10 Hammer Horror Movies You NEED To See
7. She (1965)
Hammer were clever enough to see that their appeal reached beyond vampires and monsters and by 1965, Hammer were on top of their game. Mining literary classics like Dracula and Frankenstein had proven immensely popular - this time, producer Michael Carreras would turn to Rider Haggard's 1887 adventure novel, She. Hammer then secured the biggest casting coup d'etat yet, global star and former Bond girl Ursula Andress. She is a classic ripping yarn of the sort that would dominate cinema in the fifties and sixties, its matinée sensibilities were a major influence on future action flicks like The Land That Time Forgot and Indiana Jones.
Adventurers Captain Holly (Peter Cushing), Leo Vincey and the reliable klutz Job (Bernard Cribbins on top form) set out to explore North Africa and in doing so receive an invitation from the beautiful, immortal Ayesha (Andress) to the lost city of Kuma. Ayesha believes him to be the reincarnation of her lover Killikrates (whom she murdered 2000 years ago), so he must choose between a risky immortality with Ursula Andress, or to aid the oppressed Amahagger people, Ayesha's slave race.
It's clearly a tough decision and one that promised plenty of desert skirmishes and passionate kissing. Add Christopher Lee's brilliant fanatical high priest Billali into the mix and you have a sweeping, adventurous, epic movie that would be Hammer's crowning jewel amongst the blood and screaming of their usual hi jinx. They sure don't make 'em like this anymore...