Scottish film-makers to bring horror studio back from the grave

An independent Scottish production company is hoping to revive one of the most famous names in horror from the heyday of the British film industry.

Fife-based Hex Studios, which specialises in low budget horror and fantasy films, is bringing back the name Amicus for their latest production.

Amicus was once one of the UK's leading horror studios, enjoying a long rivalry with Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s and 1970s before going out of business.

The new film In The Grip of Terror will be partly funded by the public and is due to begin production in September.

The plan to bring back the defunct studio name is the brainchild of Hex Studio's owners Lawrie Brewster and Sarah Daly, who have made 11 films over the past decade from their headquarters in Kirkcaldy.

They specialise in producing and distributing horror and fantasy films with budgets of between $300,000 to $450,000 (£235,000 to £354,000). Previous films include The Owlman, For We Are Many, and The Unkindness of Ravens.

The company part finances its films through the crowd funding website Kickstarter, which allows backers to pre-order the film on DVD or Blu-Ray. Higher value donations can lead to a credit on the final film, a set visit, or even a walk-on part.

Mr Brewster has been working on the deal with the owners of the Amicus brand for two years and is excited by the chance to bring the name back.

"Our aim is to re-establish Amicus Productions as a beacon of independent British horror. We're concocting a film that captures the essence and panache that rendered the studio iconic. By emphasizing atmospheric storytelling, tangible effects, and a genuine respect for the genre, our vision is to teleport audiences back to British horror's golden epoch," he said.

Amicus Productions was set up in London by American producers Milton Subotsky and Max J Rosenberg in 1962 and became a major player in the UK film industry. It is best remembered for a series of seven "portmanteau" films starting with Dr Terror's House of Horrors in 1965.

These featured four or five short horror stories linked by a connecting story in which a group of people share their tales of the supernatural. Some of the biggest horror names of the day, including Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, were regular stars.

The studio, which operated on strict budgets and short production schedules, produced several films a year including big screen versions of Dr Who and dinosaur adventures such as The Land That Time Forgot. Changing tastes and the decline of the British film industry led to its closure in 1977.

Milton Subotsky retained the rights to the name Amicus and these were passed on to his family after his death in 1991.

Hex Studios started speaking to the Subotsky family two years ago. The proposed new film's title and stories came from the late producer's archives. They were suggested by his son Sergei and widow Fiona.

Sergei Subotsky said: "The Amicus name has been kept in my name since it was bequeathed to us by my late father Milton Subotsky, so I am greatly looking forward to its reincarnation,".

Mr Brewster said they would like to make one film a year under the Amicus banner and they hope the productions will retain the feel of the brand's older titles.

"It's a continuation of the Amicus that many people know and love. We don't want to 're-invent' them for modern audiences. I almost want us to pretend that Amicus didn't die and the films we make feel like they were made in 1973.

"If we do our job carefully the it will feel like something that sits very comfortably with the old Amicus films," he said.

Amicus's great rival Hammer ceased production in the mid-1980s but came back from 2010 with Let Me In, and the box office hit The Woman in Black.