His most famous films are characterised by a blend of fairytale myth and the supernatural alongside themes of sexuality, morality, and "the charm of evil", often drawing heavily on a conservative Christian outlook.

(1949) with Derek Bond; The Astonished Heart (1950) with Noël Coward (replacing Michael Redgrave during filming); So Long at the Fair (1950) with Dirk Bogarde and Jean Simmons.

Working from a script by Jimmy Sangster that re-imagined the lengthy original novel as a gruesome, morally ambiguous chamber piece, the film saw British TV star Peter Cushing cast as Baron Victor Frankenstein whilst the then little-known supporting actor Christopher Lee portrayed the Creature.

Hammer had even more financial success with Fisher's second gothic horror film Dracula (1958), starring Lee in the title role and Cushing as his adversary Doctor Van Helsing.

Once again reducing the scope of its source novel in line with Hammer's budgetary constraints, the screenplay minimised both the geographical settings and the number of characters, and the result was a compact, atmospheric and action-packed chiller in which Lee portrayed the figure of the vampire Count Dracula as having an animalistic sexuality that had never before been presented on screen.

Fisher directed another hit sequel, The Brides of Dracula (1960) starring Cushing, Freda Jackson, Martita Hunt and David Peel, whilst The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) had Paul Massie in the title role with Lee and Dawn Addams in support, but it was one of the first Hammer horrors to perform disappointingly at the box office.

However, Hammer didn't only assign him to gothic chillers; The Stranglers of Bombay (1959) was a different kind of horror, a tale of the thuggee cult in Imperial India starring Guy Rolfe and Allan Cuthbertson.

He finally worked for Hammer again when they reunited him with both Cushing and Lee for The Gorgon (1964), a personal favourite of the director, before Lippert used him once more for the black-and-white science fiction film The Earth Dies Screaming (1964), featuring American actor Willard Parker alongside Dennis Price and Fisher's close friend Thorley Walters.

Back at Hammer he worked on further entries to their most famous franchises, with Lee, Barbara Shelley and Andrew Keir starring in Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), whilst Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) once again featured Cushing.

After injuries sustained in a pair of road accidents resulted in lengthy periods of convalescence, Fisher returned to Hammer for the final time to make Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), which was to be his last film.

A financial failure that was written off as being very much behind-the-times when it was first released, more recently the movie has been reappraised as a worthy and melancholic "last hurrah" for Fisher and Hammer's style of horror in general.