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“A LOT MORE THAN YOUR AVERAGE SCARE-FEST… HAMMER CONTINUE THEIR RETURN TO FORM.†(FOUR STARS) - BESTFORFILM.COM.
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.
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.
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.
