Beyond the Rave, Eps 1-3

“No girlfriend. No party. No weed.” (Beyond the Rave)
No credits. No horror. (Hammer and Beyond)

Well, the wait is finally over. The first three episodes of Hammer’s new movie/Internet serial were just launched today and can be viewed on the MySpaceTv page.

Lots of speculation accompanied all the production news with most fans of the Hammer movies fearing the worst: It looked like generic teen pap. The title was ripped not from another Hammer movie, but from an Amicus production. Raves are already as outdated to current teen audiences as Dracula A.D. 1972’s “hip” lingo was to the then current market. And what does it have to do with anything that Hammer ever stood for?

Can’t say I personally ever cared too much about whether they would really carry on the heritage of old Hammer. I love their movies, but for the new productions I am only interested in whether this is going to be a good movie in its own rights. The serial idea sounded like something that could either be hailed as the greatest new Internet marketing idea in years. Or as pure crackpot. After all who would be interested in buying the eventual DVD release if they already had a chance to watch or even download it for free?

This morning the first three episodes of the series were launched. From now on new eps will be posted every Monday and Thursday.

So is it any good?

Errr, no, very mediocre average at best so far, but bordering on drivel.

For starters these eps are just around 3-4 minutes long. I initially thought we were talking about 10 minute shows and that some care may have been shown in actually creating a proper serial, i.e. shooting the film in instalments that lead to regular cliff hangers and have you gagging for the next ep. Instead the film appears to have been shot just like any ordinary movie production and was then just randomly sliced and diced for the MySpace upload.

There are no credits in any of the episodes. Given the short running time of these this may be a logical decision. It is still a smack in the face of the people in front of and behind the cameras. So Episode #1 starts off straight away with showing us soldiers on an exercise in a moonlit night searching a forest for something or the other and discovering a vampire sucking a blonde girl. Cut. One of the soldiers is seen being brought into a military hospital in Iraq. Cut to a month earlier where the very same guy has one day left before shipping to Iraq and decides to spend the day looking for a rave and his missing girlfriend, meets up with his hip talking buddy (read: speaking like a retard from the 1990s) and drives off in a car. Not the most suspenseful ending of a serial episode methinks.

Episode 2 sees them driving on and on. And on and on. And there’s a mysterious undertaker’s car. We even have a flashback within a flashback! Urrgh. That flashback really just shows cliché dance sequences that we have viewed a million times before.

The driving around continues in Episode 3, though we also get to know two cockney speaking drug dealers who seem to be rejects from a bad Guy Ritchie movie. (You know the ones he started making after the met Madonna.) Oh, and we actually have the first proper horror scene. Not much of a horror scene, but about frigging time. Two guys visiting a DJ in a pirate radio station (sure, another completely outdated concept in this day and age), let him snort some coke, then suck him dry in an obvious attempt to get high on his drugged up blood stream.

The best I can say so far is that I haven’t been completely annoyed yet, however, so far the film hasn’t displayed anything resembling proper horror, the dialogue is painfully “wicked” in an awfully outdated lingo, the story telling is shoddy and neither displays respect for the serial nature of the production nor for any basic film making 101s (flashbacks within flashbacks are NOT clever).

Guess I’ll be back for the other eps, though I am not holding my breath.

Contributors wanted

Hi guys,

you may have noticed that I no longer seem to post as regularly as at the start. This is not for lack of wanting, but entirely for lack of time. When I started this blog I had just commenced a 6-month sabbatical from work and all the time in the world. Now all that is but a distant memory and I am back to being Mr Salary Man. On top of that we are also currently dealing with a major health scare in our family.

As such time to post blog items is exceedingly scarce. This blog, however, has been a wonderful outlet for me to chat with other likeminded fans and I hate to see posts showing up only rarely.

I know there is a lot of talent out there and I want to reach out to you guys: If any of you feel they would like to contribute posts, either as one-offs or on a regular basis, please let me know.

The spectrum of possible posts is huge. You can post news about Hammer stars or reviews of new DVD releases, biographies of the talent in front or behind the camera, reviews of either Hammer movies or films in general that had Hammer people involved. Or how about book or magazine reviews associated with the subject? Tons of options.

So if you're interested to contribute and to keep the Hammer spirit alive, please let me know.

Some links of interest

*Just two more days to go until Beyond the Rave. The sequels can be accessed through http://www.myspace.com/beyondtherave
and I understand that you no longer need to have a MySpace ID to watch it. I plan on blogging about each and every entry when it's released, so stay tuned.

In the meantime a new Facebook group has been set up called... I want to find a 100,000 people in a week to watch Beyond The Rave. Methinks that is something that Hammer would like to see as well. LOL

They actually have two clips of the film, and believe it or not, they actually have me pretty excited for the first time ever. No, it doesn't look like Hammer, but there seems to be quite a feeling of LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS about it. It just may work. Interestingly enough they also have Russian and Korean language trailers for the film!

*BBC radio recently dedicated one episode of their GREAT LIVES series to none other than Peter Cushing. In it none other than Mark Gatiss from the League of Gentlemen discusses the life of Cushing in a very loveable portrait. An MP3 file can be found at the Peter Cushing Yahoo Group, however you need to be member of this group to get access to it.

*A new website dedicated to the Quatermass movies has just been set up that can be accessed here. At the moment it only has material about QUATERMASS 2, but more is to follow shortly. It looks to be one of those web sites that you just need to access as a fan in regular intervals. Steve Reed, the owner of this site has also started a blog about the subject.

Van Helsing's Journal

Van Helsing’s Journal # 9 is out now and carries an article by yours truly about Amando De Ossorio's Blind Dead movies as well as a number of other articles about Bela Lugosi’s British films, the Mario Bava box set, Dominatrixes from Outer Space, DVD reviews and lots more.

I had previously published some other articles and reviews in previous issues and one of these days I am confident that Harry Long, the publisher, will learn how to spell my name properly. LOL

Van Helsing’s Journal had emerged from the old Cushing Confidential Fanzine and is now dedicated to all things fantastic, with a heavy slant on often long forgotten silent movies and other productions worth of a re-evaluation.

Unfortunately, VHJ does not have a proper web presence, so check out your local cinema memorabilia stores to see if they have it stocked. Or else send an email or letter directly to the publisher for inquiries as to how to best order this publication:

Harry H Long
PO Box 2092
Cleona
PA 17042
harryhlong@yahoo.com

New Movies with Hammer Stars

A poster on my Caroline Munro discussion group revealed this week that Caroline had told him she would appear in a cameo in a new Dick Turpin film.

It's only a cameo role alongside Jeremy Bulloch and a new actor who plays Dick Turpin
(she can't remember his name), but she and Jeremy get held up by Turpin and robbed. She plays a lady. It's directed by Chris Stone and is being filmed in Staffordshire in April. Will let you know more when I get it.

Sky One tonight will show the first part of Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic adaptation in which Christopher Lee can be heard as the voice of Death. The concluding second part will be shown tomorrow night.

Speaking of Lee: A new poster for Cowboys for Christ, the Robin Hardy/Wicker Man reimagining of sorts, now also has Joan Collins' name firmly attached to it. The filming for Christopher Lee's part will apparently start in April.

Not a new film, but a rare Hammer: According to DVD Drive-In The Man Who Could Cheat Death with be released by Legend Films later this year. The same company will also release the Amicus productions The Skull and The Deadly Bees.

First Beyond the Rave review

Looks like the first Beyond the Rave review is in.... and it is from none other than Hammer's own Ingrid Pitt. In an exclusive Den of Geek article she describes being invited to the premiere of the new Hammer movie/serial and her reaction to it. Us ordinary mortals will have to wait until April 16 when the first episode will air on MySpace TV.

What happened to the Hammerbooks website?

I just tried to access one of my absolute favourite Hammer sites, the Hammer Books Library, dedicated to an overview over all the various Hammer Books and Magazines out there, but kept getting an error message. Does anyone know what's up with the site? I also don't seem to be able to get any Google reference about it, other than non functioning links from other sites. Please don't tell me that this site is no longer around as that would be a crying shame.