15 Famous Hammer fans

1. KATE BUSH

English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. The first woman to have a UK number one with a self-written song. Hits include Wuthering Heights, Babooshka and Running up that Hill. She wrote a hit single titled Hammer Horror for Christ's sake!

2. TIM BURTON

American film director, producer, artist, writer, poet and stop motion artist. His films include Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd. A known Hammer fan, speaking to Mark Kermode in 2000 Burton spoke of Sleepy Hollow as a Hammer homage of sorts, and he even cast Hammer alumni Michael Gough in it. Read more.

3. JOHN CARPENTER

Director: Halloween, Escape from New York, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and many more. The director of genre classics Halloween, The Fog, and The Thing is a literal Quatermass obsessive. Case in point - hired Nigel Kneale (creator of Quatermass) as a writer on Halloween III; wrote Prince of Darkness under the pseudonym Martin Quatermass; and he even tried to develop a Quatermass project in the 90s.

4. JOE DANTE

American film director, producer, editor and actor. His filmsónotably Gremlins (1984)óoften mix fantastical storylines with comedic elements. The director of Gremlins and Poltergeist acted as producer on Hammer documentary Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror. Dante can be seen discussing productions from the Hammer canon on his website TrailersFromHell.com, and you can even check out an interview with the man himself on the Blu-ray of Quatermass and the Pit.

5. GUILLERMO DEL TORO

Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer, and novelist. Known for Pan's Labyrinth, Blade II, Hellboy, Pacific Rim and more. The director famed for his wildly inventive monster creations names Hammer as a huge formative influence on his work. He has also been quoted specifically praising the artistry of Hammer director Terence Fisher.

6. MARK GATISS

English actor, comedian, screenwriter and novelist. Member of The League of Gentlemen writer, co-creator and occasional star of Sherlock. A regular Sherlock and Doctor Who scribe, as well as co-creator and star of the deliciously dark comedy League of Gentlemen, Gatiss secured his Hammer-head status when he presented an episode of A History of Horror about our company. He has also been interviewed for a number of Hammer restoration DVDs. Have a look at Mark showing you the perfect recipe for 'Kensington Gore', the fake blood used in Hammer films of the 60s.

7. TOBE HOOPER

American film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist. The helmer of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist, Hooper cited The Curse of Frankenstein as the provider of his education in cinema. Furthermore, according to the director himself, his largely unseen cult hit Lifeforce was an attempt to "go back to my roots and make a 70 mm Hammer film".

8. PETER JACKSON

Director of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong, and The Frighteners, among others. The influence of Hammer on horror fanatic Jackson's work is easily visible- he even cast Christopher Lee in Lord of the Rings! But did you know that he shot a Super8 version of Captain Kronos when he was a teenager? Or that six years before Bad Taste, Jackson was part of a failed production of a Hammer-inspired film called Curse of the Gravewalker?

9. STEPHEN KING

American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy including Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, Misery, The Green Mile, and many, many more. The undisputed daddy of contemporary horror fiction, King is said to have written his sci-fi chiller The Tommyknockers 'under the influence' of Hammer landmark Quatermass and the Pit, and in his own book Danse Macabre King mentions his love of Hammer's classic X the Unknown. King is also famously quoted in reference to Let Me In, which he called "a genre-busting triumph... the best American horror film of the last 20 years".

10. ALAN MOORE

English writer primarily known for his work in comic books. The author of too many seminal graphic novels to count (including Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell), Moore's love of Hammer is perhaps most clearly exemplified in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, where Bernard Quatermass makes a surprise cameo.

11. RICHARD O'BRIEN

British-New Zealand writer, actor, television presenter and theatre performer. Best known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the best television show ever made The Crystal Maze. O'brien's cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show was famously created as a tribute to the Hammer sci-fi and horror films of the 50s-70s. But did you know that it was actually filmed at Hammer's Bray Studios, and that it borrowed many of the same sets, costumes and props used in Hammer classics The Revenge of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy?

12. SAM RAIMI

American film director, producer, writer and actor. Known for helming The Evil Dead, Spider Man, Drag Me To Hell among others.

13. MARTIN SCORSESE

American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. Known for Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street and very many more Famed not only for his incomparable contribution to cinema but also his encyclopedic film knowledge, Scorsese is often quoted stating his love for Hammer's back-catalogue. Specifically, he lists Frankenstein Created Woman among his favourite films, saying, "If I single this one out it's because here they actually isolate the soul... The implied metaphysics are close to something sublime."

14. QUENTIN TARANTINO

Auteur of a host of cinematic touchstones including Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill; lesser known as the writer of True Romance; and an uncredited writer for The Rock. Another cinematic great, Tarantino has often stated that his favourite director is none other that Hammer legend Terence Fisher. The Pulp Fiction auteur also owns the only surviving Frankenstein Created Woman 16mm prints. Hands off, Scorsese!

15. EDGAR WRIGHT

Co-creator of Spaced and director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. When asked to provide a spoof trailer for fellow list-er Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse, self-confessed cinephile and creator of Shaun of the Dead Wright paid homage to Hammer with his fictional schlocky shocker Don't.

16. THE 'WE HOPE' PILE

George Lucas of course cast Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin and Christopher Lee as Count Dooku in Star Wars. Steven Spielberg echoes The Stranglers of Bombay in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and even uses the title of a Hammer film in the climax of Jurassic Park. The Wachowskis paid homage by including a clip from Brides of Dracula in The Matrix: Reloaded. So whilst none have ever expressed a love for this old British brand on record, we hold out hope that they do indeed hold a soft spot for the House of Horror. Maybe they'll confirm our suspicions one day!