This limited edition coffin-shaped box set presents five films from Amicus, the longest lasting and most credible of Hammer's rivals in the 60s and 70s. Ironically, however, this quintessentially British-seeming company was the creation of two Americans, the Anglophile Milton Subotsky and the stay-at-home Max Rosenberg.
The duo had been in at the British horror boom from the start, suggesting the idea of a Frankenstein film – which later became The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) – to Hammer boss James Carreras and soon thereafter, no doubt piqued by Hammer's decision to go it alone with the public domain characters, produced the expressionistic, black and white City of the Dead (1960) themselves.
The first Amicus film to bear the friends name, however, was Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1964). Five strangers sharing a railway carriage have their fortunes told by a sixth, the mysterious Dr Shreck. In each case their fortunes foretell death and disaster are inescapable, then, at the end, it is revealed that the train they are journeying on has crashed, killing all on board, and that Shreck is here to escort them to the underworld…
Probably the best film in this set thanks to Freddie Francis's assured direction, Elizabeth Luytens inventive scoring and a top-notch cast, Dr Terrors showcases the anthology format for which Amicus became best known: Present four of five short stories and tie them together with a framing narrative, preferably with stings in the tales. If one story doesn't work, at least there's the consolation of knowing there will be another along in a moment…
But while two of the other films in the set, The House that Dripped Blood (1971) and Asylum (1972), also showcase this approach – along with the concomitant selections of British thespian talent often looking faintly embarrassed and tasteful early 70s fashions and styles – albeit to generally lesser effect than their forebear, Amicus also dabbled in the single story horror film, a strand represented here by And Now the Screaming Starts (1973) and The Beast Must Die (1974).
And Now… is possibly Amicus's most Hammer-like film, with its gothic setting and motifs. Yet it also typifies Amicus's relatively coy approach to exploitation. While Hammer were at this time introducing ever increasing amounts of sex and violence in a bid to match the challenges from both big- and low-budget entries such as The Exorcist and Night of Living Dead in films like Vampire Circus and The Satanic Rites of Dracula , And Now the Screaming Start hinges around a supernatural rape scene that's so subtly done as to be almost imperceptible. Tasteful and restrained it may be, but the basis for a coherent and effective horror it is not…
From the sublime we move to the ridiculous with The Beast Must Die. The final disc in the set is a guilty pleasure. A great white hunter type – except he's black – gathers a motley assortment of guests to his isolated estate and announces that one of them is a werewolf, whom he intends to hunt down. The gimmick here is that you, the viewer, are the detective, with a "werewolf break" before the unmasking…
Subotsky and Rosenberg fell into disagreement soon after Beast… and their Amicus partnership dissolved. So much for friendship…
With generally decent A/V quality considering the vintage of the material and a plethora of worthwhile extras including a mini-documentary on the company and some interesting if slightly repetetive – how many times do we need to hear that Peter Cushing was a real gentleman? – commentary tracks, this box set represents good value for money for the British horror fan.
Now if only the coffin box could actually hold the discs securely…
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
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