The one with the hitchhiker in the yellow coat

October 31, 2012 10:54 AM

Hammer House of Horror was a 1980 British anthology television series produced by the eponymous film studio. It was followed by Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense and there were a couple of other notable, similar themed, series around at the time, Beasts and West Country Tales. They might now seem a little crude and simplistic, but they employed an interesting array of writers, directors and actors and the best can still raise a definite chill

Hammer House of Horror
Witching Time
The Thirteenth Reunion
Rude Awakening - Denholm Elliott
Growing Pains
The House that Bled to Death - Great children's party!
Charlie Boy
The Silent Scream - Peter Cushing and Brian Cox
Children of the Full Moon - Diana Dors, the curtain!
Carpathian Eagle
Guardian of the Abyss
Visitor from the Grave
The Two Faces of Evil - The one with the hitchhiker in the yellow coat...
The Mark of Satan

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense
Mark of the Devil - Dirk Benedict
Last Will & Video Tape
In Possession
Child's Play
Black Carrion
The Late Nancy Irving
And the Wall Came Tumbling Down
Tennis Court
(There's one or two parts missing in a couple of these)

Beasts
(All written by Nigel 'Quartermass' Kneale)
Special Offer - Pauline Quirke in a haunted supermarket
During Barty's Party
Buddyboy - Martin Shaw and a ghostly dolphin
Baby - This will put you off ever moving to the countryside
What Big Eyes
The Dummy

West Country Tales
(All based on true stories!)
The Visitor
The Beast - This one was basically the most frightening thing I ever saw as a kid...
The Breakdown
Miss Constantine (1, 2)
The White Bird Of Laughter
With Love, Belinda

posted by fearfulsymmetry (8 comments total)

Hammer is fantastic, classic. The current incarnation recently released The Woman In Black and Let Me In, among others.

Thanks for these links, fearfulsymmetry!!
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 11:39 AM on October 31, 2012

I watched Baby within the last year or so. 70s BBC production values, but overall atmospheric with some genuine scares. I look forward to checking some of the others out. Thank you.
posted by khaibit at 12:16 PM on October 31, 2012

Also obligatory.
posted by mykescipark at 1:04 PM on October 31, 2012

Why? Why? Why would you do that to me?

With that said, this post does remind me to run a marathon of CBS Radio Mystery Theater tonight.

Classic radio from my childhood.
posted by arkham_inmate_0801 at 3:19 PM on October 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'd always thought Blood on Satan's Claw - which really frightened me when I was like, 8 - was a Hammer House of Horror production but I guess it was made a few years earlier
posted by Flashman at 4:40 PM on October 31, 2012

I'm so excited about delving into these links. Thank you for the post!
posted by Kloryne at 6:03 PM on October 31, 2012

Forgot to add the drama Kneale wrote as a kind of forerunner to Beasts - for the series Against the Crowd, Murrain. It stars Bernard 'M in the Bond films' Lee and is well worth a watch.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:03 AM on November 1, 2012

The Two Faces of Evil - The one with the hitchhiker in the yellow coat...


Haunted my childhood, that episode. Never trusted anyone wearing a yellow raincoat since.

And the fingernail...
posted by reynir at 2:55 PM on November 1, 2012