Nevertheless, several Hammer films became the subjects of novelizations that could deliver none of what made a Hammer horror a Hammer horror. Yet there is a lot to interest in John Burke's adaptations of four films in The Hammer Horror Omnibus. On the page, Hammer's notorious gore become even more extreme. The near-laughable special effects of The Gorgon are no longer an issue as the snakes in Medusa's (not Megaera's!) hair lash and rear and strike with flicking tongues instead of just wiggling a bit like a bunch of short lengths of rubber hose, as they do in the film. The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb gets a bit more back story. In the case of The Curse of Frankenstein and The Revenge of Frankenstein, which its predecessor flows right into, the story is told from the first-person pov of the title doc, heightening his callousness and wickedness, as does the absence of the irrepressibly charming Peter Cushing. Everything's just a little bit nastier. This is especially true of Revenge, as Dr. Frankenstein's evil was deliberately muted in the film but is alive and well in the novelization.
Originally published to coincide with the release of The Gorgon in 1964, The Hammer Omnibus is now being reprinted by Titan Books with a new foreword by Stephen Gallagher and an afterword by Ramsey Campbell that highlights the novelizing career of John Burke, who'd also adapted A Hard Day's Night for the page, a project that sounds nothing short of absurd. A Hard Day's Night without hearing the music of The Beatles is like Curse of Frankenstein without seeing Peter Cushing pursing his lips while sawing up a corpse! Actually, having read what Burke did with Curse, maybe reading his Hard Day's Night wouldn't be a total waste of time.
