Tags: hammer

The revived Hammer Films' debut feature Beyond the Rave has gained a director and a full cast, according to ShockTillYouDrop.com. Matthias Hoene, who has helmed music videos for Tom McRae and Fatboy Slim, will take the director's chair for the production. The cast includes Nora-Jane Noone (The Descent), Jamie Dornan (Marie-Antoinette), and Tamer Hassan (Layer Cake). Legendary Hammer actress Ingrid Pitt is expected to make a cameo. No word on whether the previously-reported Rick Warden ("Band of Brothers") is still in as vampire Strigoli.

The script for Beyond the Rave follows a soldier named Ed who, on the eve of being deported to Iraq, sets out with his pal Necro to find his girlfriend. When Ed and Necro finally catch up to her at a rave in the woods, they learn they are in the company of bloodsuckers and that the lead vampire Melech has plans for this party's guests.

The Unofficial Hammer Films website broke the news that Hammer Films is set to start filming its first feature-length movie since 1976's To the Devil a Daughter. Titled Beyond the Rave, the new film appears to be about vampires in the rave/clubbing subculture. Rick Warden ("Band of Brothers") has been cast in the role of vampire Strigoli. Cameras roll on September 15th. There are indications that the movie will be released as both a full-length film and also broken up into 20 segments for dissemination on the Internet and mobile phones.(read more...)

I’m sure all you boils and ghouls remember the very first time you saw Peter Cushing swing across the screen in Brides of Dracula. Perhaps, you felt a twinge in your stomach when you saw Christopher Lee show his fangs for the first time in Horror of Dracula. Or maybe you just couldn’t help to be swept into the atmosphere of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Regardless, there is a certain feeling you expect to generate while watching the typical Hammer horror. To the classic horror fan, Hammer is to horror as plastic is the Michael Jackson’s nose. However, there is a whole other side the Hammer in which few classic horror fans venture to.(read more...)

Now right about now many of you are thinking that I don't like franchise terror. Well, actually some of it is quite good. Britain's Hammer Films did rather well with their Frankenstein and Dracula movies. Okay, Evil of Frankenstein (1964) caused a bit of confusion by happening outside the chronology of the other films and Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) is open to debate by even the staunchest terror enthusiasts. After transplanting brains with such vigor why would the durable Baron (Peter Cushing) attempt to transplant a human soul? We could expect Colin Clive to try such a thing because despite his experiments he kept his religious convictions. I have to wonder out loud of Peter Cushing's character even believed that the soul existed.(read more...)