Back in the day, Universal brought us some of the greatest classic monsters to ever grace the screen. Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Frankenstein. Hammer Studios continued this tradition by creating a new breed of films that featured some of these legendary monsters, often filled with beautiful women and showing more blood and sex than their more aged Universal counterparts. The studio made legends of Chrisopher Lee and Peter Cushing, as well as some of the most beautiful women to ever grace the classic b-movie screen, including Ingrid Pitt, Caroline Munro, Veronica Carlson, and many others.

The Fanex Conventions were held from 1984 to 2004 and featured a great many guests from this era of film and beyond, all with amazing behind the scenes stories about the films and the people who brought them to the screen. This DVD is one of a series that focuses on these conventions, and this one in particular focuses on all things related to Hammer Studios. It includes footage from the Fanex conventions showing the above mentioned people (minus Cushing) as well as others relating some of their favorite stories to a loving crowd of fans and admirers. It intersperses the convention footage with that of film writers and historians who give us even more information about the Hammer films, the history of the studio, background info on the films and their sequels, film footage, trailers and still photos. The whole package is an amazing document that any fan of classic b-movies will love to see, lovingly crafted by people who respect and admire these films.

This particular DVD includes footage from Fanex 4 (1990), Fanex 11 (1997), Monster Rally (1999) and Fanex 15 (2002). It also includes commentary by Jon Kitley, Streebo Majic, Aaron Christenson, Gary J. Svehla and Dwight Kemper.

Any fan of classic b-movies, and in particular the films of Hammer studios will absolutely want to have this DVD in their collection. The behind the scenes stories from Christopher Lee about his amazing friendship with Peter Cushing is worth the price alone.

If you'd like to grab a copy of this DVD for yourself, which I can't recommend enough, you can pick up a copy from Amazon right here.