Terence Fisher’s Monsters Rise Again 

As Halloween gets ready to rear its monstrous head, the Metrograph has set out to do right by the ghosts, goblins and ghouls in our midst by mounting a retrospective devoted to the British director Terence Fisher (1904-80), “Hammer’s Master Smith.” Better a “smith” than an “auteur.” Fisher flatly stated that he was a “director for hire.” A former hand in the Merchant Navy, he started in the industry as a “clapper boy” and then moved on to the editing console. Fisher’s directorial debut, “A Song for Tomorrow” (1948), wasn’t much of anything, but he soldiered on and established himself as a capable workman.