WHEN it came to bringing things back from the dead, nobody did it better than Hammer House of Horror. Now the long-buried film company is resurrecting itself to shoot its first chiller in more than 30 years, in Co Donegal.

With the help of almost €1m of funding from the Irish Film Board (IFB), Hammer Films, which produced gothic horrors such as Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein, has chosen an Irish film by a novice writer as its first horror flick to go into production since 1976’s To the Devil a Daughter, starring Christopher Lee.

Since last week, the village of Pettigo has been transformed into a film set, with make-up and wardrobe lined up along the main street, while people are cast in white plaster for ghoulish effect. For the duration of the shoot, Pettigo has become the fictional Irish town of The Wake Wood.

Hammer is a legendary British film brand that was launched in 1934 then, after a period of inactivity during the second world war, delivered a hugely successful run of monster movies in the 1950s, including classics such as The Curse of Frankenstein, with Lee and Peter Cushing, The Quatermass Xperiment and The Mummy.

Its last feature production was The Lady Vanishes in 1979, a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, starring Elliott Gould and Cybill Shepherd. The company lay dormant until last year when it was bought by a Dutch consortium. Since then, it has begun development work on about 25 films, but The Wake Wood is the first to go into production.

The film stars Irish actors Aidan Gillen and Eva Birthistle as a vet and his pharmacist wife grieving over the death of their nine-year-old daughter Alice who was mauled by a dog. They relocate to the town of Wake Wood where they learn of a pagan ritual that allows them three more days with Alice. Timothy Spall, who played Peter “Wormtail” Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies, is cast in the role of the town’s leader.

“It’s about raising the dead when you shouldn’t,” said Brendan McCarthy, who wrote the original story and is co-producing with John McDonnell through their company Fantastic Films. “As a kid, I loved to watch things and then not be able to sleep afterwards, but you still couldn’t stop yourself watching them.”

McCarthy also said it was thrilling to have the film he wrote backed by such a prestigious company as Hammer. “It is synonymous with a great gothic horror tradition so it’s great fun. It’s a very original story set in the present day and I think people who enjoyed Hammer films will love it.”

Simon Oakes, chief executive of the relaunched Hammer Films, said: “I read the script of The Wake Wood and loved the concept. On one level, it is very modern in terms of the themes, ideas and the writing, but at the same time had a sense that this is the right type of film in terms of plot to be one of the first Hammer films.

“The back catalogue, the films that were made in the 1960s and 1970s, are held in great affection. It was an incredible time in British film-making. The films were fantastic; very much of their time. But I think you need to move on. Our mission at Hammer is to recalibrate its DNA for a modern audience and produce new movies.”

Oakes is grateful for the “great support” The Wake Wood received from the IFB. “Here we are shooting the first Hammer film [in 35 years] in Ireland, with an all-Irish cast and in Donegal, of all places — it’s fantastic.”

Louise Ryan, the board’s marketing executive, said: “The Wake Wood will bring local jobs and spend to Donegal and promote the region to international audiences. Our regional support fund encourages production to use locations outside the Dublin/Wicklow area.”

The film is expected to be released next autumn — with Hallowe’en an obvious date — although early footage is due to be screened at the American Film Market, an annual movie industry event, in November.

The Wake Wood is directed by David Keating, who made The Last of the High Kings. Describing the experience of working on the first Hammer horror since 1976, Keating said: “Actually, I’m quite disappointed that the deal wasn’t done at midnight, in a crypt, with everyone wearing capes.”

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article4837861.ece