Terence Fisher

Writing in 1985, the authors of the Aurum Film Encyclopedia Horror volume argued that 'Hammer horror' director Terence Fisher's film were "so rich, both in themselves and in their interconnections, that only a detailed study of his work… could begin to do them justice."

At least three such volumes have been published in the years since then: Wheeler Winston Dixon's auteurist biography The Charm of Evil: The Life and Films of Terence Fisher; Paul Leggett's Terence Fisher, focussing on the religious and mythical themes in the director's work and this book.

Published as part of a British Directors series, Hutchings begins with a useful overview of Fisher's career, the British film industry in which he worked and of the various theories that have been deployed trying to understand them.

He divides Fisher's directororial work into three phases, "Fisher Before Horror" (1947-56), "The Horror Man" (1967-62) and "Highs and Lows" (1962-72), devoting a chapter to each.

The material on Fisher's pre-horror period is most interesting, with Hutchings offering detailed readings of little-known films like To The Public Danger and Portrait from Life that bring out both their continuities and discontinuities with Fisher's better known Hammer horrors, while never succumbing to the sort of auteurist readings that see the director's hand in every frame of every film, no matter the circumstances of its production.

Away from a section on Fisher's science-fiction invasion films The Earth Dies Screaming, Island of Terror and Night of the Big Heat, all made during a period when his relations with Hammer had chilled somewhat, the discussions of the latter two phases of Fisher's work are less interesting. The films are generally better known and the chance for discovery inevitably less. There is also a degree of overlap here with material in Hutchings's earlier study of the British horror phenomenon in general, Hammer and Beyond: The British Horror Film. This said, Hutchings's analyses are always incisive and thought-provoking.

Rounded off a conclusion that makes but never overstates the case for Fisher as a director of value and a useful filmography, Terence Fisher is a worthwhile read for those with an enthusiasm for and/or interest in the director, British horror or British cinema more broadly.