Wake Wood and the Return of Hammer.
 

“A LOT MORE THAN YOUR AVERAGE SCARE-FEST…

HAMMER CONTINUE THEIR RETURN TO FORM.” (FOUR STARS)

BESTFORFILM.COM.

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THE DEAD SHOULD NEVER BE WOKEN

A brand new horror film from the legendary and recently revitalized Hammer Films, Wake Wood superbly evokes the spirit and tone of the studio’s revered classics with a chilling supernatural tale that also combines the menacing paranoia of ‘The Wicker Man’ with the creeping dread of ‘Pet Sematary’.

Directed by David Keating (The Last Of The High Kings; KM64: Birth Of A Skatepark) from a script by producer Brendan McCarthy (Outcast; Breakfast On Pluto; The Mighty Celt; Omagh), Wake Wood stars BAFTA nominated actors Aidan Gillen (The Wire), Eva Birthistle (Middletown; Breakfast On Pluto; Ae Fond Kiss) and Timothy Spall (Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows; The King’s Speech) in a contemporary story of the occult.

In an attempt to cope with the grief and despair of losing their only child Alice (Ella Connolly), mauled to death by a savage dog, veterinarian Patrick Daly (Gillen) and his pharmacist wife Louise (Birthistle) move from the city to the remote Irish village of Wake Wood. With Patrick taking over the local vet’s practice and Louise working in the village chemist store, the couple soon become friends with many of the local landowners, farmers and their families.

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Their acceptance as members of this small but close community leads them to the discovery of an ancient pagan ritual practised by the people of Wake Wood in order to help ease the sudden loss of a loved one. This tradition, secretly preserved for many centuries, enables the grief-stricken to bring a deceased person back from the dead for a period of three days within one year of their passing, allowing them to say a final farewell to the departed before they make their final journey to the spirit world. For Patrick and Louise, this represents a miraculous opportunity to see Alice one more time and their request for the villagers’ help in realising their wish is reluctantly granted. But the ritual is bound by strict rules and conditions, which, if broken, demand a terrible price be paid.

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A “hair-raising” (Matt Glasby, Total Film) and “spellbindingly eerie and deliciously grotesque” (Robbie Collins, News of the World) shocker that manages to stir the emotions as much as it chills the spine, Wake Wood is a new and worthy addition to Hammer’s hallowed canon of classic horror films.

Vertigo Films will be releasing Wake Wood (cert. 18) at UK cinemas on 25th March 2011 and the DVD release (£15.99) will follow on 28th March 2011 courtesy of Momentum Pictures. Special Features include: interview with cast and crew; deleted scenes; trailer; teaser trailer.

Now, I don't say this very often but this is a modern horror film that I'm actually interested in seeing...! :faint:

Looks like it could be pretty good.

It's All Creatures Great and Small meets Pet Semetary!


No, but seriously, it's a nice bit of work, with some cool ideas and a solid cast. I really enjoyed it.

Anything with Timothy Spall in it is worth a watch.:)

Seconded!

Of the three films Hammer have just produced (Let me in, and The Resident , being the other two) Wakewood seems more like the Hammer of old - ie an old fashioned horror gothic style flim rather than a modern vamp flick or a thriller. I for one am really looking forward to this.

Wake Wood does evoke the old Hammer. It reminded me of a too long episode of Hammer House of Horror for 2011. Not a bad thing but I found the leads very bland and characterless. There are loads of great ideas never fully realised and fleshed out..

I watched Let Me In for the first time last night and thought it was a brilliant effort.

A rare remake that sites alongside the original as a worthwhile compainion piece rather than a travesty that mars it's source or a slick but pointless retred.

Let Me In was fantastic, Wake Wood is a more modest film in terms of budget but no less intriguing and it makes want to check out The Resident, which I had assumed to be another Woman-Under-Siege picture. I'll have a slightly more open mind now.

I knew nothing of this, will definitely be checking it out.

The Resident opens in cinemas today here in the UK. I was really surprised to see that it's going straight to DVD in the US at the end of this month.


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The Resident looks very good. Looking forward to that one.

I actually hated Let Me In, so I really hope that this is the direction that "New Hammer" are going in instead of remakes.

The Resident was ok.
It dragged in places though and is not very original.

Wake Wood I am interested in seeing too.
It looks like it could be better then last 2 new Hammer flicks.

Check out our latest blog post, looking at pagan influences in British Horror movies ~ WAKEWOOD: In Praise of the Pagan

It got a **** review in the latest Total Film. Really looking forward to seeing it. Pre-ordered it a couple of days ago. Also have the German RESIDENT Blu-ray en route too.

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Empire just put up an exclusive clip: CLICK HERE

EXclusive Wake Wood clip on HEYUGUYS

Its on Sky Box Office, so I'll catch it there...and in HD (why no blu-ray?)

Here's another CULT LABS WAKE WOOD BLOG

In it, I say that, in my opinion, Wake Wood is the closet film in spirit to classic Hammer so I'm wondering...

What is everyones favourite Hammer title and why?

I'll go with Plague of the Zombies for a number of reasons. The way it updates the classic poverty row Zombie plot of a devious boss character who zombies the locals for cheap labour by transporting it to a cornish tin mining town. This way, they can play with the classic format and get their trademark mix of middle class Victorians and classic yokels into the movie.

I'm also a fan because the film looks back to the classic era but also has a few ideas that would be fleshed out in the more explicit films of Romero, etc.

I think it might also be the birth place of grey rotted hands clawing the soil as the dead rise from graves marked with skewed handstones, a classic Zombie trope that's now standard issue.

Check out another exclusive clip from Wake Wood, this time courtesy of MYMOVIES.NET

Wake wood had a good review at Denofgeek.

The "voice of reason" D***y M**l also gave it a good review, and mourned the fact it only had a very limited cinema release

I watched Wake Wood last night and thought it was a very classy piece of filmmaking, harking back about four decades. I've just finished my review, which is now online. Wake Wood

I need to see this!

I read a review of this DVD somewhere (but I cannot remember where!) which showed, with screen comparisons, that the image on the UK DVD has been "opened up" (NOT cropped) from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1. It seems the German Blu-ray and DVD which will be out later this year will be 2.35:1. Thought it worth a mention.

That would be interesting to see; I thought the framing looked spot-on for a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Thanks for the info!

Finally found the review I was talking about! I am not allowed to post links, but the review is over at DVDBeaver.

Pre-release info on the German Blu-ray can be found at the German website of Koch Media Film.

The review is here:
Wake Wood - Eva Birthistle

Just finished watching "Wake Wood", an enjoyable film in it's own way. It's not going to set any houses on fire as an original work but as a film cobbled together from several other films it more than holds it's own, if that makes sense. I really liked the way the Paganism was more a way of doing things rather than a religion that bound the community together. Also I liked that the Paganism was never explained, it's just what you do in Wake Wood.

It also feels like a Hammer film and one that could have been made in the 1960s or '70s, which can be said for Let Me In.

Discs sitting on my bed, working up the will to go stick it on.

Im very tired.

If I were you, I'd wait until morning. If you watch the first quarter of an hour and then fall asleep, you'll end up regretting it and will have to watch it tomorrow anyway!

It did a quite good job of gripping me from the start so I stayed awake until the end. Then fell asleep straight afterwards :p.

Can't agree more with what everyone else has said about it feeling like a lost relic from the past, one of the things that sets up the comparison so well is its lack of explanation. It takes real confidence in your visual story-telling to just not explain any of the pagan ceremonies, or Arthur or anything really. We are left to just place everything togethor piece by piece. Its great.

I'm glad you stayed awake and enjoyed the movie -- it's something I want to watch again to see if there are things I missed on first viewing.

Went into ASDA today to get Wake Wood-none there.
'Excuse me-number 12 in the chart,Wake Wood-do you have any?'

'None there-it must be sold out.'

'Do you have any in stock?'
'Sold out.'

Happy to help? My ARSE!

However,the 'yoof' of today didn't put me off getting this promising looking new chiller.I've ordered it from Amazon.

As a huge fan of The Wicker Man,I'm REALLY looking forward to this.

I just saw this and thought it was very good!!

true

Got this review up at DVDBeaver last week, but I did not realize there was thread for the film here: WAKE WOOD (Momentum Pictures).

Watched Wake Wood tonight, and really enjoyed it.

Great spin on a tale of Pagan belief, coupled with the spooky killer child plot.

Some really good performances, and the effects were very well done too. Recommended. :nod:

Just watched the German Blu-ray (great movie!), and it is indeed 2.35:1, as opposed to the UK DVD which is 1.78:1.