Customer Reviews

Terence Fisher

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This is a remarkably enjoyable book. Hutchings writes in a very accessible style, although he points out the various theories of popular film that inform his approach to the career of Terence Fisher, director of Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula.

I could not put the book down. Hutchings makes the twists and turns of Fisher's career quite compelling, even when he discussed Fisher grinding out cheapo crime films I have no chance of seeing. Best of all, of course, is the discussion of the Hammer horror films. Hutchings takes the films seriously and points out levels of complexity there that have been breezed over by most commentators.

Strongly recommended for anyone with an interest in Hammer and British horror. Essential reading.

Over the last 15 years Peter Hutchings has carved himself a productive niche as a strong academic voice supporting the much maligned British horror film. The academic weight Hutchings brings has also coincided with a larger academic interest in the horror genre (building on the trailblazing theoretical work of the 1970's). Hutchings crucially is also very readable and accessible, this study of Terence Fisher, is not the arid academic text one could easily assume it might be. Fisher's career is large and the other study of his talents "Charms of Evil" written by Wheeler Winston Dixon has been out of print for years, so this affordable, pocket sized guide is an indispensable guide to one of British cinema's unsung talents. Naturally there is a heavy bias towards Fisher's 1957-64 Hammer heyday, but Hutchings also explores to varying degrees of success his work with Gainsborough, his career in the B picture support slot (in which he first worked for Hammer with "Stolen Face") and his brief but interesting interlude into science-fiction for Planet Productions. Hutchings concludes that it is difficult to consider Fisher an auteur because of this career diversity and suggests that industrial conditions are as important to moulding a director's personal style as is their own passions. What is important here is that academia is finally giving much needed attention to some of the key figures in one of British cinema's most enduringly popular of genres.