Adrian Charlton

Hammer Film Productions created a wide variety of films, but the company will always be associated with its classic horrors of the 1950s-70s, which revived the great cinematic terrors in vivid colour. They were atmospheric, exciting, and (for their time) scary. But historical accuracy probably wasn’t high on the list of priorities.

 

Determining exactly when the films were set is quite a challenge, but it’s one which actor and historian Adrian Charlton decided to take on.

In January 2019, he published A Period Movie Timeline on a Hammer Films fan page on Facebook.

Adrian told me: “It’s a rough guide really: some of the dates of the events in the films could be debated, especially the Dracula series. As with these kind of things, they’re always open to interpretation.”

With that in mind, here is Adrian’s rough guide to many of Hammer’s (mainly) horror films:

1,000,000 BC – One Million Years BC (1966)

Circa 1,000,000 BC – When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)

1,000,000 BC – Creatures the World Forgot (1971)

1588 – The Devil Ship Pirates (1964)

1600s/1610 – Countess Dracula (1971)

Late 1700s – Pirates of Blood River (1962)

1790 – Twins of Evil (1971)

1792 – Captain Clegg (1962)

1794 – The Vampire Lovers (prologue) (1970)

1798 – Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

1804 – The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (prologue) (1974)

1810 – Vampire Circus (1972)

1814 – The Vampire Lovers (1970)

1820 – Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)

1829 – The Stranglers of Bombay (1960)

1830 – Demons of the Mind (1972)

1830 – Lust for a Vampire (1971)

1856 – The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

1860 – The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

1860 – Revenge of Frankenstein (1959)

1868 – The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)

1872 – Dracula A.D. 1972 (prologue) (1972)

1873 – Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

1874 – The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (1960)

1876 – Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)

1880 – Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1974)

1885 – Dracula (1958)

1887 – The Brides of Dracula (1960)

1888 – Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)

1890 – The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)

1890 – The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

1895 – Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

1895 – The Mummy (prologue) (1959)

1896 – Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)

1897 – Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

1898 – The Mummy (1959)

1899 – Scars of Dracula (1971)

1900 – The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964)

1901 – Hands of the Ripper (1971)

1904 – The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974)

1906 – Kiss of the Vampire (1963)

1910 – Terror of the Tongs (1961)

1910 – The Gorgon (1964)

1911 – The Phantom of the Opera (1962)

1916 – Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966)

1920 – The Mummy’s Shroud (1967)

1934 – The Devil Rides Out (1968)

1939 – The Lady Vanishes (1979)

1972 – Dracula AD 1972 (1972)

1974 – The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974)

Many thanks to Adrian for permission to reproduce this excellent timeline.

If you’re involved in arts and entertainment, check out the services of Weltch Media here.