''Beyond the Rave'' is a British

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

, initially published on MySpace, that marked the return of

Hammer Films A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...

in 2008.

Plot

The story follows the last hours of freedom of local soldier Ed, who is flying out to

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

the following morning. With the help of his best friend, Necro, he spends his last night in the UK tracking down his missing girlfriend, Jen, who was last seen partying with a bizarre group of hardcore nocturnal ravers led by the mysterious Melech. When he catches up with Jen at a party or

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

in a remote forest, Ed discovers that Melech's crowd are vampires, using the rave to lure victims. Melech and his cult intend to harvest the victims' blood and use it to sustain themselves on a long sea voyage they are planning. Their plans go awry, however, when Ed and several other rave participants offer lethal resistance to the vampires.

Cast

File:Sebastian Knapp as Melech.jpg, Sebastian Knapp as Melech File:Emma Woollard as Anais.jpg, Emma Woollard as Anais File:Emma Woollard as Anais 2.jpg, Emma Woollard as Anais File:Jackson Scott as Botz.jpg, Jackson Scott as Botz File:Lois Winstone as Lilith.jpg,

Lois Winstone Lois Elaine Winstone (born 1982) is an English actress and musician. Her younger sister Jaime is also an actress. She has had parts in both ''Holby City'' and ''The Bill'', as well as in several films. Early life Winstone is the eldest daughter ...

as Lilith

Production

Beyond the Rave is produced for Hammer by Pure Grass Films, in association with MySpaceTV, from an original story by Tom Grass. It is a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

story set in England’s underground party scene, and went online on MySpace on 17 April 2008. Ingrid Pitt in Beyond the Rave

The late

Ingrid Pitt Ingrid Pitt (born Ingoushka Petrov; 21 November 193723 November 2010) was a Polish-British actress and writer best known for her work in horror films of the 1970s. Early life Ingoushka Petrov was born in Warsaw, Poland, one of two daughters ...

, who had starred in Hammer's past vampire films ''

The Vampire Lovers ''The Vampire Lovers'' is a 1970 British Gothic horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, George Cole, Kate O'Mara, Madeline Smith, Dawn Addams and Jon Finch. It was produced by Hammer Film Productions. I ...

'' and ''

Countess Dracula ''Countess Dracula'' is a 1971 British Hammer horror film based on some of the legends surrounding the Countess Elizabeth Báthory. The film was produced by Alexander Paal and directed by Peter Sasdy, both Hungarian émigrés working in Englan ...

'', played a cameo role as the demented mother of a drug dealer living in a dark and rat-infested apartment. The segment would have appeared in episode 3, but was cut from the finished film, though Pitt is still listed as "Tooley's mum" in the credits. The scene is included as an extra on the DVD.

Sadie Frost Sadie Liza Frost (née Vaughan; born 19 June 1965) is an English actress, producer and fashion designer, who ran fashion label Frost French (until its closure in 2011) and a film production company (Blonde to Black Pictures). Early life Frost ...

, who appears as the vampire Fallen Angel, had previously played the doomed

Lucy Westenra Lucy Westenra is a fictional character in the 1897 novel ''Dracula'' by Bram Stoker. The 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy family, she is Mina Murray's best friend and Count Dracula's first English victim. She subsequently transforms into a vam ...

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...

's 1992 film version of ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...

''.

Release

The DVD was initially due to be released on 28 October 2009 over Pure Grass Films. However, this date was put back to September 2010. The DVD contains the final episode of the serial (not released on-line), as well as an additional episode called "Necro's First Kill," which details Necro's early reluctance to kill for blood as he and the surviving vampires struggle to flee England. The DVD was released as a limited edition of 5000 copies, each numbered. It was made available in both

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

and

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

formats for direct order from Hammer on-line.

References

External links

* Hammer Film Productions horror films 2000s English-language films 2000s British films {{2000s-horror-film-stub