Fridae

With Wake Wood, the resurrection of Hammer Film which begun with The Resident and Let Me In is complete. Returning to the studio’s low-budget Brit horror roots, Wake Wood is an evocative piece set in a small Irish village with an unsettling secret: their kindly reverend and village chief (Timothy Spall) heads a pagan cult that will restore your dead loved ones for a limited period of three days, if you pay a small price and agree to all the rules. And stay in their village for the rest of your life.

An unsuspecting couple played by Aiden Gillen (QAF, Game of Thrones) and Eva Birthistle relocate to the quaint rural village and their nightmare begins when after discovering the villagers’ secret grisly rituals, persuade them to share the benefits by bringing their recently deceased daughter back to life. Well, someone must have done something wrong somewhere because like a reverse of Pet Semetary, their girl has a touch of the demonic around her and then everyone starts dropping like flies in accidents that are increasingly difficult to shrug off as mere accidents.

Wake Wood does take some time to warm up to the gore that made “Hammer horror” famous, focusing in its first act on pagan folklore and supernatural beliefs and customs. Once the gore starts flowing, the bodies start dropping, and the screams start pealing, you’ll know that all is fine at Hammer Film.

Evocative and existentially horrifying, Wake Wood places well with classic Brit horror in the way of The Wicker Man more than with American supernatural horror films.