Hammer was a UK studio whose mid-twentieth century reimaginings of popular monsters like Dracula reinvigorated the horror genre. Horror and monster movies were wildly popular in the 1930s and 40s with US-based Universal churning out franchises devoted to Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and others. But in the 1950s, horror merged with science fiction when "atomic monsters" were all the rage - and the old monsters fell by the wayside.

Hammer Studios genius was in merging the early-1960s Playboy sensibility with stock horror characters, sexing up Dracula and converting old-school into something campy that gothy flower children could enjoy. They brought back Dracula as a hot, magnetic emohunk played by Christopher Lee, and gave his brides some pinup sex appeal. While vampires were a Hammer staple, the studio also produced science fiction classics like Quatermass and One Million Years B.C. With sexy titles like Vampire Lovers, Slave Girls, Satanic Rites of Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, the studio continued to dominate the horror genre well into the 1970s.

The Hammer actresses whose naughty, terrifying eroticism is captured in Hammer Glamour are still part of pop culture horror styles. And of course, sexy horror featuring vampires continues to smolder at the box office today.

Marcus Hearn put together this compendium of images from the Hammer archives, organized by actress. Each section features a full page pinup, plus biographical information and behind-the-scenes gems about celebs from Ursula Andress to Nastassja Kinski. Other popular actresses of the era, like Raquel Welch, got their start in Hammer movies too.

Hammer Glamour via Borders

Yutte Stensgaard, star of several vampire movies, with a skull, some tassels (?), a tiki item, and many other silly objects on that velvety bed.

Raquel Welch, in her iconic role as a cavewoman in One Million Years BC.

Martine Beswicke, also from One Million Years BC. She also starred in the cunningly-titled Slave Girls as well as the superlative Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.

Ingrid Pitt (l) and the ever-popular Madeline Smith (r) in The Vampire Lovers.

Pauline Peart in The Satanic Rites of Dracula.

Diana Dors

Madeline Smith graces the cover of the book.

Jane Scott

Melissa Stribling with popular Hammer leading man Christopher Lee, who turned Dracula into a sexed-up Englishman.

Valerie Gaunt

According to organizer and photographer Brandon Herman, the pin-up club met last month for a marathon six-hour photo shoot (not including the time it took to build the set). Around ten models and between 30 and 40 photographers took part, which was more photographers than usual, and way more than Herman ever expected to show up. The photographers and models broke up into smaller groups, and tried to make sure every photographer worked with every model.

Some of the shoot's highlights include Herman's assistant organizer and super popular model, Sin Dee, body-painted to look like a cute alien. Also, make-up artist and sometime model Jessica Jade Jacob had built a robot for an art competition at Carnegie Mellon University. The availability of her robot actually inspired Herman and friends to do a science-fiction theme night, and Jacob included some photos from the shoot in her presentation at CMU, which won some awards there.

Here are some of our favorites. Warning, a couple of the body-painted pics are NSFW:

We asked Herman what classic science fiction films inspired the shoot, and he said:

Our biggest influence was no one film in particular; it was more our impression of those cheesy 50s films in general. For research, I did watch a few oldies, including one called The Phantom Empire, which featured Gene Autry (the "singing cowboy") trying to save his ranch from the advanced race of beings living below it in an underground metropolis. But I'm a huge fan of sci-fi so i'm already very familiar with the style of things like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Barbarella, Captain Video, Ed Wood, etc.

He adds that they'll probably do another science fiction photoshoot in a year or 18 months. Meanwhile, they have some other incredible shoots planned. "Soon we will be out at the American Airpower Museum where our models can pose with vintage WWII aircraft in a huge hangar on a working runway. We went there last summer and it was a HUGE hit." There may be some video from the science fiction shoot going up on Youtube, and we'll be sure to post it when it's available. [NY Pinup Club]

I love the way he captures the 1950s pin-up art sensibility, complete with the cheesecakey smiles and pouts, but adds a certain amount of bad-assery as well. Plus curvy women rule. He seems genuinely committed to celebrating our women at war, given that besides the scads of military pin-up art, he also sells his own custom-made army knives, which look deadly and portable.

Check out more of his art over at his site.

[Fantasy And Sci-Fi Art Collection]

Well, golly. You can't expect an undead girl to drive her tractor all day without a little snack. And that boy sure was snacky.

There's nothing sweeter than a necrotic tootsie bobbing for apples. And look what this toothy cutie caught - an ear!

Oh my! Somehow the wind blew this pretty little decaying dame's skirt right up! So it's not our fault if we just can't help gawking at those grisly gams.

If you want to see more luscious limb-eaters, check out the My Zombie Pin-Up site, and order your limited-edition calendar. And if you're in the Bay Area, you can meet the zombie crew in person at their Killer Dance Party on October 25.

Image credits, from top to bottom:

Photographer: Robyn Målter | Production Design: Claire Mack | Model: Destin
Special Effects: Nick Katich | Hair Stylist: Kathleen Sobelman

Photographer: Robyn Målter | Production Design: Claire Mack | Model: LeEvil
Special Effects: Nick Katich | Hair Stylist: Lisa Miller

Photographer: Shalaco | Production Design: Claire Mack | Model: Neives | Special Effects: Margaret Caragan | Hair Stylist: Kathleen Sobelman | Inspired by Gil Elvgren

Photographer: Shalaco | Production Design: Claire Mack | Model: Kailyka
Special Effects: Nick Katich | Hair Stylist: Lisa Miller | Inspired by Gil Elvgren

He uses acrylic, oil paint, watercolor, and ink to create stunning portrait paintings of these supermodel-grade beings from another planet. What's truly fascinating is the way he uses alien standards of beauty, rather than adhering to a human idea of what's sexy.

While perhaps not beautiful to traditional Homo Sapiens, these aliens are engaged in deeply spiritual acts that even humans can understand — like meditating and getting high in the nude. Images by Naoto Hattori

Naoto Hattori's main page via Pink Tentacle

Yes, it's a foot fetishy publicity still from Forbidden Planet.