The Abominable Snowman 4K (1957)

“Hammer + Nigel Kneale = Excellence in Cinema”

The latest film to receive the extra posh Hammer treatment is the film version of Nigel Kneale’s BBC TV play The Creature, broadcast twice in 1955 and then never seen again, so thank goodness for this superior Hammer adaptation which we can now enjoy in sparkling (especially with all that snow around) 4K. The film is being released in both separate Blu-ray and UHD editions, as well as a limited edition set that includes both UHD and Blu-ray discs plus a 120 page book (not provided for review), double-sided poster and reproduction lobby cards.

Peter Cushing stars as Dr John Rollason, a scientist staying at a remote Himalayan monastery where he, his wife Helen (Maureen Connell) and assistant Peter (Richard Wattis) are collecting rare botanical specimens for transport back to London. But Rollason, a proficient mountaineer, has another reason for being there. He has planned to meet up with Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) and his team who are planning an expedition to find the yeti.

They set off despite both Helen’s protestations and the monks’ reticence and it soon becomes apparent that Tom’s plans for the yeti, should they find it, extend to rather more than just documenting the experience. As they climb higher and higher, the men find themselves challenged not just by the creature they may be looking for, but by their own collapsing sanity.

Nigel Kneale was always more interested in human interaction than in getting to the monsters, so don’t expect to see any yeti in the opening half of this. What we do get to see, however, is the conflict between the thinker and scientist (Rollason) and the two-fisted money maker (Friend). In QUATERMASS AND THE PIT terms they are akin to Quatermass and Colonel Breen - neither man understands the other and argument only serves to reinforce how little they have in common. Apart from the leads the other stars here are art director Bernard Robinson, whose sets are more detailed than they need to be but make the monastery scenes all the more of a pleasure to watch, composer Humphrey Searle who provides a near-otherworldly score, and director Val Guest who keeps things grounded (although one wonders what someone like Jacques Tourneur might have done with this kind of material). Oh, and fans of Eugenio Martin’s HORROR EXPRESS may get a feeling of deja-vu in the sequence where a scrabbling yeti claw tosses away a rifle.

As mentioned above the limited edition comes with both UHD and Blu-ray discs, and here’s what you get on them:

Disc One (UHD) and Disc Three (Blu-ray)

This offers you the UK theatrical cut running just over 90 minutes and two commentaries. Start with the 1999 one featuring Guest, Kneale, Marcus Hearn and Ted Newsom before moving over to the new commentary with Toby Hadoke and Kneale expert Andy Murray. You get the usual censor card and trailers and then there’s Abominable! a 58 minute documentary in which Wayne Kinsey, Andy Murray, Toby Hadoke, Jon Dear, Richard Hollis and Dick Klemensen discuss both the film and the lead up (in terms of BBC TV plays and Hammer’s adaptation of them) to the making of it.

The Art of Design is an excellent 25 minute piece from Wayne Kinsey about Bernard Robinson and specifically how Hammer sets were redressed and reused from the period when THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN was made. There’s an academic video essay from Heather Wixson on Fear and the Unknown in Monster Cinema in which she talks both about this film and movies like ALIEN and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Captured! is 8 minutes of Nigel Kneale’s own snapshots of his visit to the Hammer set, there’s an image gallery, and there are two Val Guest interviews: audio from 1988 (29 minutes) and video from 2003 (18 minutes). 

Disc Two (UHD) and Disc Four (Blu-ray)

Here we have the US cut of the film entitled THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS which runs five minutes shorter. We also have the very chatty Toby Roan and Heath Holland to provide a new commentary. A second commentary track is given over to cryptid enthusiast Stephen R Bissette who provides a whopping two hour and twenty seven minute audio essay that means they have to start the film over again.

Exhuming The Creature is a 54 minute piece in which Andy Murray, Gavin Collinson, Toby Hadoke, Jon Dear, Hannah Cooper and Richard Hollis talk about the original Nigel Kneale TV play, while The Legend of the Yeti: From Myth to Movies is 40 minutes of chat from Ted A Bohus, Stephen R Bissette, Michael Gingold and Casey Walker, writer-director of Hammer’s forthcoming ITHAQUA. Tim Lucas and Stephen R Bissette chat about the film over Zoom for 75 minutes in another of their ‘Sidebars’ and the disc and set is rounded off by an audio interview with BBC producer Rudolph Cartier from 1991. 

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN is out in 4K from Hammer in separate two disc UHD and Blu-ray sets, and in a limited edition combo set with all the extras listed above, on Monday 31st August 2026

Break in the Circle 4K (1955)

“Gorgeous Transfer of an Entertaining Espionage Thriller”

Hammer are releasing director Val Guest’s BREAK IN THE CIRCLE in a special three disc UHD / Blu-ray combo edition which, in common with their other ‘B’ movie releases, comes with an accompanying book and luxury packaging.

Skip Morgan (Forrest Tucker) is an ex-smuggler living the quiet life in Cornwall, enjoying time on his boat with his sidekick Dusty (Reginald Beckwith) when he’s not bugging local writer Lisa (Eva Bartok) with whom he has had a previous relationship. But his past soon comes back to haunt him in the form of Major Bartok (Guy Middleton) who convinces him to go to London for ‘one last adventure’.

That adventure involves rescuing Kudnic (Arnold Marle) from Hamburg at the request of Baron Keller (Marius Goring) for a large amount of money. Morgan is also wanted by Scotland Yard and it turns out Lisa has been keeping tabs on him for them. So he kidnaps her and sets off to Hamburg with Dusty where, with Emile (Eric Pohlman) they get into a bunch of scrapes, with plenty of double-crosses waiting for them at home.

The outstanding thing about BREAK IN THE CIRCLE is its location photography, filmed in vivid Eastman colour and rendered absolutely gorgeous by Hammer’s new 4K transfer. As such it now provides a valuable historical document of what Cornwall (specifically the village of Polperro), London and Hamburg used to look like. As a thriller it’s pretty routine stuff for the period, but it’s rarely dull and the presence of some familiar Hammer faces (we also get THE REPTILE’s Marne Maitland as a foreign agent) helps pass the time very comfortably.

Hammer’s set consists of three discs. A single UHD is home to three versions of the film: 1.66:1 UK theatrical (with commentary from film historian Richard Hollis and thriller novelist Gavin Collinson), 1.37:1 UK ‘as filmed’ (with commentary by Adrian Martin, who also discusses the US version) and 1.37:1 US version which is in black and white and runs 20 minutes shorter. You also get the censor card and UK and Italian trailers (for INTERPOL AGENT Z-3).

The films are also spread over two Blu-rays, the second of which has the other extras. There’s a look at the Hamburg locations today (11 minutes) and the Cornwall locations as well (5 minutes) as well as an image gallery. The major extra here is Eurocrimes (96 minutes) in which Sergio Angelini, Laura Mayne and Barry Forshaw cover a range of topics including the influence of the US communist witch hunts of the 1950s that caused many American stars and directors to move to Europe, as well as a potted history of European crime movies over that and subsequent decades. Finally you also get a book (not provided for review) with new writing from Wayne Kinsey, Neil Sinyard, Sarah Morgan and Miriam Balanescu.

Val Guest’s BREAK IN THE CIRCLE is out in 4K from Hammer in a three disc UHD / Blu-ray combo set on Monday 31st August 2026

X the Unknown 4K (1956)

Hammer’s follow up (of sorts) to their 1955 hit THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT is the latest film to receive the company’s whistles and bells deluxe treatment, with a special four disc limited edition set being released that includes a book, lobby card reproductions and a poster. 

In Scotland a large crack opens up in the ground where military training is taking place, killing one man and causing severe radiation burns on another. Because of this the help of the nearby Atomic Energy Laboratory is sought, including Quatermass stand-in Dr Adam Royston (Dean Jagger), his assistant Peter Elliott (William Lucas) and their boss John Elliott (Edward Chapman before he was Mr Grimsdale in Norman Wisdom comedies).

There’s a raid on the base, during which a safe door is melted and nuclear material stolen. A small boy sees something moving in the woods and gets the same radiation burns as the soldier. It turns out the crack in the earth has unleashed a large energy-hungry blob and it’s on the way to the atomic station for its next meal.

An entertaining, brisk, well-shot variation on the Quatermass theme, X THE UNKNOWN benefits from straight-faced performances and scientific explanations that you can just about believe for the length of the running time. Fans will spot plenty of familiar faces and if you’ve not seen this and love British SF you deserve to treat yourself.

As mentioned above, X THE UNKNOWN is getting the deluxe treatment. but if you want just the discs then those are being released in separate two-disc UHD or Blu-ray sets as well. However if you go for the limited edition, aside from the printed material, here’s what you’re going to get:

Disc One (UHD) and Disc Three (Blu-ray)

As with Hammer’s CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and other limited edition sets, these two discs have the same material on them. Disc one offers you the UK cut of X THE UNKNOWN in two aspect ratios - 1.66:1 (with optional Toby Hadoke and Andy Murray commentary) and 1.37:1 (with optional Steve Haberman and Constantine Nasr commentary). The film really benefits from the 4K transfer and the two commentaries work well in terms of complimenting one another.

There’s a 62 minute new making of documentary, Into the Unknown, which, if you’ve listened to both commentaries, will feature quite a bit of familiar information from Toby Hadoke, Andy Murray, Wayne Kinsey, Dick Klemensen and Frazer Hines. There’s a 2003 Jimmy Sangster interview (22 minutes) but perhaps the highlight of the disc is a 49 minute in depth and quite touching documentary on special effects wizard Les Bowie, hosted by his co-worker Mike Tilley and featuring Wayne Kinsey. It’s excellent and features a number of models, matte paintings and other examples of Bowie’s work. 

Disc Two (UHD) and Disc Four (Blu-ray)

This disc offers the US cut of X THE UNKNOWN in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio with an optional commentary by David Kalat, whose commentaries are always excellent although again if you’ve already listened to the two previous commentaries you may get a little bit of unavoidable deja vu. Disc two also has a plethora of bits and pieces including textless and mute opening titles, a trailer, censor card, the 8mm version of the film (26 minutes), a piece on the restoration (11 minutes), image gallery, and a sidebar in which Tim Lucas and Stephen R Bissette discuss the film for longer than X THE UNKNOWN’s running time (87 minutes).

The undisputed highlight of disc two, however, is Displaced and Damned, a 76 minutes career overview of director Joseph Losey with contributions from Melanie Williams, Gavrik Losey, John Hamilton, David Huckvale, and Lauren Barnett. This being a Hammer disc it’s understandably Hammer heavy, detailing Losey's nearly-directing of X THE UNKNOWN and his actual directing of 1962’s THESE ARE THE DAMNED. We also get the Losey-directed and Jimmy Sangster-scripted short (29 minutes) A MAN ON THE BEACH (in colour and 2.35:1 widescreen) in which criminal Michael Medwin ends up at the house of Sir Donald Wolfit. 

As is so often the case with these releases, the film feels more of an extra to support the special features and as such this package offers excellent value for money, with three commentaries and two excellent documentaries, plus of course you get X THE UNKNOWN looking absolutely pristine. 

X THE UNKNOWN is out in a limited edition four disc UHD and Blu-ray set, and in standard separate two disc UHD and Blu-ray editions on Monday 27th July 2026

The House of Hammer: Volume One (2026)

 

        As well as bringing out their own output in 4K editions in lavish box sets, and providing some much-needed releases for some of the other British horror movies made during Hammer’s heyday, the Hammer label is now also venturing into ‘video magazine’ territory. From this initial ‘issue’, The House of Hammer looks as if it promises to be an ongoing series that will collect documentaries, talking head pieces, short films and other bits and pieces that either work better outside of being attached to a formal Blu-ray movie release, or possibly got missed off previous discs, about which more later. This first volume consists of two Blu-ray discs and a 120 page book, along with the usual luxury packaging. So let’s take a look at what we get:

Disc One

The centrepiece (and very much the highlight) of the first disc is the first part of Masques, Monsters and Madmen, what promises to be a lengthy (part one runs 111 minutes) documentary on the history of American International Pictures . Director John Hamilton has assembled quite the collection of experts (including himself) to talk about the company, and these include Jonathan Rigby, Steve Haberman, Chris Alexander, Heidi Honeycutt, Richard Klemensen, Bruce G Hallenbeck and David Pirie. Of course any history of AIP is going to have a major Vincent Price element so its good to see both Vincent’s daughter Victoria and Keeper of the Sacred Flame Peter Fuller in here too. The documentary is divided into three parts: ‘The Drive-In Empire’, ‘Made in Britain’ and ‘The American Invasion’ and covers AIP’s beginnings, their Poe cycle of movies, and there’s welcome emphasis on the relationships between AIP and UK companies Anglo Amalgamated and Tigon. In fact that’s where we cut off this time around, with discussion of WITCHFINDER GENERAL and THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR but the documentary stopping short of THE OBLONG BOX.

Also on disc one is The Land Demands Blood, a 38 minute piece about Cornwall and featuring interviews with film-makers and writers all with Cornish links, including Mark Jenkin (BAIT, ENYS MEN, ROSE OF NEVADA). It’s divided into four parts with part three looking at Hammer’s PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES and THE REPTILE.

Finally for new material we get Off the Leash, a 45 minute piece from Jonathan Rigby looking at the career of Michael Gough. The disc is rounded out with Ticket to Happiness, a 30 minute obscure Hammer short written and directed by Peter Bryan and starring Michael Goodliffe and Charles Lloyd Pack, and a collection of lobby cards from STOLEN FACE that were missed off the 4K release of that film.

Disc Two

Disc two kicks off with a decent thumbnail summary of the history of film censorship both in the US (Chris Alexander, Heidi Honeycutt, John Logan) and the UK (Jonathan Rigby, John Hamilton and David Pirie). Do you know what the ‘X’ stood for in the UK certification? Find out here. That’s followed by Making Monsters, a 39 minute interview with special effects artists Dave and Lou Elsey who have worked on numerous big budget Hollywood projects, often influenced by the classic horrors of old. My favourite story was how they wanted a CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF look to one of the lycanthropes in Joe Johnston’s 2010 THE WOLFMAN.

After that is the highlight of disc two for film music fans as David Huckvale spends 39 minutes looking in some detail at the scores for Harry Robinson’s TWINS OF EVIL and James Bernard’s CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, with some choice bits from THE MUMMY’S SHROUD, THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and THE MUMMY in there, too. 

To tie in with this first issues’s AIP theme there’s the archival Roger Corman at FoFF (37 minutes), recorded in 1995 and featuring Roger providing an introduction to two of his black and white pictures, taking part in a panel that also features Norman J Warren and Robin Hardy, and finally being interviewed by Stephen Laws. 

We finish off with the Q&A panel from the CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN restoration premiere from last year in which surviving star Melvyn Hayes was joined on stage by Kim Newman, Wayne Kinsey, David Pirie and Lucy Bolton. And as a tiny epilogue there’s the UK trailer for QUATERMASS II in which Valentine Dyall urges you to ‘Run!’ in his fruity voice.

The set also includes a 120 page book which wasn’t provided for review but which will apparently contain essays on the making of CRY OF THE BANSHEE, Caralan Productions, and more AIP. Overall, how much this set is going to appeal to the average buyer is difficult to say, because on the downside, and with the absence of any kind of ‘host’ to what is essentially a video magazine, (and with not even some explanation or curation on the menu pages), it could also be described as a collection of Blu-ray extras with no actual film to act as a thematic centrepiece. It’s all absolutely worthwhile stuff but at times it’s hard to shake off the feeling that quite a lot of it was intended to be included as extras on other discs, but there just wasn’t the time or space to do it. That said, the whole thing really is an impressive set of talking head and documentary pieces, and British horror obsessives are going to love it. 

The House of Hammer: Volume One is out in a two disc Blu-ray set from Hammer Films on Monday 15th June 2026

36 Hours 4K (1953)

 

It’s time to dive back into the vaults as Hammer brings us another of their B-movie crime thrillers that most people have never heard of. This time it’s the turn of 36 HOURS aka TERROR STREET, an almost Cornell Woolrich-type tale from author (screenplay and novel) Steve Fisher, to get the 4K UHD and Blu-ray treatment and apparently marks the first time the film has been released on physical media.

Major William Rogers (Dan Duryea) sneaks away from his military posting in the US to find out what has happened to his wife Katie (Elise Albiin), who lives in London and from whom he hasn’t heard in months. He eventually tracks her down and confronts her, only for him to be knocked out. When he regains consciousness she’s dead, he’s holding the gun, and the police are on the way.

The 36 hours of the UK title of this one refer to the time Rogers has before he has to get back to the plane that will return him to his military base so he won’t be registered as AWOL. The film itself is pretty much a perfunctory by the numbers tale of a smuggling scheme. Director Montgomery Tully (THE TERRORNAUTS - not exactly the highest recommendation) stages many of the dialogue scenes in the most workmanlike way possible which, if nothing else, makes this a useful comparison piece to demonstrate just how good directors like Terence Fisher (MANTRAP) and Francis Searle (THE MAN IN BLACK, WHISPERING SMITH HITS LONDON) were at staging this sort of material.

Of course by now everyone should be used to the concept that you’re not buying these packages for the film alone but for the extras, and once again Hammer have outdone themselves. You get two versions of the film - the UK 36 HOURS which comes with a commentary track from experts Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman which is up to their usual standard, and the US TERROR STREET which gets a commentary from US critics Toby Roan and Heath Holland. The US version is only ten seconds shorter than the UK version (both run at close to 85 minutes) and it’s difficult to tell if there are any real differences between the two. Sources have stated that the UK version should be five minutes shorter at 80 minutes but there’s nothing anywhere here about that.

Other extras include a decent 38 minute chat between Vic Pratt and Dr Josephine Botting of the BFI about the neglected genre of British noir of this period, Maxim Jakubowski talking about pulp crime in general and author Steve Fisher in particular (17 minutes), Chris Alexander on Dan Duryea, kicking off with the actor’s contribution to the Twilight Zone (22 minutes), Sergio Angelini discussing the film in relation to other crime pictures of the period (23 minutes) plus the usual trailers, censor card and image galleries. 

You also get two episodes of the radio series Suspense starring Dan Duryea - The Man who Couldn’t Lose (1947) and Remember Me (1952). Both run nearly half an hour. Finally there’s the obligatary book which wasn’t provided for review but which apparently contains articles on the making of the film as well as production paperwork.

36 HOURS is out on 4K in a limited edition UHD and Blu-ray combo set on Monday 15th June 2026