The 8 most horrifying Armie Hammer docuseries revelations from 'House of Hammer'

Armie Hammer had a promising career ahead of him. In 2010, he attracted attention for his portrayal of the Winklevoss twins in David Fincher's "The Social Network" and in 2012, he won over young hearts as Prince Andrew Alcott in the fantasy Snow White retelling "Mirror Mirror." A few years later — following a string of forgettable roles and box-office bombs — he reclaimed his princely crown with Luca Guadagnino's acclaimed drama "Call Me By Your Name."

But all that fame came crashing down in 2021, when Hammer faced numerous allegations of rape, abuse, violence and even a lurid interest in cannibalism. An investigation led by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) ensued and subsequently, Hammer was dropped from multiple upcoming projects. For the time being, Hollywood's ex-Golden Boy is living a private life, working as a timeshare salesman in the Cayman Islands.

The troubling allegations are revisited in "House of Hammer," the latest true-crime installation from Discovery+. The three-part series spotlights the victims who came forward to tell their stories along with Casey Hammer — Hammer's estranged aunt — who exposes the generations of abusers within the prominent Hammer dynasty.

"I grew up with very abusive, multi-generational men in the Hammer family," Casey told Salon in a recent Zoom interview. "And I just felt such an admiration for these women about how brave they were and I wanted to help them somehow. 'House of Hammer' shines a light on victims and abuse and holding people accountable — especially people, power, money, influence and fame. That's not easy to go up against."

From a Hammer-crested "sex throne" to the actor's perverse sexual fantasies, here are eight gut-wrenching revelations from the series:

"I have a fantasy about having someone prove their love and devotion and tying them up in a public place at night and making their body free use and seeing if they will f**k strangers for me," read a DM that Julia Morrison received from Hammer.

The pair began chatting a week before the start of quarantine in 2020, after Hammer followed Morrison on Instagram and expressed interest in a photo series she had modeled for. The series, called "For Arabella," showcases the plights of breaking out of a toxic relationship via a collection of emotional and provocative photos. When asked which photo he liked the most, Hammer pointed out the one in which Morrison was being choked. It didn't take long for their conversation to become far more graphic.

"Once the sexual nature of the DMs started, it was all that he ever wanted to talk about," Morrison recounted in the documentary. "He says to me, 'Fine, let's be open and honest. I've wanted to tie you up since I saw those goddamn pictures and messaged you about it. Shibari is how it's spelled. It's the Japanese art of rope bondage."

She continued, "And then he was saying to me about how if I were to submit to him, at the level where he could call me and say one word and get me to come on demand, like Pavlovian dog-style. Kind of getting you into this submissive space where he's the dominant. These are messages that are being sent literally within seconds of each other. You know, very heavy, very frequent."

As the conversation progressed, Hammer's DMs grew more violent and disturbing. Another DM read, "You don't think or worry about anything except being a good little pet. My own personal little slave. In return you will be worshipped, fed and f**ked."

Similar DMs were also sent to Armie's ex-girlfriend Courtney Vucekovich. She recalled receiving a note from him that simply said, "I'm going to bite the f**k out of you."

Another woman, going by the pseudonym "Effie," who first spoke out against Hammer, posted screenshots of the DMs she received from the actor on an Instagram account called House of Effie. One such DM read, "I don't know, you were the most intense and extreme version of that I've ever had. Raping you on your floor with a knife against you. Everything else seemed boring."

The pattern that emerged was that Hammer would use the language of BDSM without fully understanding that BDSM requires consent and for all parties to feel safe. In contrast, the actor's partners allege that he consistently crossed the lines of consent, carrying out violent acts against their will.

In addition to the DMs, Hammer oftentimes bit his victims and left behind dark bruises & marks throughout their bodies. (Although the documentary included a picture of a mark implying that it was one such bite impression Hammer had made, Variety reported that it was revealed to be a tattoo that the film has now since removed.)

"He bites really hard . . . and he tells you to wear them like a badge of honor," ex-girlfriend Courtney Vucekovich, who admits to falling under the actor's control, said. "Almost like he convinced me that I'm lucky to have it. As f**ked up as that sounds, at that time, I was interpreting that as love. Looking at it now makes me sick."

Courtney Vucekovich explained that Hammer subdued his victims by pushing their boundaries "a little bit at a time." She recalled that while on vacation with Hammer, he brought a brown bag filled with ropes to their hotel room. Hammer allegedly told Vucekovich that he had only tied up mannequins before, never humans, and wanted to try out this fantasy with her. When she declined, he grew angry and later, took advantage of Vucekovich while he was inebriated.

"The ropes were around your neck, your wrists, your ankles, behind your back. I mean, I had bruises . . . I hated it. I understand that if this is your fantasy, more power to you but I didn't like it and it didn't feel safe," Vucekovich said tearfully.

"I didn't feel loved . . . and you're completely immobilized. There's something about trauma while you're immobilized and can't move. There's that fight or flight, you can't do either, you're just stuck there. And I'm just closing my eyes until it ended and he just went to sleep like it was nothing."

"Effie" – from the House of Effie Instagram account that posted the incriminating screenshots of her texts with Hammer – took her revelations one step further. She decided to show her face and released a video statement alongside her attorney, Gloria Allred, in response to Hammer's lawyers.

"I met Armie Hammer on Facebook in 2016 when I was 20 years old. The relationship progressed rapidly and the emotions from both sides became really intense," Effie said in her opening. "He would often test my devotion to him by removing and crossing my boundaries as he became increasingly more violent. He abused me mentally, emotionally and sexually.

"On April 24th, 2017, Armie Hammer violently raped me for over four hours in Los Angeles during which he repeatedly slapped my head against a wall bruising my face. During those four hours, I tried to get away but he wouldn't let me."

Armie Hammer's aunt, Casey Hammer, revealed numerous instances of horrifying, scandalous and criminal behavior in her family in order to show that the actor was not the first to abuse power. In fact, her own father was one such man.

It turns out that in 1955, her father Julian Hammer (and Armie's grandfather) was arrested for manslaughter after he murdered his close friend Bruce. During a birthday celebration in Los Angeles, Bruce reminded Julian that he owed him $400. Julian then grew upset and shot Bruce two times, killing him on the spot.

"The story that he told us was self-defense, but my mom was very quick to tell me, 'No, your father just murdered someone in cold blood,'" said Casey in the documentary.

Following the murder, Julian's father, business leader Armand Hammer, paid his lawyer $50,000 to absolve his son of all the charges. Per Edward Epstein, the author of "Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer," the money was to protect Armand's high-profile reputation rather than to help his son. Julian was then given a position at Occidental Petroleum — the chemical industry company founded by Armand — per Armand's request. There, Julian carried out illegal operations, such as secretly recording phone conversations, and became a "spy" for his father.

Courtney Vucekovich revealed that Armie Hammer frequently carried safety pins, Shibari ropes, knives, a paddle and other BDSM-like tools when they traveled together.

"He said he wanted to find a doctor in Los Angeles to remove both my ribs. He wanted to eat my ribs," she said. "He wanted to smoke them. He was obsessed with meat."

Vucekovich explained that Hammer frequently organized "high protocol nights," which consisted of strict rules that were established by Hammer and built around inflicting pain on Vucekovich.

"On one of these high protocol nights, I was tied up, and he basically looked over my body and said to me, 'Where should I put my initials on you?'" Vucekovich recalled. "And then he just started to carve his initials into me. And I just didn't say anything. It was bleeding and he was licking it, drinking blood."

According to Lauren Skae — also known as TikToker The Zen Blonde, who delved into the Hammer family's dark history — Armie Hammer's father Michael (and Casey's brother) had a 7-foot-tall "sex throne" (also called the "naughty chair") which was kept in the Armand Hammer Foundation headquarters. The chair allegedly had a hole in the seat, a cage underneath and a hook — resembling a meat hook.

An old photo of Michael shows him sitting on the throne and holding the head of a blonde woman, who is sitting in the cage and smiling. Despite the photos and descriptions of the throne, Michael's lawyer later claimed the throne was merely a "gag gift."

"It seems like an awfully large 'gag gift' and a very customizable gag gift to give someone," Skae said in the documentary.

Following her parent's divorce, Casey said she rarely saw her father and only visited occasionally. During one visit, she returned to her childhood home and witnessed a sex and drug-fueled house party hosted by her father.

"It was a lot of drinking . . . a lot of smoke-filled rooms, a lot of screaming, a lot of loud music, a lot of drugs," Casey recounted. "He always had 16- or 17-year-old girls around, not much older than I was, five or six years older, and he called them his 'housekeepers.' It was code for his girlfriends . . . It was almost like giant orgies."

Casey also recalled finding polaroid photos of an underage girl at the party performing sexual acts on a man as her father watched in the background.

"When my father and my brother surrounded themselves with young, impressionable women that would basically do anything that they asked . . . that was the mentality I saw," she explained. "Women were disposable in the Hammer family."

When asked how her family's mistreatment of women influenced her perception of herself, Casey told Salon that making sense of her own identity has been hard:

"I speak a lot about it in my book of how I work through a lot of that just to get healed," she said. "That I'm even sitting here right now, it's a testament that for whatever reason, I'm supposed to keep plugging along because you know, I'm here for a reason."

"And I think seeing "House of Hammer," I had a moment where you go, "OK, this is why I'm going to keep moving forward with this purpose and help empower women because I know how great it made me feel." It's like one of those things where everything you need is inside. And the minute you stop and take the moment to just love yourself for who you are, it's OK, it's good enough."