The Hammer Festival
27th October- 15th November 2009
This Halloween Idea Generation opens the crypt doors to launch London’s most frightening festival – the Hammer Festival.
The Hammer Festival brings together a terrifying programme of film screenings, ghost tours, readings, and an exhibition featuring never-seen-before artwork from their classic and upcoming films, rare and original posters and behind the scenes photos from Britain’s most successful film company Hammer.
The Hammer Festival will be an event you’ll want to get your teeth stuck into as the exhibition, forming the back bone of the festival, unearths images from Hammer’s classic subjects and genres including Hammer Horror, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Living Dead, Thrillers, Science Fiction and Hammer Glamour.
Images and posters dug up from the archives of the most famous and successful independent British film company, Hammer will be displayed at the Idea Generation Gallery celebrating the horror, drama, suspense and glamour of the seminal films which propelled Hammer to cult status.
The exhibition will offer an exclusive look at previously unseen photos, prints and artworks from an array of classic Hammer, behind the scenes photos of stars including Christopher Lee, Ursula Andress, Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Peter Cushing & Bette Davis and an exclusive look at artwork from upcoming Hammer releases.
The exhibition will give an insight into Hammer’s incredible legacy with posters and prints from The Brides of Dracula (1960), The Phantom of the Opera (1961) and Hammer House of Horror (1980) displayed alongside terrifying images from The Curse of Frankenstein (1956) and original posters from The Horror of Frankenstein (1970).
Fans will be invited to look if they dare at the spine tingling images from classic pictures The Mummy (1959), Dracula (1957) and The Abominable Snowman (1957). The exhibition will also provide an exclusive look at Hammer’s renowned erotic period, featuring artwork from films such as Lust for a Vampire (1970), The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Slave Girls (1966).
Titan Books will also be launching their latest release, Hammer Glamour, at the exhibition. The book features rare and previously unpublished photographs from Hammer’s archive and private collections worldwide. Featuring new interviews, Hammer Glamour celebrates Hammer’s female stars including Ingrid Pitt, Martine Beswick, Caroline Munro, Barbara Shelley, Joanna Lumley, Nastassja Kinski, and Raquel Welch.
