is;


What factors influenced the decline of Hammer Horror movies?


Opinions are welcome, and I am also aware that Hammer is having a bit of a ‘revival’ at the moment with scheduled releases this year.


Thanks.

Hammer focused on gothic horror, and revived horror in the late 50's by remaking the classics in colour (obviously a simplistic view).

However, by the time the 70's came along, horror had evolved. Focus was now on a grittier, more realistic horror movie, especially focusing on the horror perpetrated by humans against fellow humans. There was less interest in "monster movies". Hammer did not evolve with this, and as such declined.

Also, Hammer placed a lot of emphasis on their popular franchises - eg Dracula and Frankenstein (and to a lesser extent, The Mummy). I guess these could only offer so much.

Pretty much.

They did their best to survive the aftermath of NotLD and several other realistic horror films of the late 60s/early 70s (Rosemary's Baby, Last House on the Left, Jaws, Exorcist etc.), but their being typecasted as experts in Gothic horror ultimately did them in. The audiences had clearly moved on; the people involved in the production houses apparently hadn't. They tried their hands at several "psychological thrillers" and plenty of sequels to their original hits, but didn't get much responses to them. Their last 3 films were disasters at the BO, which all but shut their doors down.

Poor "management of change" did them in. And lack of funding, of course.

Thanks for the info guys, I'm hearing basically the same elsewhere to do with the changing of the times, and lack of funding.

Also the closing of drive-in theatres was a factor as a large following used to watch them there, any truth in that?

I wouldn't of imagined that Hammer was really big with drive in audiences...

It certainly had a following in the drive in just by searching around, as the low budget horrors would be shown at the time. Dusk til Dawn marathons.

Although it was a big enough following to single handedly bring the decline of Hammer horror, but it would of played a part in some audiences.

I'll try to research more into it.

As Manchester said, realist horror became a real priority over eurogothic worldwide. Which is a shame because I think things like The Vampire Lovers showed a lot of potential for Hammer in the 70s. Then again, with porn becoming mainstream, Hammer's sexuality and shock factor weren't what they were during more repressed times.

the answer at britmovie were good, i had a few books about hammer but can't remember where they are nowadays :(

Posted on 4 forums, need a range of answers, my neighbour can hopefully lend me another book.

Thanks everyone who commented, it's helped so far!

Competing against Slasher films didn't help either.