Hammer boss Simon Oakes says he wants the studio’s new release to scare audiences “shitless”.
The legendary studio, revived by Oakes and his business partners, is still glowing from the success of The Woman in Black which smashed box office records by grossing $35m at the UK box office and over $130 worldwide.
Speaking to journalists in February, Oakes modestly said the studio had had “some success” with the film which was widely hailed as a return to Hammer’s glory days.
Both long-time Hammer fans and new audiences, drawn in by the canny casting of Daniel Radcliffe, loved the studio’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel.
The success has given the revived Hammer its first franchise – a sequel, based on an original story by Hill, is set to hit screens later this year.
But before then Oakes is looking to terrify audiences with paranormal thriller The Quiet Ones.
Inspired by true events, the film tells the story of an unorthodox professor (Jared Harris) who involves a group of students in an experiment to create a poltergeist.
Set in 1974, The Quiet Ones is a move away from the literary inspired films the studio is best known for.
Oakes says his team looked for a film which could’ve been made by the studio in the 1970’s or 80’s had it continued production at a time when US films such as The Poltergeist were replacing Dracula and Frankenstein as audiences’ favourite scares.
The Quiet Ones is released across the UK on April 10th.
