Re-vamped: British horror film-makers Hammer and Amicus are back from the dead

The British studios, which filled screens with bloody fangs, gothic monsters and heaving bosoms, have been resurrected for the 21st century

Think of a classic horror film with an archetypal character such as Frankenstein or Dracula, or a movie with a name that does what it says on the tin, like Tales from the Crypt or Beyond the Grave, and the chances are you are thinking of a product by one of the “twins of evil”.

Hammer and Amicus were the studios that defined British horror cinema and bestrode the 1960s and 1970s, employing a wealth of British acting talent including Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Casts included names such as Michael Gough, Ralph Bates, Ingrid Pitt, Patrick Magee and Joan Collins.

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