While I was growing up Hammer horror was a staple diet – Dracula, Frankenstein and Quatermass movies galore, Rasputin: The Mad Monk, She, Mark of the Devil, Kronos and The Devil rides out to name but a few that spring to mind, they were fantastic. Low budget and incredibly effective horror, sometimes so cheesy and camp you could not believe with some complete stinkers, but some absolute classics came out of that Production house.
So it is with a glad heart I read in The Guardian today that:
The lucrative resurgence of the horror genre in recent months has inspired a group of investors to back the first productions from the legendary Hammer Films studio in nearly 30 years.
The studio behind such classics as Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Devil Rides Out is joining forces with Random Harvest, a British production and funding company, and Stan Winston Productions, a Hollywood-based effects house, to set up Harvest Pictures III to back new productions.
Excellent news! Apparently they are returning to produce low-budget, but high quality, movies in the likes of 28 Days later (arguable in my mind), Shaun of the Dead and Saw.
They are also keen to play off the recent success of horror movies and remakes, which have brought higher than expected box office figures (for that read profit) than expected. The time of the horror movie has returned.
Reading that I had wondered, “are they too late?” but with the list of upcoming horror movies (remakes, sequels and videogame adaptions included) looking very healthy for next year, it’s clear the other Studios haven’t given up on the idea.
Hammer projects in the pipeline already include Perfect Sight and The Beetle. Filming is expected to begin in the early summer, close to three decades after Hammer produced its final title, The Lady Vanishes, in 1978.
Wonderful, and for some abject lessons in low budget horror, Hammer is definitely a House to visit.
