Though Hammer Films ceased theatrical production in the mid-1970s, the TV series Hammer House of Horror afforded the studio a last hurrah in 1980. Though it uses original scripts rather than adaptations of published stories, the series feels like an update of Hammer's earlier Journey to the Unknown, with a mix of contemporary settings, predictable twist endings, mock-gruesome horror, mild sex, familiar TV faces and sly camp that puts it on the shelf somewhere between Nigel Kneale's Beasts and Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. The shows are variously directed by Hammer regulars Don Sharp (Kiss of the Vampire), Peter Sasdy (Countess Dracula), Robert Young (Vampire Circus) and Alan Gibson (Dracula AD 1972). --Kim Newman

Volume One Episodes: "The House That Bled to Death; "The Silent Scream"; "Two Faces of Evil". A box set is also available. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.