Hammer time again?

The British Hammer house of horrors hasn't created a monster since 1979 - but like most of its incarnations - rumours of death had been exaggerated.

The British Hammer house of horrors hasn't created a monster since 1979 - but like most of its incarnations - rumours of death had been exaggerated.

Hammer productions was formed in 1934 - however it wasn't till the end of the 50s that it created the stuff of nightmares, establishing the career of a villainously versatile Christopher Lee, who played both the mummy and Frankenstein - but most famously count Dracula across three decades.

By the end of the 60s Hammer was a byword for horror and British talent. But by the mid-70s it was started to look jaded - Lee swapped bloody fangs for golden guns to terrorise Bond - and Hammer ended the decade with a film version of On the Buses. But in 2007one British filmmaker at least is pleased to hear promise of resurrection.

Andrew McDonald's new picture, 28 Weeks Later, is an example of the sophisticated horror movie that Hammer will have to compete against now. A sequel commissioned because 28 Days Later did such big business in America, it epitomises what hammer needs to recapture - its kudos in Hollywood - which of course means an update.

Other Brits have mixed horror and comedy to great effect - Simon Pegg's reworking of the zombie genre for one..

But the House of Hammer has been bought by a group of European investors - headed by Big Brother creator John de Mol - who say they're planning to target a new generation of horror lovers - extreme makeovers may feature.

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