Hammer Films Announce New Film 'Ithaqua', Posters And Synopsis

The official announcement for the next Hammer horror film has been made

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Feb 06, 2025

On 6th February 2025, Hammer Films announced via social media that their next film will be called ‘Ithaqua’, to be directed by Casey Walker.

The film will star Luke Hemsworth, Kevin Durand, Michael Pitt, Craig Lauzon, and Leenah Robinson, and is currently in production. The script has been penned by Pascal Trottier, Peter Scott Vicaire, and Casey Walker, with the story from Walker. As per their Facebook post, the synopsis is as follows:

‘Set in the brutal wilderness of 1800s Canada, the fur trade is in decline and a remote outpost is starving. A mercenary fights to unite the survivors against the cold, the hunger… and something far worse. A dark force is watching. Waiting. And those who fall into its grasp are cursed with an insatiable hunger for flesh.’

Along with the post, two posters have also been released:

The statement states that the company is unleashing ‘a brand new monster’, which will be ‘the first time in 60 years’. This would put their suggestion back to around 1965 (if we assume that the film is to be released later this year). This isn’t to say that they hadn’t created any original monstrous characters for films, but their implication is that this will be an entirely new type or species of creature, instead of a new vampire or zombie or mad-scientist creation, which had all been featured in Hammer’s latter years of their original run. This also carries across to their 21st century productions, with films like Beyond The Rave not counting as ‘brand new monster’ as they’re vampires, even if they are new vampiric characters.

The film had been listed on the John Gore Hammer website previously as ‘in production’, but no official announcement had been made by the company on their social media platforms. One is reminded that in the 2010s under the Simon Oakes Hammer revival era, there had been mention of an attempt to bring back several Nigel Kneale properties, one of which was The Abominable Snowman (the other was a general return to Quatermass, which, again, never happened). The original Abominable Snowman film was released in 1957, starring Peter Cushing as a scientist exploring the Himilayas when his party are attacked by the titular monster. One wonders if that film was a partial inspiration to return to the location and concept, especially as Hammer’s 21st century output and subsequent John Gore takeover has been a constant trade-off between playing on their heritage and trying to get gears going for something new.

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