Hammer Films will always be the most famous British production company, but its less known brother, Amicus, arguably made just as enjoyable horror with a modern setting rather than Hammer’s gothic obsession. But Amicus is not as English as it would seem on the surface, as behind it were two Americans.

Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky formed Amicus Productions in the mid 1960s. Max was born in New York City in 1914 and was a lawyer until he became a distributor of foreign films in 1939. Milton was born seven years later in the same city and began his career in the music business before moving to the UK and setting up the main rival to Hammer.

Although the majority of their output was horror related, they did venture into other genres too. Sci-fi was catered for with movies using the Dr Who character, musicals with their first movie, It’s Trad, Dad, fantasy with the Land that Time Forgot and At the Earth’s core and spy movies like Danger Route. But there most successful and well known movies were the horror anthologies; collections of short stories built around a creepy premise.

Unfortunately, due to little investment support from the UK, Amicus folded just before the 80s, much the same as Hammer did. Luckily their films live on with various DVD releases and regular TV appearances.

Amicus Movies:

1980: The Monster Club

1977: The People That Time Forgot

1976: At the Earth’s Core

1975: The Land That Time Forgot

1974: The Beast Must Die

1974: Madhouse

1973: Tales That Witness Madness

1973: And Now the Sceaming Starts!

1973: The Vault of Horror

1973: From Beyond the Grave

1972: Asylum

1972: What Became of Jack and Jill?

1972: Tales from the Crypt

1971: I, Monster

1970: The Mind of Mr. Soames

1970: The House that Dripped Blood

1968: Danger Route

1967: The Terrornauts

1967: They Came from Beyond Space

1967: Torture Garden

1966: The Psychopath

1966: The Deadly Bees

1965: The Skull

1965: Dr Terror’s House of Horrors

1965: Dr Who and the Daleks

1962: It’s Trad, Dad!