Customer Reviews

The Art of Hammer: The Official Poster Collection From the Archive of Hammer Films

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Titan Books and Marcus Hearn have done it again. The team which produced "The Hammer Story" and "Hammer Glamour" have now come out with "The Art of Hammer", a fantastic collection of Hammer film posters. Over 300 posters representing the famous company's output are showcased. All the posters are in color, and some get a full-page picture. Posters from non-English speaking countries are included, and these are some of the most interesting and artistic in the book.
Of course Hammer is know best for their Gothic horror films, but Hammer's non-horror productions are presented as well. As for the classic monster movies Hammer fans love, they're all here--the famous poster from "The Mummy", all the Frankensteins, the Draculas--any monster movie kid will go crazy seeing these images.
While going through this book, one notices that some of the posters are more exciting than the films that they are advertising! But that was the whole reason for the posters in the first place. You don't have to be a Hammer or monster movie fan to appreciate the great collection of poster artwork here. But if you ARE a Hammer fan, you MUST get this book! Hopefully, Titan Books and Marcus Hearn have many more Hammer-themed books in store.

James Hahn's review is right on the mark. Some of the best posters issued for Hammer films are MIA (see James Hahn's review). A negative surprise to say the least. This presents a blown opportunity as it is unlikely that another book on this topic will ever be published. Younger fans that are unaware of the amazing French and Italian artwork for some of the Hammer titles will have no idea of what they're missing, and that is unfortunate.
All of Marcus Hearn's books on Hammer are a bit like enjoying a delicious appetizer, beautifully presented and flavorful, but then there's no main course and you leave the table hungry. I'm always left with the feeling that his books never go far enough and this one is no exception. Speaking purely for myself, I'd gladly spend more money on a book if it meant having a more comprehensive volume.
While Mr. Hahn's description is perfectly accurate, my opinion is that the posters that ARE shown and the quality of the overall presentation earns this effort higher than a one star rating. Despite the major omissions, this is a nice sampling of Hammer posters offered up in a beautiful book. Warts aside, I think that all fans of Hammer films will enjoy this book. Fans of movie poster art may not have quite as enjoyable of a ride.

Growing up on these movies as well as the many American b&w horror classics, this book brings back fond memories and presents an excellent overview of a major horror studio. Hammer was notorious for its gore and sex, mixed with the horror genre. Since I saw most of these movies on TV, I very rarely got to see the wonderful poster artwork growing up. This beautiful book does justice to the artistic and exploitative quality of these posters. The format is large enough to show off the amazing work, but reasonably sized at under 200 pages thick to maintain an economic price tag. I have many poster art books, but this certainly resides in the upper echelon of quality.

This one's a keeper! I'm very very impressed with what I got for $20. Love all the old artwork of Hammer movies. Now I'm going to have to buy the Hammer Glamour and The Hammer Story from Titan Books. Lovely and informative. Great gift for the horror film fan.

The British film production company Hammer supported each of their new film releases with eye-catching posters that often became stand-alone classics. This is the first collection of these posters, packing in nearly 300 examples from Hammer's own archive along with private collections around the world. An oversized presentation allows for full-page color reproductions of the poster art, while a chronological arrangement allows for a fine review of Hammer's changing films.

When I was a kid in the 60's I had to walk past my neighborhood theatre (The Federation, Xenia Ave, Dayton Ohio), to get to school. Out front they would have one sheets and lobby cards for the films to be shown the comming weekend. Seeing these posters I fell in love with some of the art work and have spend a lot of money and time trying to get some of these great works of arts, so books like this are a must for me, and this is pretty good. I tend to like the American one sheets and half sheets more that the English quad, and was a bit disappointed there were not more of them, but it is a nice collection.
A big thumbs up from this Hammer/movie poster fan.

I was very excited to come across this book at my local bookshop, as I'm a long-time poster collector and was always hoping that someone would put together all of the beautiful Hammer art into a book. The problem is, and it is not a small deal, is that the most beautiful posters are not included, namely the large and small french posters, especially the ones by Guy-Gerard Noel for CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF and KISS OF THE VAMPIRE. The tiny image from the french HORROR OF DRACULA doesn't due justice. And there are many other great french and german posters missing from TWINS OF EVIL, VAMPIRE LOVERS, LUST FOR A VAMPIRE, etc. Without these, the book is really very very incomplete. Maybe this is due to copyright issues?

Great value for this outsdanding colorful book. Exactly what I was looking for. Hard to find book with such details.

While not as good as "The Hammer Story" or "Hammer Glamour," "The Art of Hammer" is another solid entry from Titan Books. This film simply covers the poster art from the films of Hammer, decade by decade. Not only the classic horror films are covered but Hammer's occasional comedy or non-horror dramas as well. The posters shown are mostly from the U.S. and Great Britain, but some very nice posters from other countries as well. Sometimes the author comments on aspects of the particular poster.
There really isn't that much to read, but it is a pleasure looking at the wonderful artwork on so many of these posters. Another book to bring back great memories. (By the way, if you are going to stand this one next to the other two, put this one first since it is taller than the other two Hammer books.)

I have collected many of these posters over the years and love to see more. The number of books on Hammer Studios has flooded the market lately and I just don't think there can be enough. The quality and information explosion has brought Hammer back !!! Go buy a hammer film collection now and get scared !!!