The reason for this is that my photo shoots have been booked late on in the development process. Therefore without my images i can't start developing my DPS's as they will be built around the images. I do have a photo shoot booked in for today so development can start today.
Below is the completed Hammer Horror article:
Do you remember the good old days? Do you remember when
horror films were scary? No? Neither do I. My generation has grown up in a time
when advancements in film have allowed endless possibilities to wow the paying
masses. Everything from 3D to CGI have made films more of a spectacle in
technology rather than deep meaningful stories you can lose yourself in,
causing genuine fear to its terrified audience like in the 60's. And of course
the company leading the way in the genre were Hammer.
Looking at horrors in the present day, films like the Saw
series and The Exorcist used jump scares and gruesome imagery to shock and
appal audiences. Were they considered greats? No, but they were a new concept
in the horror genre and they should be given merit for that. Of course when something gains popularity,
people rip of the good ideas and use them for their own. These horror films was
no exception. Sooner or later every horror film had CGI beheadings and jump
scares in every single film. And yes we can all admit jumping out of our skin
the first time something drags a girl from a bed in Paranormal Activity, but
after a while it just gets boring. It's hard to become scared of repetition,
yeah when the pissed off monster starts shouting and waving its limbs around like
a whacky inflatable arm tube man it's scary, but after the 7th time it just
starts to look desperate and it loses all impact.
So how does this relate to Hammer? Well, Hammer films like
any other film today would make you shit yourself at some point. The real
difference was that Hammer could keep making you shit yourself throughout. "How?"
I hear you ask. Well instead of relying on jump scares to scare people Hammer
focused on people's fears and atmospheric mise en scene to scare the audience
shitless. People were introduced to demonic characters talked about only in
"what ifs." But, Hammer brought these characters to life, and for an
hour and a half they preyed on peoples insecurities making them beg to stop even though they were a projection
turning even the alpha male culture at the time to quivering wrecks. This was
power Hammer had.
I can imagine now a few people going to watch these Hammer
films and tell me how not scary these films are. And in truthful honesty I
don't find them scary either. But back in the 50's and 60's when these films
were released, it was a struggle to even get them in theatres. They were rated
X to warn people of the horrors that lurked on the silver screen. This was long
before the ESRB ratings in America which is a real testament to how good these
films are that people had to mentally ready themselves to watch them.
So I imagine some of you are wondering why you haven't heard
of Hammer, especially after singing its praises like an extremely proud mother.
Well with recent times Hammer just hasn't been able to get the same amount of
attention as some of the other mainstream films. Whether it's because of money,
a lack of enthusiasm or just no one caring about them anymore, Hammer has
slowly withered away leaving nothing more than just a legacy and an out of work
Christopher Lee. Or is it?
In 2012, came the rebirth of the once great studio company,
it would bring out a film with big name stars, budget and marketing campaign,
thrusting it into the mainstream horror world from the small independent art
house cinemas where it had retreated to when the age of technology made its
entrance. This film was "The Woman In Black." Staring a post Harry
Potter Daniel Radcliffe TWIB was a movie only rated 15 by the BBFC (British
Board of Film Classification) which for modern horror films is pretty tame.
But, TWIB was far from tame. It was in your face horror that had audiences
talking about it for months. This insomnia creator was the wakeup call the
horror genre needed and personally restored my faith in horror.
So what's next for Hammer? Well TWIB 2 will be coming
out in 2014 titled "The Woman In Black: Angels of Death and that's really
the only major title. And this is why I love Hammer. Hammer could have seen how
successful TWIB was and continued on the same dreary path that mainstream
horror films go down. But hammer stuck with its roots and pull quality films
out year after year, most just go under the radar and don't do well in the box
office but they're still around and still scaring the shit out of people.
