Hammer Horror Revived - on MySpaceTV

Since the news earlier this year that classic horror film company Hammer had been bought by a consortium headed by Big Brother creator John de Mol, there has been speculation about what would be next to come from the great British institution. According to The Guardian the wait is now over:

‘Yesterday it was announced that the first production from the recently revived Hammer Films would attempt to [similarly] marry old and new to shocking effect by premiering on MySpace in a series of 20 four-minute “webisodes”. The film, Beyond the Rave, will be the first UK co-production by the social networking site’s recently launched video arm, MySpaceTV.’

‘Starring Sadie Frost alongside a largely unknown cast and with a score chosen by DJ Pete Tong, it will chart 24 hedonistic hours in the life of a young soldier before he goes to Iraq. Inevitably, things soon take a sinister turn.’

‘Simon Oakes, chairman of Hammer Horror, promised it would mix the defining elements of its catalogue - blood, sex, death, vampires - with a 21st-century setting and sensibility. “It’s suspenseful, with plenty of blood, but it’s not ‘gore-nography’,” he said.’

Hammer are of course promoting across the social networks through their pages on Facebook and Bebo as well as MySpace, and by creating the film as an online serial are completely bypassing the box office- although they will offer the film on DVD after it’s online debut. The question now though, is how does MySpace plan to act as a regulator- despite Oakes’ insisting that the online version will not be too violent to be shown to a general audience, the DVD will most probably be classified as an 18.

watch the trailer at Beyond The Rave

Hammer Films