For the first in their ‘Hammer Presents’ line, in which Hammer Films are releasing classic British horror from other studios, we’re getting the American International Picture CRY OF THE BANSHEE in a 4K restoration, which is going to be available in a two-disc set of either two UHD discs or two Blu-rays.
We're in sixteenth century England, and magistrate Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price) divides his time between sentencing witches and dealing with his Jacobean tragedy of a family. One case of the latter leads to him disrupting a pagan ritual led by Oona (Elizabeth Bergner) in which a number of cultists are killed. Oona curses Whitman’s entire family to die by the hand of the ‘Banshee’ which manifests itself through foundling child groomsman Patrick Mower, and once the revenge is set in motion there’s no stopping it.
Famously (to BritHorror obsessives if no-one else) available in two versions, CRY OF THE BANSHEE is present here in both, which accounts for the two discs in the set. Disc one has the UK version (called ‘Director’s Cut) here, available in two aspect ratios (1.85:1 and 1.37:1) and will be the one most familiar to UK viewers who may well have encountered it on ITV screenings if not at the cinema. It’s a bit of a mess of a film, rambling and lacking focus, with the revenge plot only kicking on about halfway through.
Disc two has the US (here called ‘Theatrical’ cut) which has both pros and cons. On the good side, the attack on Oona’s ritual has been moved right to the front of the film which is where it should be, and offers us a rare example of AIP messing round with a finished picture and actually doing something positive with it. However it loses Terry Gilliam’s weird opening animated titles and we get a pretty poor Les Baxter score replacing the UK one by Wilfred Josephs.
But, in either form, is CRY OF THE BANSHEE any good? Chris Alexander, who provides a commentary track on Disc one seems to think so, and he helpfully talks about the US edit as well. The film feels like a very uneasy follow-up to AIP / Tigon’s WITCHFINDER GENERAL, where part of the point was that witches aren’t real. Instead CRY OF THE BANSHEE plays along with the numerous rip-offs of that film which all wanted to have their cake (torturing of witches) and eat it too (they actually are witches, allowing for all sorts of demon shenanigans). Vincent Price hated the film, while the rest of the cast includes the likes of Pamela Farbrother (FRIGHTMARE), Michael Elphick (TV’s Boon), Hugh Griffith (that bottle probably contains the real stuff), Hilary Dwyer and Swedish film star Essy Persson who gets to go memorably mad. All that said, it’s definitely not the film to show someone to demonstrate why you love British horror films as they’ll likely be left scratching their heads as to its appeal.
Other extras include Kim Newman talking about the film for 13 minutes and on disc two the 18 minute interview with director Gordon Hessler has been ported over from the old MGM Midnight Movies release. You also get the usual image gallery, TV and radio spots and a trailer.
Gordon Hessler’s CRY OF THE BANSHEE is being released by Hammer Films in both two disc UHD and two disc Blu-ray sets on Monday 9th February 2026
