Recent reviews here at SFFWorld have mentioned the recent resurrection of the Hammer Horror film franchise with the 4K release of the 1958 film Dracula starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, and the expanded coffee-table book about the studio, reviewed HERE.
To those re-releases we can now add this, a novelisation of four of the Hammer films from the Golden Age of the studio’s work, when they were at their peak.
There are copies of the original edition from 1966 around on such places as ebay, but they are hard to get and for a 1960’s paperback VERY expensive (£20 -£40 last time I looked), so I was pleased to see this one re-released at a much more affordable price.
As this is a republishing, this edition is a little more than the original. There is now an introduction by television writer and show runner Stephen Gallagher (Doctor Who, Chimera, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man) which gives us the context behind these stories, and legendary British horror writer Ramsey Campbell writes an entertaining afterword.
Of the stories themselves, the four films covered here are:
THE GORGON (1964). What is the terrible secret of the village of Vandorf, where a murderer’s victims turn to stone?
THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957). Baron Victor Frankenstein creates a grotesque monster – and is himself condemned to death for the creature’s killings.
THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957). A sequel to The Curse of Frankenstein. Escaping the guillotine, Baron Frankenstein repays the dwarf who aids him – giving him a new body! But his creation is a killer; worse – a cannibal.
THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB (1964, along with The Gorgon). From the Egypt of 3000BC to the London of 1912 comes the monster that would not die!
The Gorgon is perhaps the weakest of the four stories, but only because its content is pretty predictable. Told in the third person it is pretty much what was expected.
The two Frankenstein stories are the revelations here. Told from the point of view of Victor Frankenstein, the horrible deeds are, of course, given credence by the unreliable narrator, who can see no wrong in his gruesome actions. Cue lots of brains in jars, and a surprising degree of sympathy for Victor’s victims!
The final story (The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb) is perhaps my favourite. Again, not particularly original, even in 1964, but it is a story that effectively captures the energy of the global obsession in Egyptology in the early 1900’s and combines it with creepy mystical elements. It reminded me of the sort of stories that used to be in the Weird Tales magazines of the 1930’s. Fans of the Brendan Fraser movies will also appreciate elements of this tale.
What I was surprised by reading these was that how readable these novellas were. After all, as Stephen Gallagher explains, they were produced very quickly. They had to convey the plot of the film to those who hadn’t seen the films but have enough detail in them to be a reminder of the films for those who wanted to reminisce them. There was no VHS, no DVD, Bluray or digital download available to rewatch them, so unless the films were released again this was the only record fans had of the films. Even television showings were relatively rare, often with years between showings.
Despite being produced quickly, I found that the stories were refreshingly direct. Burke does a good job of covering the key aspects of each story without going into too much detail. I think I pretty much enjoyed them all, although admittedly they reflect the mores of their time.
Generally, in most of these stories it is pretty much a given that men were strong domineering characters or young heroes in the traditional clean-cut sense, whilst women were often regarded as ‘weaker’ and more subservient to the male; although these archetypes will change in some later Hammer movies (for example, Annette Dubois in The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb is a more modern character, railing against the restrictions and conventions of early 20th century womanhood), most of these stories are ‘of their time’, so to speak, and contemporary readers may find some of these uncomplicated stereotypes a little cliched.
However, if you can cope with such issues, the stories generally still hold up. Things move along briskly, without the need to think about the mechanics too much. You can read them without having seen the movies, although I must admit I did imagine the characters and the voices from the films in my head as I read – Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are just so good. (And that new cover by Graham Humphries fits the bill admirably.)
In a nice final touch, Ramsey Campbell’s Afterword makes the point that the writing of a novelisation is an art in itself. As you might expect from one of our contemporary masters of the horror genre, his analysis is knowledgeable without being arrogant and entertaining without being superficial – an appropriate conclusion to this collection.
Concluding then, do the books add much to the film experience? Well, yes. In the main, they are good solid reads, not too complex or indeed too gory, that outline a plot and see it through to the end. However, John Burke has taken advantage of being able to revise the original plots and changed some elements to a minor degree – Ramsey points out “Dr Vandorff’s concern for Carla Hoffman hints at lechery absent from Peter Cushing’s civilised portrayal”, for example, as well as other similarities and differences between these stories and their celluloid counterparts. But on the whole these are minor embellishments that add a little more flavour and depth to the original stories without changing them radically.
In short, I found The Hammer Horror Omnibus to be a welcome rerelease that honours the Hammer horror legacy whilst also being good fun to read. If you can cope with the dated cultural stereotypes, they are a fast, accessible read that are not too scary these days. I enjoyed revisiting my past, for a little while.
There is a second republished volume also on the way, and I would be very happy to read those stories as well.
© 2026 Mark Yon
Paperback | Titan Books
THE HAMMER HORROR OMNIBUS by John Burke
With an Introduction by Stephen Gallagher and an Afterword by Ramsey Campbell
October 2026 |336 pages
ISBN: 978-1835416730
