Guest Author - Andy Boxall
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!
