Hammer House of Horror is a Horror Genre Anthology series that was an attempt to transfer the Hammer Horror brand to television. It ran for one season of 13 hour-long episodes, and first aired on ITV in 1980.
The episodes covered a variety of horror subgenres, including varieties both supernatural (including witches, werewolves, and ghosts) and non-supernatural (including psychological torture, cannibalism, and serial killers).
It was followed by Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense, which also ran for one 13-episode season, in 1984.
Episodes
- "Witching Time"
- "The Thirteenth Reunion"
- "Rude Awakening"
- "Growing Pains"
- "The House That Bled to Death"
- "Charlie Boy"
- "The Silent Scream"
- "Children of the Full Moon"
- "Carpathian Eagle"
- "Guardian of the Abyss"
- "Visitor From the Grave"
- "The Two Faces of Evil"
- "The Mark of Satan"
Hammer House of Horror contains examples of:
- Affably Evil: The elderly pet shop owner Martin Blueck, played by Hammer stalwart Peter Cushing, in "The Silent Scream".
- Asshole Victim:
- The thoroughly despicable Mark from "Charlie Boy".
- In "The House That Bled to Death", William is discovered to have been responsible for everything that happened in the titular house, including killing his daughter's cat, in order to make money from selling the book and movie rights while caring little that said daughter was left severely traumatised by the events and was still having nightmares years later. He pays for it when she realizes the truth and kills him.
- Awful Wedded Life: Norman and Emily Shenley in "Rude Awakening".
- Back from the Dead: The neglected son in "Growing Pains".
- Burn the Witch!: The fate of Lucinda in "Witching Time".
- Creepy Child: The werewolf children in "Children of the Full Moon".
- Drag Queen: Tadek in "The Carpathian Eagle".
- Driven to Suicide: The housekeeper Mrs. Williams in "Charlie Boy".
- The End... Or Is It?: At the end "Rude Awakening" it is hinted that the secretary Lolly is going to experience the same sort of nightmares her boss did.
- Femme Fatale: Natalie quite literally in "The Carpathian Eagle".
- Hollywood Voodoo: The fetish doll in "Charlie Boy".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Mr.Blueck in "The Silent Scream" ends up trapped in the impregnable cell he designed for Chuck and Annie Spillers.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The secret of a group of airplane crash survivors revealed in the twist ending of "The Thirteenth Reunion".
- Mind Screw: The nightmares experienced by the protagonists in "Rude Awakening" and "The Two Faces of Evil".
- Mirror Monster: The demon Choronzon in "Guardian of the Abyss."
- Nazi Grandpa: Nice old Mr. Blueck in "The Silent Scream" who owns the local petshop worked as a guard at a concentration camp.
- Oh, Crap!: Norman Shenley when he realizes he really did kill his wife and didn't just dream he did in "Rude Awakening."
- Police Are Useless: In "The Silent Scream" the police chief Annie speaks to about her missing husband is very dismissive. He regrets this later and visits the pet store but is set at ease by Mr. Blueck. Later still he continues to feel uncertain, but is shamed out of his concern when his partner taunts him for wanting to be Chuck Spillers' "nursemaid".
- Precious Puppy: In "The Silent Scream" Mr. Blueck tosses a puppy to Chuck Spillers to keep him company in his cell.
- Rain of Blood: The children's birthday party in "The House That Bled to Death" is ended by a shower of a blood-like substance from an overhead pipe.
- Religion of Evil: The Satanic cult in "Guardian of the Abyss".
- The Reveal: "The House That Bled To Death" appears to be a simple haunted house story - William and Emma and their young daughter Sophie move into a house not knowing it was the site of a grisly murder and strange and horrible things start to happen; among other things Sophie's pet cat dies gruesomely having apparently accidentally slashing its neck on broken glass, the walls start to bleed, a human hand appears in the fridge and Sophie's birthday party turns into a nightmare when a pipe in the living room bursts and rains blood on the birthday girl, guests and parents. Emma has a nervous breakdown and the family flee for their lives. It is then revealed that William was responsible for everything (knowing the house's history) as part of a plan make money by selling the story, and Emma was in on it as well (she wasn't really married to William and knew about the plot, although she didn't know exactly what he'd do so to make her responses authentic). It doesn't end well for them however, when a traumatised Sophie realises William was responsible for the death of her beloved cat and murders him.
- Ruritania: The homeland of Mrs. Henska and her nephew Tadek in "The Carpathian Eagle".
- Sassy Secretary: Lolly from "Rude Awakening" in her boss Mr. Shenley's fantasies where she wears a series of stereotypically sexy outfits. In reality she is far primmer.
- Schmuck Bait: The flimsy safe in "The Silent Scream" for compulsive thief Chuck Spillers.
- Serial Killer: A rare example of of a female killer targeting promiscuous men rather than vice versa in "The Carpathian Eagle".
- Somewhere, a Mammalogist Is Crying: "Children of the Full Moon" attributes its adult male werewolf's choice of multiple mates to actual wolf behavior, and he himself calls his conduct "vulpine". Real wolves are monogamous, and "vulpine" means fox-like; "lupine" is the word for "wolf-like".
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: "The House That Bled to Death" is similar to The Amityville Horror.
- Wham Line:
- In "Rude Awakening": "I can't help you, Mr. Shenley. You see, I'm dead".
- In "Guardian of the Abyss"" "Letting them know you're here."
- Wolf Man: The woodsman and his werewolf brood in "Children of the Full Moon".
