10 Hammer Horror Movies You NEED To See

Reuniting actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee after a four year break, The Gorgon is a genre bending mash-up of Greek mythology, eastern European gothic and more clipped British accents, with some of Hammer's more ambitious special effects. In the remote town of Vandorf, the bodies are beginning to stack up; young Bruno is wrongly convicted of the murders but his father, Dr. Heitz, convinced of his son's innocence, begins to investigate the local legend of Megaera, a gorgon of Greek myth, who's terrifying visage is enough to turn all those who gaze upon her to stone...

Christopher Lee and Barbara Shelley would both complain about the dodgy rubber snakes attached to actor Prudence Hyman's head - originally, there was a plan to use live grass snakes. "We would have had the classic Gothic horror film of all time," said Shelley, who's character Carla is revealed to be possessed by the spirit of the Gorgon and was lined up to play both roles until it was decided that dual casting would give the game away too early.

The Gorgon has it all - a relatively unknown Patrick Troughton as a local plod, beautiful sets and matte paintings (borrowed from Evil Of Frankenstein), plus the usual creepy castles and ever howling wind. And let's not overlook the fact that this film represents the Hammer holy trinity of Lee, Cushing and director Terence Fisher, who, alongside the superb Barbara Shelley, would go on to make some of the greatest British horrors the world would ever see.