While Universal is best known for their take on classic movie monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein, once color filmmaking was introduced, it was Hammer that took the genre crown from the famous studio in the 1950s. Now various items from Hammer’s prime horror years are going up for auction thanks to Bonhams.

Reported by Fangoria, included in the auction curated by Bonhams specialist and horror expert, Joe Moe, are production-used shooting scripts for classics like The Mummy, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (including lobby cards from Horror of Frankenstein), The Reptiles, Plague of the Zombies, The Gorgon, and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. Also included in the collection is producer Anthony Nelson Keys’s personal hand-annotated shooting script for Dracula: Prince of Darkness. This was the third Dracula film in the Hammer series and the second to star Christopher Lee as the titular monster. The auction will feature 40 plus pages of composer James Bernard’s Prince of Darkness musical score as well. Hammer films, like their Universal predecessors, were known for their big bombastic atmospheric scores with the Dracula installments being some of the studio’s new work in that department. When adding all these horrifically fun items together, this collection is sure to have any classic genre fan grinning ear to ear while showing their fangs in joy.
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The Legacy of Hammer Horror
What made Hammer so special when compared to Universal is the fact that this studio capitalized on the new color era. Gone were the black and white days of the 30s and 40s. By the time Horror of Dracula came out 1958, Hammer was painting every shot they could in blood-red with an additional erotic edge for good measure. Not every film was a winner or a hit, but Hammer has produced some of the very best adaptations for creatures like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man. Hammer’s first two Dracula films in particular, Horror of Dracula and The Bride of Dracula are some of the best vampire films ever made. Universal will always be more iconic as they were geared more towards mainstream audiences, but nothing beats Lee’s battle with Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing in the Hammer Dracula series. Many films in the Hammer catalog have also thankfully been persevered with various Blu-ray releases from the likes of Warner Brothers and Scream Factory. The next time you watch a blood-soaked horror film like Evil Dead Rise or Terrifier 2, you have the Hammer series to thank for paving the way for those modern classics.

Image via Hammer Film Production

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Where Can Hammer Horror Be Streamed?
While Hammer Horror is complicated due to the rights of the series changing from film to film, WB owes more than a few including Horror of Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein. Those two classics are streaming on HBO Max now. Their trailers can be seen down below. You can also check out more details on the Hammer Horror auction on Bonhams’ website. Preserving film history is so important, especially for a genre as impactful as horror. Because of that, it’s great to see these Hammer scripts resurface after all these years.