Wake Up with ‘Wake Wood’ This Summer on Blu-ray!
I am all over this one! Check out this trailer below! See how excited I am? That’s usually my last line leading into a press release. LOL. One of the first feature films in more than three decades from the horror hounds at Hammer Films arrives on Blu-ray this summer. The heart-pounding supernatural shocker, Wake Wood, comes to Blu-ray from MPI/Dark Sky Films on July 5th. Pre-order this title today and check out the full press release below for more information.
July 5, 2011 will be a momentous day for fright-film aficionados as MPI/Dark Sky Films today announced it will release WAKE WOOD, one of the first feature productions in more than three decades from the classic horror studio Hammer Films, on Blu-ray and DVD. WAKE WOOD marks a bold return to the gripping stories and atmospheric visual style that made Hammer productions the gold standard of horror via classics like The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Vampire Lovers.
WAKE WOOD tells the story of Patrick and Louise Daley (Aiden Gillen and Eva Birthistle), whose 9-year-old daughter, Alice (Ella Connolly), is killed in a horrific dog attack. To escape their grief, the devastated young parents move to the remote rural Irish community of Wake Wood (the movie was shot on location in County Donegal, Ireland). Sensing Patrick and Louises loss, the strange people of Wake Wood introduce the couple to a bizarre pagan ritual that will bring Alice back from the grave for three days only. The Daleys find the idea disturbing and exciting in equal measure, but once they agree to terms with Arthur, the village’s mysterious leader, a far bigger question looms: What will they do when it’s time for Alice to leave them forever?
In addition to Gillen (12 Rounds, The Wire) and Birthistle (The Children, Ae Fond Kiss), the WAKE WOOD cast includes National Board of Review winner Timothy Spall (Harry Potter, Nicholas Nickleby) and Amelia Crowley (Ella Enchanted). It was directed by David Keating (Summer Fling).
Critic Philip French of The Guardian (UK) said WAKE WOOD is both touching and scary.” Sky Movies’ Tim Evans said, “Cinematographer Chris Maris has a keen eye while [screenwriter] Brendan McCarthy’s dark narrative makes this a worthy frontrunner in Hammer’s return to the horror fray.”
David Edwards of the Daily Mirror and Nigel Floyd of Time Out London also noted a connection to the Hammer of yore. Edwards wrote, “Thoroughly unsettling from start to finish, WAKE WOOD will please horror fans with its muted palette, ominously creepy atmosphere and neat nods to the best of 70s British horror,” while Floyd said, “For all its pre-Christian paganism, demon child imagery, blood and guts, David Keating’s rural horror movie is at heart an involving portrait of a young couple struggling to come to terms with the death of a daughter.
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