Hammer Horror needs your help

The search for censored scenes.

by Jennie Kermode

What seemed shocking during the heyday of Hammer Horror may not do much to frighten cinema-goers today. But due to the actions of censors, several key scenes have been lost from the archives. Now that the famous studio has come back from the dead, it wants your help to find them.

Nine key scenes have been identified as missing, including a scene from The Mummy in which a tongue is cut out and one from The Curse Of Frankenstein in which a severed head is dropped into a bath of acid. As well as horror, the censors were worried about secenes of sexual nature, and footage of scantily dressed women from The Mummy and The Viking Queen is thought to exist. The studio also believes that there may be lost scenes out there whose existence it is no longer aware of.

Because Hammer's films have such a big cult following, the studio thinks it likely that much of this lost material has ended up in the hands of private collectors. If it can be recovered, the films can be restored to their original, intended form.

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