Shadows in the Sun
Beyond
the Rave
Hi-tech Hammer rises from the grave
Source: Google
The executive producer of the first Hammer horror film in more than 30 years has urged fans to move with the times.
Hammer Films chief executive Simon Oakes, who bought the company in May last year, promised to protect its cinematic legacy but insisted that the “nostalgic folklore” of 1950s horror films had to give way to modern trends.
Accordingly, instead of playing on big screens, new movie Beyond The Rave will air from April 17 in five-minute instalments on MySpace – as a joint venture with the social networking site – before being released as a feature film on DVD.
It is expected to reach some 100 million people in 19 countries and in nine different languages, and while the Hammer horrors of the 1950s and 1960s made household names of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in classics like Dracula, the new film – shot as a full-length film but released twice weekly on the internet – features Sadie Frost and sets vampires against a backdrop of a drug-fuelled rave.
Oakes defended the modern production, saying: “We have an opportunity to recalibrate the DNA of Hammer Films for the MySpace generation.
“Hammer will make theatrical motion pictures but an important part of our strategy is what we are doing with MySpace.”
Beyond The Rave’s cast also includes Jamie Dornan, Nora-Jane Noone, and Football Factory actor Tamer Hassan, who described his character as “like George Clooney’s in From Dusk Till Dawn”.
There is also a contribution from 1960s Hammer Films star Ingrid Pitt, who embraced the renaissance of Hammer Films, saying competition from American horror movies had “killed” the British company in the 1970s.
The 70-year-old said: “Hammer to me was my life and to see it in a completely different mode is a great idea.
“Hammer went very wrong when America made horror films – now it’s going to be completely different. We have a new baby.”