Hammer Presents… Doctor Blood’s Coffin and The Snake Woman
We’re delighted to confirm the release of two atmospheric and wildly different horror movies from the early 1960s. Doctor Blood’s Coffin (1961) and The Snake Woman (1961) are a brace of belters, both directed by Sidney J. Furie who went on to helm The Ipcress File (1965) and The Entity (1981), which Martin Scorsese called one of ‘the scariest movies of all time’. These earlier works have now been restored in 2K and come with a raft of bespoke additional material. Hammer News looks into these latest releases and brings you the inside info from the ‘Keeper of the Crypt’, Steve Rogers…
Doctor Blood’s Coffin and The Snake Woman are both part of the new Hammer Presents Collection which we unveiled in late 2025. An ongoing series of British horror releases that are similar in style and substance to the classic Hammer horrors, they’ll run alongside and complement the acclaimed range of Limited Collector’s Editions. It means more great horror, with Hammer taking non-Hammer titles under its wing to give them the best possible release. Restorations scanned from the original film negatives, limited edition O-card packaging and eye-catching new artwork? Tick, tick, tick.
As previously discussed, Hammer Presents won’t offer quite the same amount of additional material as the Limited Collector’s Editions, but we hope fans will enjoy the mix of specially created and archive material which will accompany each release. Cry of the Banshee (1970) and Crucible of Horror (1971), also known as The Corpse, launched the range which now delves into the 1960s to bring you two more macabre delights…
Court in the act… Hazel Court as Linda comes face-to-what’s-left-of-a-face with a classic Cornish horror.
We’ll get to snakes on a Northumbrian plain in a moment, but we begin in Cornwall…
There’s more than a hint of Frankenstein about the eponymous villain of Doctor Blood’s Coffin. Like Mary Shelley’s most famous creation, he was fascinated by science from an early age (‘Did you know I had analysed the protein value of an acorn by the time I was 6?’) but this interest turned to obsession, and an unhealthy one at that. From small acorns of curiosity, giant oaks of horror grow and when we initially join Doctor Blood he’s being castigated and threatened by a more senior medic in Vienna for his mysterious experiments. Forced to flee Austria he returns to Cornwall but is soon up to his old tricks, attempting to defeat death itself. Now, to an extent that might be perceived as the aim of many branches of medicine, but Blood’s murderous methods aren’t about to be featured in The Lancet anytime soon.
As usual (see also Victor Frankenstein and Dr Georges Bonnet from 1959’s The Man Who Could Cheat Death), Blood tries to defend his grisly work with moral justification. ‘Everywhere men are dying! Great men… But if they could live on… Look how they could contribute to the advancement of man…’ Which all seeks to excuse his declaration that, ‘I can give life after death!’
As he fights to keep the police off the scent whilst developing his studies, he becomes close to a kind, recently widowed nurse, Linda Parker, played by Hammer’s Hazel Court. She eventually discovers the truth and recognises the grotesqueness of his actions. Aghast, Linda leaves him in no doubt as to her take on the situation, ‘You’re evil…’ she points out, adding, for the avoidance of doubt, ‘This is something from hell!’
Blood will have blood… Linda (Hazel Court) resolves to stop the schemes of the eponymous doctor (Kieron Moore).
Anyone hoping the couple will get a happily-ever-after are going to be disappointed, but if you’re after a thriller that blends science-fiction with gothic horror to serve up an early British zombie(ish) film, this is the movie for you…
Hammer News: Steve, what made Hammer decide this was the film to continue the fledgling Hammer Presents range?
Steve Rogers: With this range we’re keen to showcase the full spread of British horror – from horror comedy to scary mindbender and monster horror, to gothic grand guignol (and all points in between). Vincent Price led the charge with the hard-edged folk horror Cry of the Banshee and then handed the baton to Michael Gough in the gaslighting psychodrama Crucible of Horror. Now it’s horror queen Hazel Court’s turn to pick it up in something that’s as different to Crucible as Crucible was to Banshee.
Marketing material for Doctor Blood’s Coffin in which Linda (Hazel Court) breaks the tradition of the murderous central scientist having a foolish and fawning ‘assistant’.
HN: I know categorisations can be reductive, but would you call it a zombie film, and if so, what’s its importance within this genre?
SR: Doctor Blood’s Coffin is listed in books by people who know these things as Britain’s first colour zombie film – though the zombie has been dead for a year and covered in muck so he’s a bit more manky than zombie. There’s some dispute as to whether it’s the first colour zombie film, but it’s definitely the first British one.
HN: It was shot in about half-an-hour, but it’s a gorgeous looking film, isn’t it? Was it shot in Cornwall? And could you tell us a little about the production itself?
SR: It was a mix of studio shooting and some location work at Zennor in Cornwall. It’s an early film by Sidney Furie and he definitely makes the most of his limited budget and the gorgeous locations.
Fresh from the wily, windy moors of Cornwall? Kieron Moore had previously played Heathcliff in the BBC’s 1948 adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
HN: I really enjoyed the confrontation between Blood and Linda towards the end of the movie. They both get to argue their cases and the doctor isn’t presented as just another mad scientist. (In fact, Linda explicitly states he’s not insane.) This scene and a few others serve to elevate Doctor Blood’s Coffin… Or am I talking nonsense and we should just enjoy it as a cracking horror/thriller?
SR: You may be talking nonsense but it is a cracking horror/thriller. There’s a Mitchell and Webb sketch about two German soldiers talking to each other and one of them becomes self-aware and says, "are we the bad guys?". Blood is that self-aware but he just doesn’t care – like Cushing’s Frankenstein he has a mission and has no time for anyone who gets in his way.
HN: No good will come of such fixations… Now, the first thing that caught my eye about the film was the director, Sidney J. Furie. He did one of the greatest espionage thrillers of the twentieth century, The Ipcress File. But he also has Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) on his CV. Which Furie do we find here? And could you talk to us about the best of his work, and what he brings to both Doctor Blood’s Coffin and The Snake Woman?
SR: Doctor Blood and The Snake Woman were shot back-to-back for very little money, but Furie was young and hungry for success and that energy and verve shine through. He’d previously filmed two social realist dramas and some episodes of a TV series before he decamped from Canada for better opportunities. Both films are small fry in his body of work, but they are vital stepping stones because, through them, he made films with Cliff Richard, which got him the IPCRESS gig and onwards to Hollywood. Without Doctor Blood and The Snake Woman he could very well have slunk back to Canada and ended up doing daytime TV on CBC. The road not taken.
Well, as we’ve brought The Snake Woman back into the conversation, let’s turn our attention to the second film in this double bill of devilment…
A detail of the hypnotic new artwork by Lydia Maltby which accompanies this release of The Snake Woman.
As Steve mentioned, The Snake Woman was shot back-to-back with Doctor Blood’s Coffin and it shares the same director, producer, composer, musical director, director of photography, editor, wardrobe supervisor, and even the make-up artist and hair stylist. And yet somehow they’re almost entirely dissimilar. Both fall into that broad genre of horror, of course, but apart from this commonality, The Snake Woman emerges as a very different piece of work.
On the most obvious level, this is a black and white film. All shadows, mood and textures. Doctor Blood operated in the modern world whereas The Snake Woman opens towards the end of Victoria’s reign and doesn’t slither too far into the twentieth century. And whereas Blood makes an attempt to ground the central transformations in some kind of scientific truth, The Snake Woman largely rejects this approach, presenting itself as a piece of grim folklore brought to life.
As the opening voice-over informs us, ‘The film you’re about to see is the story of strange happenings out on the bleak moors of Northumberland at the turn of the century. You will not find any official records of its existence. Neither will you find the story in any fairy books. It is purely a legend, handed down by the descendants of the inhabitants of that village, who prefer to forget what started on that cold November night in the year 1890…’
We don’t have long to wait before things go south in Northumberland. Herpetologist Horace Adderson is attempting to care for his wife who’s endured mental health issues. Instead of offering empathy and a sympathetic examination of what caused the issues, he decides to repeatedly inject her with snake venom. And to be fair, it’s been working just fine until Mrs A becomes pregnant and realises it might be time to lay off the viper saliva. ‘That snake poison flowing through my blood,’ she says to her husband, ‘what will it do to my unborn child?’
Well, we’re about to find out…
A publicity shot for The Snake Woman featuring Susan Travers and John McCarthy. Travers returned to the horror genre the following decade, playing Nurse Allen in the fabulous The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971).
The film’s opening section forms an origin story. Fast-moving, scary and macabre. It then segues into the story of Atheris, the Addersons’ daughter, now a young woman who sporadically transforms into a cobra, killing victims with her lethal bite. She isn’t necessarily evil, (or as one character memorably labels her, ‘the devil’s offspring!’), it’s simply what she does. Her nature. Her birthright. Or in the jargon of such tales, her curse.
A Scotland Yard Inspector, Prentice, is sent to Northumberland to investigate some of the deaths Atheris is responsible for, and he meets Aggie, an old lady who knows exactly how to deal with the problem. She urges the bewildered policeman to shoot a doll thrice, and after he obliges she reveals, ‘The curse is broken, by science.’ He doesn’t challenge her perception of ‘science’ and she continues, ‘That is how she will die. Three bullets from that gun.’ With a degree of unmistakable relish she adds, ‘You will kill her!’
It’s hokum, of course. But hugely enjoyable, nevertheless. Writing for Fantasy Literature, Sandy Ferber called it ‘a likeable film’, praising its ‘eerie atmosphere’, Orville H. Hampton’s script (‘no-nonsense and intelligent’), adding, ‘the cinematography by Stephen Dade… is effective in creating a nice period atmosphere.’ British Horror Films reviewer Chris Woods declared it was, ‘absolutely classic’ and commented wittily, ‘The ending is both entirely predictable and brilliant, which I think you’ll agree is a rare triumph on the part of the filmmakers.’
Marketing material for The Snake Woman. Susan Travers later found worldwide fame playing Arlette Van der Valk in the first two seasons of Van der Valk.
Julian Martin was broadly positive in his review for Horror Press: ‘The Snake Woman remains fascinating in today’s climate… watching Brits yelling at each other in overdramatic amazement about snake curses is pretty fun… [But] Let’s be real: not all 60s creature features can hold up to The Birds. You’re not gonna turn to The Snake Woman for intelligently executed scenes of arthouse horror. You stick it on to see some f------- snakes!’
And there are snakes aplenty! But surely there’s more to it than that…
Hammer News: I know The Snake Woman is sometimes perceived as a ‘lesser’ piece of work than Doctor Blood’s Coffin, but confession time – I loved it and actually preferred it. To borrow Sandy Ferber’s phrase, what makes it such a likeable film?
Steve Rogers: Lovely black and white cinematography, a small, portable rampaging mob, a clueless copper, a madwoman who ages two decades using the simple trick of taking her teeth out. What’s not to love?
Arnold Marlé as Dr. Murton in The Snake Woman. He’d previously appeared in a number of Hammer productions including The Abominable Snowman (1957) and The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959).
HN: What are your favourite scenes from the movie?
SR: Anything with the character Aggie – those scenes are worth their weight in gold.
HN: Quite a few members of its cast and crew went on to work on Hammer productions. Are there any individuals who fall into this category that you’d especially point out?
SR: One worth pointing out because of its huge coincidence is that George Fowler, producer of both Doctor Blood and The Snake Woman – films about zombies and a reptile woman – within five years would be production manager on Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile for Hammer. It’s highly unlikely he planned his career that way, but still.
HN: What surprised you about the film?
SR: The fact that the doctor character can go to Africa for two decades and come back looking exactly the same age! Admittedly he did look about 80 to begin with, though.
Marketing material for Doctor Blood’s Coffin. Incidentally, the movie’s star, Kieron Moore, had been terrific in Hammer’s 1953 thriller, Mantrap – now part of the Limited Collector's Edition range. That film also stars Bill Travers, whose niece, Susan Travers, plays Atheris in The Snake Woman.
HN: If you’re planning on watching both movies on the same evening – a Hammer Presents double bill – what should the running order be, and why?
SR: Snake Woman first, I think. Even though it was made second, it’s shorter and in black and white so it’s an amuse-bouche for the full colour blood and zombies while still being a fun watch in its own right.
HN: Right! We’ll get the popcorn in, then…
Big thanks as always to Hammer’s Steve Rogers for his time and insight.
Both films are available to pre-order now. Doctor Blood’s Coffin comes with a new commentary with Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons, plus the original trailer and an image gallery. The Snake Woman also comes with a brand new commentary exploring the work’s themes, origins and legacy, and the film’s original trailer and an image gallery are also included.
