Like one of the undead in their own movies, the resurrection of Hammer Films has been rumoured for a long time. Now, finally, the company is back with an all-new production entitled Beyond the Rave. Words: Paul Simpson

Hammer Films was formed in the 1930s and changed considerably during its lifetime. The British studio tapped into the emerging horror market in the UK, and their adaptations of the Dracula and Frankenstein stories, as well as a multitude of other horror icons, led to their name becoming synonymous with a certain stylish pedigree. Although it was also responsible for turning out such dross as the On The Buses movies, Hammer maintained its reputation, creating two well regarded TV series in the 1980s before fading from view.

In May 2007, the studio was bought by Dutch producer John De Mol, and its new chief executive, Simon Oakes swiftly got production back underway. The first Hammer film of the 21st Century was revealed to a select group of journalists in mid-March – but it's not like any Hammer film you've seen before. Okay, it's got vampires in (including a rather unusual stoner vampire, Leopold, who suggests that his victims get stoned to stop the pain!), and it features Ingrid Pitt ("She was amazing in the way she took over the screen!" gushes director Matthias Hoene). It's also got that cheap and cheerful look that you associate with Hammer – or what Simon Oakes politely describes as the school of "can do" movie-making.

But you can't just go down to the local fleapit to catch it, and unless you're willing to wait another few months, it can't be rented from your nearest DVD store. Beyond the Rave is an internet-only experience, created by Hammer in association with social networking site MySpace.

Interactive experience

The format of Beyond the Rave means that it’s a very different experience from previous Hammer horrors. Rather than 95 minutes of build up, revelations, gore and eventual defeat for the villains, there are 20 instalments, each about four-and-a-half minutes long, which cumulatively tell the story. And of course, because it's on MySpace, there's a whole raft of other things going on around the broadcast...

"Content in the way people want to consume it now is about customisation," MySpace Senior Vice President Jamie Kantrowitz explains. "Giving it to them where they want it, when they want it, anywhere they can discover it. It's not just about the linear experience – it's about the interactivity, the community that they're building around it so they can participate in it."

So as well as watching the film, you can find out background information about the characters, and interact with them. "We've really worked with Hammer to create an experience that not only has a great storyline, but has many stop points, so that the audience can feel that they're a part of this story," Kantrowitz says proudly.

Dreads and craggy hair

Hammer has four theatrical films in production at present – two in the US, one in Scotland, one in Ireland. But as Simon Oakes points out, "The process of making films is a lengthy one. It was very important for us to get moving quickly, and to start a relationship with a different demographic, a generation who may not have heard of Hammer. I felt very strongly that the MySpace demographic was an audience that I'd like to educate about Hammer."

The movie was written and produced by brothers Ben and Tom Grass based on a party the latter attended in his youth. "There were a lot of Go and Trance veterans on a hill in Wiltshire,” Tom recalls. “They were pretty scary – dreads and craggy hair – and we ended up hiding from them in the car. That moment of genuine fear was the inspiration. We were out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of lunatics and the situation could go any way."

"At its heart it's the story of a soldier, Ed, who's about to get sent to Iraq," says Ben Grass. "He's got 16 hours of leave, and he wants to go out and have one final hurrah and hook up with his girlfriend, but when he gets out of the barracks he finds she's gone missing. He goes on a search for her, and along the way he discovers that a bunch of travellers have come into the area and been throwing parties over the past couple of weeks. There's a party due to be thrown that night. When he gets there, lo and behold, it's not travellers who are throwing these parties, but actually vampires... When you add into the mix a gang of drug dealing crazies, the Crocker Gang, it's an explosive mix of music, violence and vampire action."

It's certainly got energy. Each segment has to grab the audience, keep their attention and get them coming back for more. Tom Grass's background is in advertising, so he's used to create mini-dramas which "build to a climax within a minute, maybe 30 seconds."

"We didn't want to write a feature film and cut it up," Ben Grass notes.

Tricks in the bag

“The most important thing for this audience is being able to get into the story quite fast,” says Tom Grass, who scripted the movie. “That is challenging because you have to strike a balance between characterisation, that drive, and the need to pay things off. To compensate for that in a social networking site, you build the profiles around the story, so that if you do want to find more about the character, you set them up as a real person and go in and engage with the character, a dimension you couldn't with a film. You've got to give more faster but there are other tricks in your bag."

One of the devices the film uses is flash-forwards. "We've got a number of horrifying moments," Tom Grass explains. "You pull the viewer in and at the end of it flash-forward to what you'll see in the next episode."

Commercials and music video director Matthias Hoene was keen to ensure that the story "looked very gritty and real – an illegal warehouse party setting. I wanted to take what made the old vampire movies great and put that in a new context. I knew the classics and the Hammer heritage but I was very scared because the pressure of people's expectations is very different on this project."

X: The unknown

The version to be released on DVD won’t simply be the online chapters re-edited together according to Hoene. "The MySpace broadcast is going to be slightly more non-linear than the DVD," he explains. "There will be parallel episodes but on the DVD we've pulled them into a linear form. The film is about 10 minutes longer on DVD, and then there's 20 minutes of additional film as to what happened next that you don't get to see anywhere else."

That being the case, isn't Hammer just using MySpace as a glorified advert for the DVD? "It certainly isn't a marketing exercise," Simon Oakes says firmly. "Hammer will make theatrical motion pictures but I really believe an important part of our strategy is this relationship with MySpace."

What a generation brought up on the torture porn of Saw and its ilk will make of a more traditional vampire story, and whether Hammer's gamble that this launch will reinvigorate the brand instead of waiting for a big theatrical release, can be seen when Beyond the Rave becomes live from 18 April.

Click here to visit the Beyond the Rave MySpace page. The region 2 DVD will be released on 16 June 2008.