Hammer films releases vampire horror Let Me In

Hammer Films releases the vampire picture ‘Let Me In’ in Britain on Friday. Stephanie West has been to meet the production team.

After a hiatus of nearly three decades, and several failed bids to revive it, the British movie brand synonymous with horror is rising again this week. Hammer Films releases the vampire picture ‘Let Me In’ in Britain tomorrow.

And this week, it has been shooting The Woman in Black, its first production on British soil in 30 years, starring Daniel Radcliffe. In its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, its movies about Dracula and Frankenstein were groundbreaking, but can it work in today’s climate?

He has been playing a boy wizard for more than a decade now, but in something of a coup for the newly risen Hammer Films, Daniel Radcliffe’s been lured to their dark side. Now 21, this is his first role since wrapping the very last of the Harry Potter movies, in this Hammer production of The Woman in Black. Here he is just this week taking the starring role of solicitor Arthur Kipps in a film version of a ghost story which has been running as a play in the West End.

It is the first time in three decades Hammer has been back on British soil, with one of the most sought after actors of the moment. But it knows it is coming back in a more sophisticated market and it will need global appeal.

Simon Oakes, the Hammer chief executive told Channel 4 News: “It’s a global business now. I don’t think you can survive in the industry by just having films that are released in the UK. There is a love affair with Hammer in the UK in the sense that that’s one of the easier things if you like. I think the message for me is to get Hammer known in the States. I think that’s important.”

Which is why, as they shoot The Woman in Black in the UK – the first movie actually released under the new Hammer banner, is one they made in America.

The vampire film Let Me In is a remake of a highly praised Swedish art house picture – but the new Hammer version has been almost universally praised – the Hollywood reporter called it one of the year’s most powerful thrillers. But it has also won accolades from horror writer Stephen King, who deemed it the best American horror film of the last 20 years and called it a genre-busting triumph.

About a lonely boy who unwittingly befriends a vampire to make it they turned to the director of the highly successful movie Cloverfield. Matt Reeves says he grew up watching Hammer films and jumped at the chance to re-invigorate the name.

Director Matt Reeves told Channel 4 News: “What really appealed to me about this was that while it was in the tradition of Hammer – a vampire tale – it’s quite modern and it is restrained and very naturalistic. It reminded me a bit in terms of what we were trying to do, of some of the American horror of the 70s and 80s, like the Exorcist or the Shining, which were less stylised.

Founded in the 1930s, synonymous with horror since the 1950s, at one time Hammer led the field in this genre, ably assisted by the likes of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

The entire back catalogue has transferred to the new owners: British producers with finance from a Dutch consortium, but they know there is a reason Hammer has lain dormant since the 1980s, it stopped being cutting edge and do not plan to make films like they used to, but lovers of this genre say for Hammer to have impact again it must innovate.

Horror critic and writer Kim Newman told Channel 4 News: “If you look at the films from the late 50s, particularly if you look at the reviews they got, they were genuinely quite shocking and exciting and titillating and horrifying. I think if Hammer is going to mean anything they’re probably going to rely on stories and characters and suspense and get interest in film makers, because that’s the only real way to stand up in the pack.”

But they are planning to re-visit some of their old stories Quatermass and Dracula, but not the Snorkel I am reliably informed – this will remain in the archives.