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Hi everyone, and welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】. Hello, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu. Hi, everyone.

Lately, a lot of people have been under lockdown again.

Yeah.

And spending a lot more time at home. How do you pass time? Since we're not going out and having fun all of these…What do you do at home?

I think the same as many people, I watch some pretty bad movies.

Emm安澜, you've been naughty.

Not that kind of movie. Get your mind out of the gutter.

What kind of movies are you talking about?

What I say bad movies, I mean things like B movies.

B级片. Can you narrow it down? It still sounds pretty filthy.

OK. I’ve recently been watching some films that I loved when I was younger and when I was a kid, something called Hammer Horror.

Hammer horror? Hammer like h-a-m-m-e-r?

Yeah. Hammer as in hammer a nail.

And horror as in horror films.

Exactly.

Why haven’t I ever heard of them? I mean, I watch every… I’m the queen of horror films.

You're probably too young, that's why. This type of film, the series of films were very well known in the 1950s and 1970s.

That’s before your time as well.

Well, yeah, but they are quite well known in the UK.

Is it for nostalgic reasons? 就是大家当怀旧片来看的?

It can't be for nostalgic reasons; I wasn't even born then.

But you said it's very popular in the UK.

No, not for nostalgia. They're very popular, because they were among the first British horror films, and also they are quite specific. They're quite unique.

Oh. Is it like one of those that they themselves are a genre?

Yes, so I’ll tell you a little bit about what the films like later on the episode, but these films I can give you a little bit about the background.

OK.

What they used to do was they made low budget Gothic horror. So films like Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, even there was a film about the Gorgon, so the legendary, a Greek monster that turned people into stone when she looked upon them.

So Gothic horror就是哥特式恐怖, we’re talking about gloomy days, castles, people in elaborate costumes.

They're always mostly based in the 19th century or kind of just before the First World War, lots of castles, lots of villagers, lots of peasants. It's pretty much if you’ve seen one film, you've seen them all.

Very stereotypical film.

Yes. And as I mentioned, they were very low budget. So they created films almost every single year.

Oh. I suppose it doesn't… I mean. You have a cheap set. You rent some costume.

Yeah, that's it.

You just have a classic story and then you act.

That's pretty much it. Hammer Horror films, they were very famous for two leading actors, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

Oh, Christopher Lee? I’ve actually heard of his name, and was he like the Mummy or he's the monster always sort of monster character.

He was always Dracula or Frankenstein or the Mummy.

He's very lanky, very tall.

Yeah, in the Mummy films, he didn't actually say a single word for the entire film, and you couldn't see him apart from his eyes. Because he was wrapped up like a mummy.

I would assume if you played a mummy, you don't really say anything.

Exactly. And in most of these films, Christopher Lee very rarely said anything, so he became a famous star in Dracula even though he only appeared in the film for 7 minutes, he became famous for being Count Dracula.

For those of you who are curious, just Google Christopher Lee, just really search his name. I think that's an image you won't really forget. You see him. Then you'll remember how he looks like. He is one of those有点像特型演员的那种感觉. It's very easy to remember.

Exactly. Pretty much all Hammer Horror Films had these two actors in them. There’s always a damsel in distress or a vamp, kind of a woman who's using her charm to seduce and exploit men.

They're either damsel in distress这种落难少女的感觉they're waiting for a rescuer, a savior, or they're the bad woman, the femme fatale 蛇蝎女妖的形象.

Yeah. And all the actors including Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, they always spoke in an RP accent.

Posh accent.

So they are very posh, very upper class. Anyone that was working class would always get eaten by the monster. It was always the upper class people that saved the day, but the thing I love about them is that Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are both excellent actors, they are, really, really good actors. And even though they must have thought at times that what they’re doing, these films are a bit stupid.

Yeah.

But they still did them and they did them really, really well.

These really don't sound like serious films, like today when we're thinking about a film, we want to know what this film is trying to say, the undertone, the message it sends. But those just sounds like silly horror flicks, that you watch when you don't have anything better to do.

The early films, they were actually a little bit more serious. They did try and you have to think that we wouldn't consider them scary because we’re used to more…

Special effects.

Special effects. More modern horror films. They are probably a little bit more creepy than horror, but they’re just really entertaining.

Now that you described these films these Hammer Horror Films to me. Maybe I watched some of them without realizing they are Hammer Horror productions. Are they always like really over the top, really overly dramatic?

They are very melodramatic. It's always man falls in love with a very, very beautiful woman who is about to be eaten or attacked by a monster and he saves her. They are really cheesy films.

Very cheesy就是挺俗套的那种故事. And then they also have these very, very dramatic transition or music, tang, tang, tang.

Yeah. But because of the lack of special facts, even now sometimes it's not seen as that scary. It's like for example, Dracula nowadays is always shown flying or gliding, well they obviously couldn't do that. So it's just Christopher Lee running across the set, backs and forwards, dressed up in a cape. It sounds ridiculous, but it's brilliant. And that's why they're so popular. They are very campy.

What does campy mean in this context?

Campy or camp means it's exaggerated to a ridiculous amount. It's artificial. It's made in a way that is meant to be liberally humorous. They are doing it even though they know it looks silly.

It sounds like back then, when they were making a film, the idea of film was probably very different. Now you want the film to be a piece of art, but perhaps when they were making those, those films are just to entertain.

It is pure entertainment. That is it, simple as that.

I think I’ve watched some of those or at least similar films. Yeah. when you see blood coming out and the blood always looks like red paint, because it was so obviously fake.

But that's also another claim to fame for Hammer Horror, because they were among the first films to actually show blood because they were the first or among the first horror color films.

Oh, of course, before… with the black and white horror films you wouldn't be able to show blood because people wouldn't be able to really react to that.

Yeah. They carried onto the 1970s and the films in the 1970 just got worse and worse and worse, like, for example, they had Dracula with like a Bruce Lee type Kung Fu Master.

Is that has anything to do with like genre mashups, kind of thing?

Exactly.

Because if they’re stick with Dracula, Mummy, all of this very classic horror trope, then they will soon run out of things to film.

Yeah. They became less popular because American horror films took over, they become a lot more…a lot scarier, a lot more jump scares, a lot more...

Gory.

Gory.

Blood and guts. 美国的恐怖片就是比较血腥类的, but what you just described Hammer Horror just sounds like a combination of Horror but also just Melodrama?

They're quaint. I think that's the best way to describe in them. They're quite campy, they're quite quaint. And I really should say, I actually don't like Horror Films, I don't like jump scares. I don't like really creepy…

Do you get creeped out?

I do. Like for example I’m watching the TV show, From.

I’ve been watching it, it is really good.

And that type of thing actually really, really scares me but I really enjoy it. But Hammer Horror, nothing really scary happens, there's no jump scares.

So if you're listening to our show, even if you're really not a fan of Horror Films; or if you really easily scared, these Hammer Horror series really wouldn't scare you, you would just watch it and having a laugh with your friend or family be like, this is so fake.

The best thing is the early films in particular inn1950s, those films now are PG.

Parental guidance.

So that means children can watch it as long as parents agree, because they're just seen as not very scary. Whereas Horror Films now are mostly 15 or 18.

Yeah. It kind of reminds me of those, kind of retro, cultish, horror films, horror series like Goosebumps or Tales from the Crypt.

Yeah.

Or like Creepshow is that the sort of the same idea？

They are, they know they're not serious, they know it's just entertainment. And you mentioned cult status, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to share it because people in Britain do know these films and they are cult in terms of being really popular among a very small group of people.

就已经变成邪典了。

And they have also influenced other, more famous directors like Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese.

You know what, I could totally see that in Tim Burton. Tim Burton to me, although his films, I would say much more… if you watch some of his stuff, obviously explores probably more in depth issues. However, his style…

Yeah.

It does look a bit cultish.

It is, and this is why I wanted to talk about it today, because I know that some of our listeners they might not really like Horror Films or they might even get a little bit scared by some of the topics we discussed before, like ghosts and things like that, but Hammer Horror really…

Safe to watch.

It's very safe to watch.

And you can have a giggle.

I love it. I absolutely love them.

So if you feel bored, you want some entertainment, but you don't really want to watch real Horror Films. These old-timey, melodramatic, over the top, campy Horror Films are probably the way to go.

Yeah.

And on that note, we're going to wrap up here today. I definitely am going to try to find them, trying to watch them.

I feel like I’m going to watch one tonight actually.

Uh, me too. If you have watched similar things or the actual Hammer Horror Films, leave us a comment in the comment section, or just leave us a comment in the comment section about what kind of things you have been watching under lockdown or semi lockdown. We'll see you next time.

Bye for now.