Page 7 - Hammer Shock - Picture Palace Movie Posters

secret of the fact that he'd often commission suitably arresting artwork before the relevant scripts had even

been written.

Sifting through the examples gathered here, I'm struck, in particular, by the grim beauty of the posters devised
to brand Dracula on the public mind. In the UK, Bill Wiggins used a classic photo by Hammer's Tom Edwards as

the basis for an equally classic painting. Christopher Lee - gimlet-eyed, sharp-fanged, ashen yet somehow
swarthy (an oxymoron, I know) - is seen swarming over the insensible, auburn-haired Melissa Stribling, the
deathly pallor of his hand carefully juxtaposed with the youthful radiance of the victim. Aptly, the Count doesn't
look quite human; more like some dark, slug-like emanation from beyond. It's a 1950s update on that classic

1780s image of horror, Fuseli's 'The Nightmare'.

In France, meanwhile, Guy Gérard Noël came up with an equally indelible design for what was known there as -
yes - the 'Nightmare' of Dracula (Le Cauchemar de Dracula). Here, the vampire stands masterfully in an arched

doorway, a beautiful victim slumped in his arms (not specifically Melissa Stribling this time), with beetling
branches, scudding clouds, a full moon and a shattered castle framed behind him. The muted undertone in the
whole composition is a pallid green, long considered the 'colour' of fear.

As well as resonating internationally, Hammer's horrors, and British shockers generally, would enjoy an
immense vogue among French cinephiles, with a dedicated magazine, Midi-Minuit Fantastique, feeding the
frenzy from 1962 onwards. (The first issue was devoted with due reverence to the director of Hammer's most
emblematic films, Terence Fisher.) And it was Noël who became a specialist in what MMF called "l'horrifique

cinéma Anglo-Saxon" - crafting especially luscious posters for such 1960s entries as The Curse of the
Werewolf (La Nuit du loup-garou: another archway, with the same scenic details as Dracula framed beyond it
and purple predominant) and The Kiss of the Vampire (Le Baiser du vampire: another distant castle, more
beetling trees, the whole thing largely blue).

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