In the Grip of Terror | chills linger with the stylish return of Amicus

After 50 years dead, who would have thought you could look this good? We’re talking about the re-birth of Amicus, which rose from the un-dead with In the Grip of Terror, a portmanteau film that is stylish, tender and oh so chilling.

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In the Grip of Terror is a beautifully re-rendering of the colour palette, architecture, ambience and vibe of a bygone age. It’s an ambitious and affectionate throwback to a post-war Britain striving away from earthly horror, while not quite turning its back on its dark gothic history.

In the Grip of Terror: Dorian Todd as Mancher

The film itself is split into three stories, embedded in another over-arching one. Each internal segment focuses on the doings of a hospital, caught in an NHS netherworld. Yes, those chills reach into the contemporary. These three seep from a curious call that has led to three characters to be lured to a derelict hospital building to have their inner fears or dark experiences probed and exposed.

Written and directed by the lightening-rod of horror Lawrie Brewster, the segments have been inspired by the writings of HP Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce, and includes One-Way Ward where curious and ambitious new nurse Charlotte Gibbon (Megan Tremethick) finds her way to a ward from which there is no return. A Watcher by the Dead is a warning to those who morbidly bend rules for quick rewards. And the dangers of unscrupulous and unhinged research is probed in A Diagnosis of Death.

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Golden Globe nominee (for A Lion In Winter) Jane Merrow sets the austere hospital corners In One Way Ward as Matron Margaret. She carries with her the authority of her experience (look her up, it’s a treat!). Another familiar face in the same segment is former ruby player of Chris Capaldi.

Writer director Lawrie himself is Dr Mayley, one of the three characters tempted into the dastardly tales of Dr Graves (Laurence R. Harvey, The Human Centipede 2, The Human Centipede III), along with Dorian Todd as Mancher. Also in that group is Cornwall’s own Megan Tremethick as Nurse Charlotte.

In the Grip of Terror: Megan Tremethick as Nurse Charlotte

Of course, for us, Megan is a stand-out. With an icy cold accent masking a burning ambition, she creates an alluringly accurate take on those British cinema icons of the past, with substance smouldering behind the style. It’s another stand-out performance and offers a glam depth to the life of the doomed hospital and all who wail there. On top of her role, Megan was second unit director and make up designer, building on the depth of her filmmaking as well as acting (her own written and directed Spoiling You is expected soon).

Also, on board for this hearty resurrection are producers Sergei and Dmitri Subotsky, sons of Amicus founder, Milton Subotsky. There’s a real feel of comfort and respect to the uncomfortableness.

A quick glance at Starburst Magazine, tells us that In the Grip of Terror is ‘the first Amicus Productions horror anthology since From Beyond the Grave (1974)’.

In the Grip of Terror glows with an elegance of style that lingers and stories that stick, cloy and fog your conscious, keeping you goose bumped for days and luring you back to In the Grip of Terror, or fingers crossed, for more to come.