0:00:01 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14From the late 18th century to the end of Queen Victoria's reign,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17there was a flowering of Gothic literature in Britain.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21From these shores emanated a wave of horror
0:00:21 > 0:00:26that would eventually splash shockingly onto cinema screens.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48Those first forays into movie horror took place not in Britain but in America.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52It wasn't until the mid-1950s that horror returned to its birthplace.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55These new films were lavish, sensual,
0:00:55 > 0:01:01shocking and drenched in glorious colour - mostly red, blood red.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06And the dark forests where travellers so often found themselves abandoned by superstitious coachmen
0:01:06 > 0:01:11were recreated here, in a park...near Slough.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18In short, the Home Counties became the heartlands of horror.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00This is my personal journey through the history of horror films,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04and this programme is perhaps the most personal of all.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07I grew up with '50s and '60s horror,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10and I want to show you the films I love
0:02:10 > 0:02:15and introduce you to some of the people who created them.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18It may seem odd to be discussing horror on a tranquil stretch of
0:02:18 > 0:02:21the Thames, but this is where the second part of our story begins -
0:02:21 > 0:02:27Bray Studios, the home of Hammer films, the pioneers who brought us a very British kind of horror.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34And I'd like, if I may, to take Hammer rather seriously for a change.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39A very annoying idea has grown up that Hammer films were always made
0:02:39 > 0:02:41tongue in cheek, that they almost defined camp.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44In fact, the opposite is the case.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48In the early days at least, Hammer played their horror very straight indeed.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50Aaaagh!
0:02:59 > 0:03:02NEWSREEL: Bray studios are completely different from
0:03:02 > 0:03:05the formidable concrete buildings that house most film productions.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09This late 18th century house in the village of Bray near Maidenhead
0:03:09 > 0:03:12looks most unlike a movie studio, but that's what it is...
0:03:12 > 0:03:18In their early days, Hammer mostly made films based on popular radio dramas.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22But in 1954, they turned to television, creating
0:03:22 > 0:03:26the film version of the BBC's hit series The Quatermass Experiment.
0:03:31 > 0:03:37Science fiction - the very genre that seemed to have killed off horror - was about to revive it.
0:03:46 > 0:03:47- It's Mr Carroon! - Victor, Victor, darling!
0:03:47 > 0:03:50What about the others...?
0:03:52 > 0:03:57Victor Carroon is an astronaut who crashes to earth alive but infected.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00A fantastic performance by actor Richard Wordsworth makes
0:04:00 > 0:04:05his transformation into an alien lifeform both affecting and hideous.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Is it something to do with your arm?
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Look, I'll just take a look. I won't hurt it, I promise.
0:04:17 > 0:04:23And it was this added horror that helped to make the film an X-rated hit.
0:04:26 > 0:04:27No!
0:04:28 > 0:04:31With its X-certificate proudly emblazoned in the title,
0:04:31 > 0:04:36the Quatermass Experiment seemed to point to a horrific new future for Hammer.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39It's hardly surprising then that a new version of Frankenstein was proposed.
0:04:39 > 0:04:45Hammer, though, weren't interested in a simple remake, and the Curse Of Frankenstein, as it became,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49was to be a great deal more than the sum of its dismembered parts.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53Good evening. Do you know any good monsters? Well, Hammer Films are looking for one.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55They're making Frankenstein And The Monster.
0:04:55 > 0:05:01It's going to be made in England, in colour, and CinemaScope, and Hammer Films want a monster.
0:05:01 > 0:05:02Any suggestions?
0:05:15 > 0:05:20Hammer found their monster in a little-known actor called
0:05:20 > 0:05:24Christopher Lee, who, at 6'4", was a startling screen presence.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40Did you have any opinions on how you would differentiate his monster from Karloff's?
0:05:40 > 0:05:43We didn't, but Universal did.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Had the copyright on the make-up and everything
0:05:46 > 0:05:48and they were waiting with a writ,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52I think, by the door - if we'd used anything in their film
0:05:52 > 0:05:58that wasn't in the book but was in their film, they'd have come at us.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03With Universal threatening legal action, Hammer were forced to innovate.
0:06:03 > 0:06:09The key difference from the 1931 version was the emphasis on Baron Frankenstein himself,
0:06:09 > 0:06:15played by Peter Cushing, who emerges as altogether more villainous than his Hollywood predecessor.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19I would like to show you a painting just before you retire.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21It's this one at the top of the staircase here.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26It was purchased by my father, and illustrates some of the early operations.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31If you step back a little,
0:06:31 > 0:06:33you'll see it better.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Look out!
0:06:47 > 0:06:51In the hands of director Terence Fisher, the film became more than
0:06:51 > 0:06:53a re-telling of the Frankenstein story.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58It was a revolutionary new approach to horror.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02The most striking innovation came in the use of colour.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07This was the first British horror film to be made in colour, and Fisher and his cinematographer
0:07:07 > 0:07:13Jack Asher became almost obsessed with the possibilities of their Eastmancolor stock.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16However difficult, I'll do it...
0:07:16 > 0:07:19In this scene, they even painted leaves and berries in the foreground
0:07:19 > 0:07:25to exaggerate the reds and give a heightened sense of threat.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27But it was a rather less subtle use of colour
0:07:27 > 0:07:31that made a lasting impression on director John Carpenter.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34The Hammer film Curse Of Frankenstein,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37that was mind-blowing to me.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41Because that was one of the first horror films
0:07:41 > 0:07:46that took a subject - the Frankenstein idea -
0:07:46 > 0:07:52and brought in, for the time, shocking violence, shocking gore, shocking things.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18That single gunshot has reverberated through horror cinema ever since.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22A full-on blast to the eye was strong enough meat for the times,
0:08:22 > 0:08:28but to follow it up with a gush of bright red blood, this was groundbreaking gore.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36It wasn't all blood and guts.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40With the shocks came a rather understated sort of wit,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43courtesy of scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster.
0:08:47 > 0:08:53I always asked Jimmy, and did myself, to put a laugh in after something ghastly.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04I remember in Frankenstein,
0:09:04 > 0:09:10when he's left the little maid up in his lab with the monster...
0:09:11 > 0:09:13Aagh!
0:09:20 > 0:09:27And the next scene was he having breakfast with his wife, and the first line was...
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Pass the marmalade, would you?
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Thank you.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34So that broke the tension immediately.
0:09:35 > 0:09:41Frankenstein was a staggering success, reportedly earning 70 times its production costs.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44So it was almost inevitable that for their next film,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47Hammer would revisit that other classic gothic tale, Dracula.
0:09:47 > 0:09:54And Christopher Lee was transformed from brain-damaged monster to the most urbane of vampires.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Mr Harker. I'm glad that you've arrived safely.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11- Count Dracula.- I am Dracula and I welcome you to my house.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16The acting, cinematography and music are all wonderful,
0:10:16 > 0:10:21but what I really love about Dracula is the way that Jimmy Sangster adapts the novel for the screen.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25In a masterstroke typical of Hammer, the script jump-starts the narrative
0:10:25 > 0:10:29so that the vampire action kicks in almost instantly.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36It only remains for me now to await the daylight hours...
0:10:40 > 0:10:42..when, with God's help,
0:10:42 > 0:10:48I will for ever end this man's reign of terror.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Hammer didn't make us wait for the horror, either.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00The opening shot, really, is almost like a mission statement.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03There's a very nice camera move down onto the coffin,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07and then it is absolutely spattered with Kensington gore.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17- Was that a sort of deliberate...? - Absolutely!
0:11:17 > 0:11:21There's a great danger with horror films
0:11:21 > 0:11:24that people start laughing, tittering, early.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27So we thought we'd put a stop to that.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32First time I saw it, they had a midnight premiere in New York.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37The titles came up and they were sort of chattering and cheering.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41And the shot of the coffin, and suddenly the blood, and there was a...
0:11:41 > 0:11:42HE GASPS
0:11:42 > 0:11:48- And it shut them up! - With that sort of reaction, were you out to shock, do you think?
0:11:48 > 0:11:50Out to shock... Oh, yes.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52They are shockers, aren't they, horror films.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58This was the first mainstream film to give its vampires proper fangs -
0:11:58 > 0:12:00fangs that were dripping with blood.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11And daringly, Dracula appeared interested in more than just his victims' necks.
0:12:11 > 0:12:16For the censors, Hammer's apparent obsession with blood and gore was bad enough
0:12:16 > 0:12:21but the introduction of a strongly sexual element caused them moral consternation.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28It is important that the women in the film should be decently clad.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33I would add that anything which cross-emphasises the sex aspect of a story is likely,
0:12:33 > 0:12:38in a horror subject of this kind, to involve cuts in the completed film.
0:12:46 > 0:12:52This scene, in which Mina awaits Dracula in her boudoir, particularly troubled the censor.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Reel 8 - there is still a strong sex element in this scene.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02This is due to Mina's anticipating expression in close-up,
0:13:02 > 0:13:05and Dracula's face and expression as it hovers over Mina's
0:13:05 > 0:13:10before he applies himself to her neck.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13We are doubtful whether this sex element can be removed.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18Cut the scene from immediately after Mina gets on the bed to shot of owl screaming.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23But Hammer didn't make the cut, claiming that no sexual subtext was intended.
0:13:27 > 0:13:28SHRILL SCREAM
0:13:29 > 0:13:34Christopher Lee's virile Dracula landed like a rocket in late 1950s Britain.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37His fantastic final confrontation with Peter Cushing's Van Helsing
0:13:37 > 0:13:43shows the physical commitment that both actors brought to this new, energetic kind of horror.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Aaagh! Ugh!
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Dracula was a runaway international hit.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30It was clear that horror had been reborn after its post-war lull.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38Hammer's pictures sent shock waves through the decade that followed.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40They created a horror boom.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46And by the 1970s, when these films finally made it onto TV,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50they began to influence a whole new generation.
0:14:50 > 0:14:51Ah!
0:14:54 > 0:14:56This is a Proustian moment for me.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00This brings back a rush of unbelievable happy memories.
0:15:00 > 0:15:07When I was about 11 or 12, my parents went to a parent-teacher evening and they were so
0:15:07 > 0:15:13appalled by the fact that all the compositions I wrote were horror stories, every single week...
0:15:13 > 0:15:17In fact I remember there was one called A Day At The Beach which involved a decapitation.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22..that when they came back I was banned from watching horror films.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24Their own version of the Hayes code.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28And I was banned from getting this magazine, House of Hammer, with which I was completely
0:15:28 > 0:15:34obsessed, and it was particularly bad because that Friday night was
0:15:34 > 0:15:39the screening of a very, very rare Hammer movie, Revenge Of Frankenstein, which was never on.
0:15:39 > 0:15:46And I was beside myself, and I went to bed crying and lay there in the darkness
0:15:46 > 0:15:50till I heard my parents go to bed, and then I realised that my sister
0:15:50 > 0:15:55and her boyfriend were staying up late to watch it so I just went downstairs and watched it anyway.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57And that was the end of my horror exile.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04My devotion to The Revenge Of Frankenstein might have
0:16:04 > 0:16:11surprised Jim Carreras, Hammer's relentlessly pragmatic chairman.
0:16:11 > 0:16:16Jim Carreras came to me one day and said, "I've sold another Frankenstein."
0:16:16 > 0:16:20I said, "Oh, well done." He said, "We start shooting in ten weeks."
0:16:20 > 0:16:23I said, "Oh, good, I mean fine,
0:16:23 > 0:16:29"pity you didn't ask me to write it for you." He said, "I am. I'm asking you to write it for me!"
0:16:29 > 0:16:32He said, "We're doing the Return of Frankenstein."
0:16:32 > 0:16:36I said, "I killed him in the first episode!" He said, "Oh, you'll think of something."
0:16:36 > 0:16:41But I have escaped the guillotine, and I shall avenge the death of my creation.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46The Revenge Of Frankenstein was very much a showcase for the talents of
0:16:46 > 0:16:52its star, Peter Cushing, appearing this time with a new monster.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Who is he?
0:16:54 > 0:16:57Nobody. He isn't born yet.
0:16:59 > 0:17:05This modest, quiet man is perhaps one of the most underrated of British screen actors.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09I'd like to take a bit of time to consider what makes him so special.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20This is Whitstable, where Peter Cushing bought a house in 1958,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24not long after his first starring role for Hammer.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31We often hear of actors talking about a fear of being typecast.
0:17:31 > 0:17:36Whether you like it or not, you appear to have been typecast in this field. How do you feel about it?
0:17:36 > 0:17:37Oh, it's never affected me...
0:17:39 > 0:17:43Well, I don't think any actor likes to be too typecast, because
0:17:43 > 0:17:46I think as an actor you should and can do other things.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50But I love doing these pictures, people get enjoyment from them,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53so I'm very happy to be asked to do them.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07Cushing's connection to Whitstable is marked in a small museum display
0:18:07 > 0:18:12where you even can see the actual cigarettes touched by the great man.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Peter Cushing was always my favourite Hammer star,
0:18:24 > 0:18:29I think because of the tremendous sense of commitment he seemed to bring to every performance.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33His diction, his gestures, everything about him was immaculate.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38However outrageous the situation, he always seemed to bring a tremendous sense of authenticity.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42He would carry about the accoutrements of each character in his jacket pockets even if
0:18:42 > 0:18:45they didn't appear on screen, and when he played Baron Frankenstein
0:18:45 > 0:18:51he famously consulted his GP as to the best way of performing a brain transplant.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02'If you've got to do something
0:19:02 > 0:19:04'to do with what a doctor would do,
0:19:04 > 0:19:09'if you've only got one doctor in the audience, he must be satisfied.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14'Otherwise he wouldn't believe you, and he won't believe the rest of the film.'
0:19:14 > 0:19:16You must get the audience to believe what you're doing, because
0:19:16 > 0:19:19if you don't believe it yourself, they never will.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24Whitstable suited Cushing perfectly.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32That sense of faded gentility. Quietness.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34Understatement.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42In the last years of his life, Cushing used to sit here
0:19:42 > 0:19:47in this cafe virtually every day, discreetly hidden behind a pillar.
0:19:47 > 0:19:53How right that this most unassuming of horror stars should be found in a quaint tearoom.
0:19:53 > 0:19:59Perhaps what made Peter Cushing the quintessential Hammer star was his Englishness.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04And that in a very English way, beneath that perfectly composed mask
0:20:04 > 0:20:08lay obsession, fanaticism and a deeply suppressed passion.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21Hammer had created a distinctively English brand of horror.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24But the effects of this triumphant reinvention of the genre
0:20:24 > 0:20:27would soon be felt far away from the Home Counties.
0:20:32 > 0:20:38In Italy, Director Mario Bava was inspired by the success of Dracula
0:20:38 > 0:20:40to create his own horror film.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44Black Sunday mixed the violence and sensuality of Hammer
0:20:44 > 0:20:48with the black-and-white visual flair of the Universal era.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52It was the beginning of a new wave of Italian horror cinema.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55And what an astonishing film it is.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00It featured an unforgettable performance from a young English actress, Barbara Steele,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03as the vampire-witch put to death in the opening scene.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12I guess Italians thought that horror has to come from England.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15But, I mean, you can't disguise an Italian film.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17You can't disguise Italian cinematography.
0:21:17 > 0:21:25It is so sumptuous and so appropriate for the nightmare that he's trying to convey.
0:21:27 > 0:21:33I shall return to torment and destroy throughout the night of time.
0:21:42 > 0:21:48It is very shocking to see this blood come out of this mask.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Very unsettling and precise, wasn't it?
0:21:54 > 0:21:58It had this kind of timeless,
0:21:58 > 0:22:00fatal quality to it.
0:22:01 > 0:22:08Even the horse and carriage was like the Neapolitan funerals' horse and carriages, you know.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11With that sort of theatrical beauty, and, er...
0:22:11 > 0:22:15all death and sex, sex and death.
0:22:18 > 0:22:25Hammer had pioneered this heady mix of sex and death, but Black Sunday made it even stronger.
0:22:25 > 0:22:26Kruvajan!
0:22:28 > 0:22:31Kruvajan, I've been waiting for you.
0:22:40 > 0:22:46In America, too, Hammer's success encouraged film-makers to revisit horror in new ways.
0:22:48 > 0:22:54Producer and director Roger Corman worked with even smaller budgets than Hammer,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57but created some of the most spectacular films of the era.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02Beginning with The Fall of the House of Usher,
0:23:02 > 0:23:08he conceived a cycle of films drawing on the stories and poems of American author Edgar Allan Poe.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Corman's films are less gory than Hammer's,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21but as a child, I always found them more genuinely frightening.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24More sickly, more unsettling.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29Alleluia.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33They have a uniquely queasy, dreamlike quality.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47The dream sequences became a signature of the Poe films.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50It started out in Usher just as a sequence
0:23:50 > 0:23:54that I felt portrayed the situation at that moment.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57And the reaction of the audience was so strong,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01I incorporated dream sequences into almost every film.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06There was a heavy Freudian element to it, there was the sense of fear,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10and it gave me a chance simply to work with film.
0:24:10 > 0:24:15To dispense with dialogue, dispense with the story, just to use the film medium.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20Hazel Court's dream in The Masque Of The Red Death
0:24:20 > 0:24:24captures the sense of a genuine nightmare.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40It had a totally phallic series of symbols with the daggers
0:24:40 > 0:24:45and knives slashing at her and her screaming as they approached.
0:24:50 > 0:24:56What I tried to do was to shoot everything interior, make everything artificial.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00My whole idea was to stay away from reality.
0:25:03 > 0:25:10Effortlessly inhabiting this surreal world was Vincent Price, the star of all but one of the Poe films.
0:25:10 > 0:25:16Somewhere in the human mind, my dear Francesca, is the key to our existence.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19My ancestors tried to find it,
0:25:19 > 0:25:23to open the door that separates us from our...creator.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27Price's morbid eloquence has a timeless quality
0:25:27 > 0:25:31which makes him convincing even dressed as a medieval prince.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33- If you believe...- Believe?
0:25:33 > 0:25:38If you believe, my dear Francesca, you are gullible.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a God who rules it?
0:25:44 > 0:25:47Famine! Pestilence! War!
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Disease and death!
0:25:49 > 0:25:51They rule this world.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55Corman's pictures have dark and complex themes,
0:25:55 > 0:26:00giving us a type of horror which somehow taps into instinctive fears.
0:26:00 > 0:26:06Of course there are shocking images, but more than that, these films deal with shocking ideas,
0:26:06 > 0:26:12principally the primal terror of slow, conscious, horrific death.
0:26:12 > 0:26:17This has its most powerful expression in Pit And The Pendulum.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20And perhaps one can detect some genuine fear
0:26:20 > 0:26:26in actor John Carr's face in the film's climactic torture sequence.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35I do remember while shooting that John was a little bit worried about
0:26:35 > 0:26:38the pendulum as it was swinging closer and closer to him.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42I said, "John, let me get in there myself."
0:26:42 > 0:26:45So I laid down on the platform and had the pendulum swing back
0:26:45 > 0:26:49and forth above me, and John said, "OK, if you can do it, I can do it."
0:27:01 > 0:27:04Corman's mastery of the shocking image is at its height
0:27:04 > 0:27:09in Pit And The Pendulum, and Barbara Steele was again cast as the victim.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14There's a particular moment when what is supposed to be your corpse
0:27:14 > 0:27:20is revealed in the tomb, which is a proper shock moment,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24- and it's so hideous that... - I know, I know.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Stephen King said that's one of the pivotal moments in horror!
0:27:27 > 0:27:31When they... Corman... that moment when my corpse is revealed
0:27:31 > 0:27:36is the first time when they really wanted people to be repelled and shocked,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38it was on a really visceral level.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40And I guess they succeeded.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12Even with material as distinctively American as Edgar Allen Poe's, Corman eventually found himself
0:28:12 > 0:28:15drawn to England and all things English.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19Even throwing in a fox-hunting sequence in his last Poe film.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26And he abandoned all his self-imposed rules about the need for artificial, interior settings.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32I stayed with that theory until the last picture, The Tomb Of Ligeia.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37Frankly, I got so bored with my own theory, we were shooting in England,
0:28:37 > 0:28:42and I said, "We're going out into the English countryside, it's going to be daylight,
0:28:42 > 0:28:47the sun is shining and we're seeing the beautiful English countryside."
0:28:48 > 0:28:53In The Tomb Of Ligeia, Corman worked with Hammer cinematographer Arthur Grant
0:28:53 > 0:28:57to create gorgeous location scenes at Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01- Ligeia.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03CAT YOWLS
0:29:21 > 0:29:22Now, puss...
0:29:25 > 0:29:29Roger Corman wasn't the only film-maker to be drawn across
0:29:29 > 0:29:31the Atlantic to the new home of horror.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34Britain was also the setting for a series of intense supernatural
0:29:34 > 0:29:36and psychological chillers
0:29:36 > 0:29:38from leading Hollywood directors and studios.
0:29:41 > 0:29:46Released in 1957, Night Of The Demon updates a tale
0:29:46 > 0:29:50by that most Edwardian of ghost story authors, MR James.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52And it's extremely effective.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59Niall MacGinnis delights as a villainous black magician,
0:29:59 > 0:30:02and occasional children's entertainer.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06One particular exchange with Dana Andrews
0:30:06 > 0:30:07stands out for its sly menace.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12Aha, snakes and ladders. An English game, you wouldn't know it.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15You see, if you land at the foot of the ladder, you climb up to the top.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18But if you land on the snake, you slide down again.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Funny thing, I always preferred sliding down the snakes
0:30:21 > 0:30:23to climbing up the ladders.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26You're a doctor of psychology, you ought to know the answer to that.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29Maybe you're a good loser.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31I'm not, you know, not a bit.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35The film's director, Jacques Tourneur,
0:30:35 > 0:30:39was a protege of the great Hollywood horror producer, Val Lewton.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44The climax was criticised for ignoring Lewton's dictum
0:30:44 > 0:30:47that you should never reveal your monster.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51But I find the demon's appearance on the London to Southampton line
0:30:51 > 0:30:53both eerie and spectacular.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15By contrast, the brilliant 1963 film The Haunting,
0:31:15 > 0:31:19shot in Britain by Tourneur's contemporary Robert Wise,
0:31:19 > 0:31:24sticks firmly to the principle that fear comes through suggestion.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27This is the film Wise made between West Side Story
0:31:27 > 0:31:28and The Sound Of Music.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32It's high-end horror, with big money behind it.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39The Haunting is a classic ghost story, and one of my favourites.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43Its power derives from the slow accumulation of unsettling sounds
0:31:43 > 0:31:46and images that suggest that the house itself
0:31:46 > 0:31:51is constantly watching the people inside, that the house is vile.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55BANGING
0:31:55 > 0:31:58Go away! Go away! Go away!
0:31:58 > 0:32:00BANGING STOPS
0:32:01 > 0:32:04In this celebrated scene, distorted camera angles and
0:32:04 > 0:32:08the careful use of silence and sudden noise
0:32:08 > 0:32:10create an atmosphere of dread.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16Oh, you big baby.
0:32:16 > 0:32:18Whatever it is, it's just a noise.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20I'm cold.
0:32:20 > 0:32:21So am I.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26- Where's Luke? Where's Markway? - I don't know. Warmer now?
0:32:26 > 0:32:27No.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30In a minute, I'll go out in the hall and call them.
0:32:30 > 0:32:31Are you all right?
0:32:31 > 0:32:33BANGING
0:32:36 > 0:32:38It's against the top of the door!
0:32:42 > 0:32:45It's difficult to do justice to a film like The Haunting
0:32:45 > 0:32:46in a single clip.
0:32:46 > 0:32:48It's all about building an atmosphere,
0:32:48 > 0:32:50and that can be as fragile as a cobweb.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54I can still remember watching it for the first time with my dad,
0:32:54 > 0:32:56and seeing his knuckles whiten
0:32:56 > 0:32:59as he gripped the arms of his chair in sheer terror.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03And of course, that was the most frightening thing of all.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09Meanwhile, Hammer had maintained a prolific horror output.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14But they couldn't afford to be complacent.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19And their 1966 film, Dracula, Prince Of Darkness
0:33:19 > 0:33:23was a robust response to the growing competition.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30It saw the return of Christopher Lee in his first appearance
0:33:30 > 0:33:32as Dracula since 1958.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47Barbara Shelley, who played Helen in the film,
0:33:47 > 0:33:51has vivid memories of working with Lee.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54He brought dignity and veritas,
0:33:54 > 0:34:00which is a difficult thing to bring to a fantasy like a vampire,
0:34:00 > 0:34:04and that is just Chris's appearance and personality that did all that.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07He used to walk on the set, and I said to him
0:34:07 > 0:34:11"It's an extraordinary performance, Christopher,
0:34:11 > 0:34:15"because we know each other so well, and you could hypnotise me."
0:34:45 > 0:34:49But it was brilliant, because he completely dominated the film
0:34:49 > 0:34:52without a word. Talk about silent movies.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55Barbara Shelley's own performance was quite superb,
0:34:55 > 0:35:00proving that female vampires needn't be merely decorative.
0:35:01 > 0:35:06The scene that I'm most proud of though is when she's staked.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11There's absolute evil when she's struggling.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19And then suddenly, she's staked.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29And there is tremendous serenity.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39- And I think that that is one of my best moments on film.- OK, cut it.
0:35:42 > 0:35:49They may have created lavish films, but Hammer operated on a shoestring.
0:35:49 > 0:35:50From their earliest days,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53the same team of technicians worked on film after film.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57A single editor, James Needs, cut almost all of them.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00And scriptwriters and directors rarely changed.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04Even so, budgets were always tight.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08Hammer experimented with re-using sets, and in 1965,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12they shot a run of films that shared casts and crew.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22The drive to make cheaper commercial product could have narrowed
0:36:22 > 0:36:23Hammer's scope, but far from it.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27Economy measures like shooting films back-to-back with shared casts
0:36:27 > 0:36:31actually led to some remarkable flights of the imagination.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35This era produced films like The Reptile
0:36:35 > 0:36:39and The Plague Of The Zombies, which is one of my favourites.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45It features some incredibly powerful images, like this one.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07Most of the zombie action takes place in the Bray back-lot.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10But this place, Oakley Court in Windsor,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13stands in for the home of the local squire.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20This grand house was a frequent feature in Hammer's films,
0:37:20 > 0:37:23mainly because it was next door to Bray.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31I used to say "You can go out on location as far away
0:37:31 > 0:37:36"as you like, so long as it's within walking distance of the studio".
0:37:38 > 0:37:42It's as if all that cost-cutting actually meant the plot and imagery
0:37:42 > 0:37:45in The Plague Of The Zombies had to be more original.
0:37:48 > 0:37:53This classic scene is a rare Hammer dream sequence.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20Hammer were by no means the only British purveyors of horror.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23One competitor was Amicus Productions,
0:38:23 > 0:38:26which operated from a shed at Shepperton Studios.
0:38:29 > 0:38:34It was a two-man business, Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38In 1964, Amicus produced Dr Terror's House Of Horrors,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41which took a series of short stories
0:38:41 > 0:38:44and linked them together into a full length picture.
0:38:44 > 0:38:50It was inspired by the classic 1945 film Dead Of Night.
0:38:50 > 0:38:55This portmanteau form became Amicus's trademark.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00When I was a kid, I think I liked the portmanteaus best of all.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04They seemed almost like the ideal horror movie, a lovely package
0:39:04 > 0:39:07of short films, frequently with a very nasty twist in the tale.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09If you didn't like one particular story,
0:39:09 > 0:39:12there'd be another one along ten minutes later.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15They were rarely wholly successful, but I've always thought
0:39:15 > 0:39:17what a cracking portmanteau you could make
0:39:17 > 0:39:20out of the best bits of all of them.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26Asylum was written by Robert Bloch, author of Psycho
0:39:26 > 0:39:29and one of horror's great short story writers.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58The asylum setting allows Bloch to bring together
0:39:58 > 0:40:00four quite different tales,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04as we explore the strange reasons why each of the inmates is there.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10The most important part of making a film is the script.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12It's not the actual shooting the film.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14The technicians know their jobs,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17the cameraman knows his job, the director knows his job.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19It's what he is going to shoot,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22and whether or not a company is successful
0:40:22 > 0:40:25depends on what they choose to shoot, and that's all there is to it.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31My favourite story in Asylum concerns a tailor commissioned
0:40:31 > 0:40:35to make a magic suit, which eventually casts its spell
0:40:35 > 0:40:36on his dummy.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04Amicus also drew on the notorious American EC horror comics
0:41:04 > 0:41:09to make its portmanteaus Tales From The Crypt and Vault Of Horror.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12But my favourite portmanteau was based on the short stories
0:41:12 > 0:41:15of an English writer, Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21From Beyond The Grave features Peter Cushing as a shopkeeper
0:41:21 > 0:41:24who metes out horrible punishments
0:41:24 > 0:41:25for the mildest of crimes,
0:41:25 > 0:41:30and it's a rare opportunity to hear him affecting a Yorkshire accent.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33Naughty.
0:41:33 > 0:41:34Shouldn't have done that.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Like all the Amicus films, it's packed with British character actors
0:41:41 > 0:41:43such as Diana Dors, Donald Pleasence
0:41:43 > 0:41:47and his daughter Angela, and David Warner.
0:41:47 > 0:41:53I willingly went in to do Tales From Beyond The Grave
0:41:53 > 0:41:57because I enjoyed the others of that type.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01What do you think the reason was for the portmanteau attracting
0:42:01 > 0:42:02those sorts of casts?
0:42:02 > 0:42:07I think most probably because it was a job, quite honestly.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09And also, it was quick.
0:42:09 > 0:42:15Warner's story effortlessly brings horror into the present day.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18There's a seance scene,
0:42:18 > 0:42:19and I said,
0:42:19 > 0:42:23"We will not all be touching hands when we're shooting this.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26"We will only pretend." So I did say.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30I do remember, I suppose, being a bit nervous and a bit scared of
0:42:30 > 0:42:32unleashing something, I don't know.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40Warner's reward for cheating the old shopkeeper
0:42:40 > 0:42:42is indeed to unleash something dreadful.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46It begins with this vivid nightmare, showing how slickly Amicus
0:42:46 > 0:42:49could move from modern settings to gothic horror.
0:43:04 > 0:43:09Hammer, by contrast, were struggling to keep up with the times.
0:43:09 > 0:43:14In 1966, they'd left Bray Studios and moved to Elstree.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17There were a few great films in the years that followed,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19but something seems to have been lost,
0:43:19 > 0:43:24a sense of cohesion, of the Hammer family, the tight-knit factory
0:43:24 > 0:43:27that produced quality on tiny budgets.
0:43:27 > 0:43:32Hammer still needed to make regular Dracula and Frankenstein sequels,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36but it all seemed to be wearing a bit thin.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39I got a call from Hammer saying they wanted to do
0:43:39 > 0:43:41another Frankenstein, would I do a rewrite?
0:43:41 > 0:43:44I said "No, I don't want to do that."
0:43:44 > 0:43:46They said "Well, you can produce it as well".
0:43:46 > 0:43:49I said "No, it's not worth it".
0:43:49 > 0:43:52Then I had an idea. I said "I'll do it if I can direct it".
0:43:52 > 0:43:56They said "We'll call you back". And they called me back 20 minutes later
0:43:56 > 0:43:57and said I could direct it as well.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Probably the biggest mistake I ever made in my life!
0:44:00 > 0:44:05The Horror Of Frankenstein, Sangster's first film as director,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07is, frankly, dreadful.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11But Hammer still hired him again, to direct Lust For A Vampire.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16He was a last-minute replacement for Terence Fisher,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19and it showed from the opening titles onward.
0:44:19 > 0:44:21I remember on the first day of production,
0:44:21 > 0:44:25it was this big long shot in the studio.
0:44:25 > 0:44:30This carriage comes driving into the courtyard of the castle.
0:44:30 > 0:44:36I set it up, and I shot it. I said "OK, that's fine, print that..."
0:44:40 > 0:44:43..when a voice from the back says "We can do better than that!"
0:44:43 > 0:44:47I said "Who said that?" And it was one of the producers, Michael Style.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49I said "You can do better than that?
0:44:49 > 0:44:52"You shoot the fucking picture then", and I walked off.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54And they never came on the set again.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57Probably would have been better if they had.
0:44:57 > 0:44:59It might have been a better picture!
0:45:00 > 0:45:04Lust For A Vampire lacked Hammer's usual production values,
0:45:04 > 0:45:06but the producers didn't seem too worried.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10A sudden relaxation in censorship at the beginning of the '70s
0:45:10 > 0:45:11meant Hammer could focus on
0:45:11 > 0:45:14the one thing they knew would pull in the crowds...
0:45:14 > 0:45:15sex.
0:45:17 > 0:45:22The sex thing became more important than the horror film.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24It was probably Jim Carreras who said,
0:45:24 > 0:45:29"We've got to show them some tits", basically.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32I did think it was part of the downfall.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35We'll put a couple of pillows in the bed.
0:45:35 > 0:45:36She'll think we're asleep.
0:45:36 > 0:45:41Yes, we'll go at midnight.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45At their worst, Hammer's films had become worryingly formulaic,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48as Michael Style, Lust For A Vampire's producer,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51made abundantly clear.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54You need a lot of murders...
0:45:54 > 0:45:56SHE SCREAMS
0:45:56 > 0:46:01..a lot of blood - we've ordered five gallons of blood for this picture.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05You need a good, strong villain, a really villainous looking villain.
0:46:05 > 0:46:06A good hero.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10As you're all so terrified of the castle, I'll go up there.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12After lunch.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16A certain amount of sex, lots of action...
0:46:16 > 0:46:18Burn down the castle!
0:46:18 > 0:46:21And lots of pretty girls.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25And, er, that's your story.
0:46:25 > 0:46:30All those tits and bums could have been rather dull if lesbian vampires weren't your thing,
0:46:30 > 0:46:34but even in its later years, Hammer was capable of great flashes of brilliance.
0:46:34 > 0:46:39One of my favourites was the brainchild of Brian Clemens, co-creator of The Avengers.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42His was a real back of the envelope job which came about during
0:46:42 > 0:46:45light-hearted discussions during the staff canteen.
0:46:45 > 0:46:51How could Hammer possibly breathe new life into the tired old story
0:46:51 > 0:46:53of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
0:46:53 > 0:46:59Brian, on the other side of the table, suddenly woke up and said,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03"I know! I know exactly what happens."
0:47:03 > 0:47:07Everybody said, "Yes, what?"
0:47:07 > 0:47:09"Well", he said,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12"Dr Jekyll drinks the potion
0:47:12 > 0:47:15"and he turns into a woman".
0:47:15 > 0:47:19And so was born Dr Jekyll And Sister Hyde.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31The transformation scene is a brilliant spin on the classic
0:47:31 > 0:47:35single-shot trick first seen in the 1931 Jekyll And Hyde.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20And then we had the casting, which was magical.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26We had our Dr Jekyll, Ralph Bates.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Male.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30Male.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34I must set this down before it is too late.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38So that was OK, but who was going to be the girl?
0:48:38 > 0:48:41Former Bond girl Martine Beswick proved perfect,
0:48:41 > 0:48:45being remarkably similar to Bates in looks and height.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48So we set sail with high hopes.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51And of course actually, it came off.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57Of course, there's the obligatory nudity,
0:48:57 > 0:48:59but it's a stylish, witty film.
0:49:07 > 0:49:09I'm...sorry.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15Forgive me.
0:49:15 > 0:49:21Hammer had made more than 80 feature films since The Curse Of Frankenstein.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25Having squeezed every last drop out of 19th century Gothic,
0:49:25 > 0:49:29they faced a constant struggle to bring their horror up to date.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35Intriguing experiments included taking Dracula to swinging London,
0:49:35 > 0:49:37after most of the swinging had stopped...
0:49:41 > 0:49:44..and even kung-fu vampires.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49But they failed to capture the audience's imagination,
0:49:49 > 0:49:54and horror's greatest stars seemed to have little enthusiasm for these modern makeovers.
0:49:54 > 0:50:00I think keeping to the turn of the century was a wonderful time.
0:50:00 > 0:50:06I've always wondered, though, why the best setting in the world
0:50:06 > 0:50:09for a thriller, a spooky picture, is always London in the fog.
0:50:09 > 0:50:14Yes. I'll tell you what they haven't used for a long time, an old castle.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18I mean, London in the fog is wonderful, Sherlock Holmes and all that, but an old castle...
0:50:18 > 0:50:21A really good castle.
0:50:25 > 0:50:30The coming years saw a decline in British horror which proved pretty much irreversible.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34But there were some fascinating final flourishes.
0:50:34 > 0:50:39From the late '60s, a new generation of British directors avoided
0:50:39 > 0:50:43the Gothic cliches by stepping even further away from the modern world.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49Amongst these are a loose collection of films which we might call folk horror.
0:50:49 > 0:50:55They shared a common obsession with the British landscape, its folklore and superstitions.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02Witchfinder General, directed by Michael Reeves,
0:51:02 > 0:51:06took us back to the witchhunts of 17th century East Anglia.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19SHE SCREAMS
0:51:20 > 0:51:24It may have cast horror legend Vincent Price in the lead role,
0:51:24 > 0:51:28but this was new territory, dark and nihilistic.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32Lower away.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34Keep her slow.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47Without a doubt, the best known of these films is The Wicker Man.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51Set on idyllic Summerisle, it pits the pagan islanders against
0:51:51 > 0:51:56the upstanding Christian hero, with its horrific conclusion played out in daylight.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58Oh, God!
0:51:58 > 0:52:01Oh, Jesus Christ!
0:52:05 > 0:52:06Oh, my God!
0:52:07 > 0:52:09Christ!
0:52:09 > 0:52:12No, no, dear God!
0:52:12 > 0:52:13No, Christ!
0:52:26 > 0:52:28HE WHISTLES
0:52:28 > 0:52:32The Wicker Man may have become THE cult film and Witchfinder General
0:52:32 > 0:52:34may have grabbed most of the critical plaudits,
0:52:34 > 0:52:38but there's another film which I think deserves wider appreciation.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40What makes it so special?
0:52:40 > 0:52:42Well, let's just say there aren't many films
0:52:42 > 0:52:48set in the reign of William and Mary in which the Devil rebuilds his body by harvesting the skin of children.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00RASPING VOICE: Give...me...my...skin.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14The film is Blood On Satan's Claw,
0:53:14 > 0:53:21and its director, Piers Haggard, also drew inspiration from the Home Counties countryside.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29Sometimes on a project, everything clicks. Well, it clicked because here we have a beautiful valley.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32We have a ploughing sequence, you know, the farmers.
0:53:32 > 0:53:40And it's a rural community, and here in the bowl of the valley is the church.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43And we needed a church because it's got Satan in it,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46- so we needed a bit of the... - Need the opposite.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50You need the opposite. And it's, amazingly,
0:53:50 > 0:53:52as it was, really.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57This is the focal point of the film, really, what happens here.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03When the devil rises up and takes hold of an innocent rural community,
0:54:03 > 0:54:08it's here that they enact their rites.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19What kind of a horror film were you setting out to make?
0:54:19 > 0:54:23I didn't want to do something which was
0:54:23 > 0:54:29larky and...I wasn't really interested in Dracula, but
0:54:29 > 0:54:33I was interested in the dark things that people feel and the dark things
0:54:33 > 0:54:37that happen, and that was what I wanted to explore.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42And I think the other thing that appealed to me, really, was the setting, the rural setting.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46The nooks and crannies of woodland, the edges of fields, the ploughing,
0:54:46 > 0:54:51the labour, the sense of the soil was something that I tried
0:54:51 > 0:54:54to bring into the picture.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59So in the opening scene with the lonely ploughman
0:54:59 > 0:55:02and his girl across the valley,
0:55:02 > 0:55:09and you gradually become aware that something's going to happen, but you don't know what it is.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27And from the moment that you do see this eye in the earth,
0:55:27 > 0:55:32it was important for the rest of the film
0:55:32 > 0:55:35to have the camera often very low.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41We dug an awful lot of holes to put the camera in, just
0:55:41 > 0:55:46to give you the feeling that we were somehow in the earth, and what it was that might come out of the earth.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49There's this little moment of...
0:55:49 > 0:55:53folk horror, I suppose, which is absolutely distinct.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Do you think that was something to do with the times?
0:55:56 > 0:55:58This is very interesting, this.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02I think that I was trying to make a folk horror film in a way,
0:56:02 > 0:56:06because we were all a bit interested in witchcraft.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09We were all a bit interested in free love.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11The rules of the cinema were changing.
0:56:11 > 0:56:18Nudity became possible, and indeed altogether possibly over-prevalent,
0:56:18 > 0:56:20because the lid had slightly been taken off.
0:56:20 > 0:56:28But things go well beyond the '60s fad for nudity when it comes to the film's most disturbing scene -
0:56:28 > 0:56:31a violent and protracted rape.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36They've all gone absolutely stark raving bonkers,
0:56:36 > 0:56:41and it is about a breakdown, a complete breakdown of values.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51A very beautiful procession, coming to the church
0:56:51 > 0:56:54with chanting and blossom, turns into something very ugly,
0:56:54 > 0:57:01and the beautiful boughs are used as scourges and whips.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12If I look at the rape scene now,
0:57:12 > 0:57:14I think it's probably too strong.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21And it's interesting that I wasn't bothered at the time.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25I think you will find most directors,
0:57:25 > 0:57:28if they get their teeth into a sequence which they think
0:57:28 > 0:57:36is going to be really powerful, they become completely seduced, and I was seduced by the sheer dramatic power.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45WOMAN SCREAMS
0:57:51 > 0:57:54Sensation had certainly overtaken suggestion.
0:57:54 > 0:57:59Things had come a long way since those first British fumblings with sex and horror back in the '50s.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11Sadly, these intriguing last hurrahs were short-lived.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14The pendulum was swinging back across the Atlantic.
0:58:14 > 0:58:19American cinema had found a new voice, one which addressed the fears
0:58:19 > 0:58:23and concerns of the present day in an aggressively modern style.
0:58:23 > 0:58:28The next great age of the horror film was about to begin.
0:58:28 > 0:58:32Next time, flesh-eating zombies and Texans with chainsaws.
0:58:32 > 0:58:37It's the new wave of American horror.
0:58:57 > 0:59:00Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:00 > 0:59:04E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk