Hammer is heading back into the wilderness with Ithaqua, a new survival horror set to receive its World Premiere at FrightFest London on Saturday 29 August, before coming soon to UK cinemas.
Set against the brutal winter of the Canadian wilderness, Ithaqua follows Cole Franklin, an American mercenary haunted by his past, who is brought to a remote trading outpost as the fur trade begins to collapse. When a nearby Indigenous settlement falls silent, Cole is asked to investigate. What he finds is not simply death, but the terrifying suggestion that something ancient and unnatural is still moving through the trees.
As fear spreads back to Fort William, the outpost begins to unravel from within. Hunger, paranoia and violence take hold, turning neighbour against neighbour as the isolated community is pushed towards madness. With survival hanging by a thread, Cole must use his military experience to lead a desperate group against a force they cannot fully understand, and may not be able to escape.
Directed by Casey Walker (producer of The Void and In a Violent Nature), Ithaqua promises a grim blend of folklore, isolation and psychological dread. The film’s long road to the screen has reportedly taken twelve years, adding another layer of intrigue to an independent horror project that already sounds tailor-made for FrightFest audiences. The cast includes Luke Hemsworth (Westworld, Land of Bad), Kevin Durand (The Strain, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come), Craig Lauzon (Trickster, Beyblade), Leenah Robinson (Revival, 1923) and Michael Pitt (Day of the Fight, Ghost in the Shell).
Hammer presenting a snowbound survival horror rooted in folklore is enough to get any genre fan’s attention, but Ithaqua also arrives with the promise of something moodier and more psychologically charged than a simple monster-in-the-woods tale. Remote outposts, collapsing order, ancient forces and people slowly turning on each other? That sounds like exactly the sort of bleak, pressure-cooker horror FrightFest was built for.
Ithaqua has its World Premiere at FrightFest London on Saturday August 29, ahead of a UK cinema release soon.
