Director
Robert Young
Cast
Laurence Payne - Dr. Albert Muller
Thorley Walters - Peter, Mayor of Stetl
Robert Tayman - Count Mitterhaus
Adrienne Corri - Gypsy woman
Skip Martin - Michael the Dwarf
Anthony Corlan - Emil
Leave it to British film company Hammer Films Ltd. to make a movie with a seemingly outlandish title such as Vampire Circus and make it fun, bloody, doomy, gloomy, horror-y, macabre, and suspenseful.
It opens with a schoolmaster, Albert Muller (Laurence Payne) seeing his wife Anna (Domini Blythe) bring a little girl named Jenny into the castle of Count Mitterhaus.
Muller screams for his wife to stop, but she doesn't. Both he and the villagers know Mitterhaus is a vampire.
And seeing his wife run into the castle is Muller's confirmation that she's really the vampire's mistress and slave. Anna brings him young Jenny so he can consume her blood.
And that's what he does.
The villagers of the nearby town of Stetl, located in Serbia, assemble at the castle doors to find Mitterhaus and kill him. They plan their attack and storm the castle. Inside, they find the dead body of Jenny which really drives them all to kill Mitterhaus without mercy.
After several in the mob are killed, the group ultimately subdues Mitterhaus and drives a steak through his heart.
Before he dies, though, Mitterhaus curses the town claiming their children will die and their blood will bring him back to life.
They then take Anna outside where they whip her as punishment before banishing her.
Fifteen years later, a disease plagues the villagers, and local authorities place a blockade on all the entrances into Stetl.
Villagers are warned that anyone who tries to leave town during the quarantine will be shot.
Those who remember the curse fear the sickness that's spreading is part of it. But the new local doctor, Kersh, thinks vampires are nothing but a myth.
A traveling circus called "Circus of Night" comes into town. The villagers don't seem too concerned how an entire travelling circus was able to pass the barricades. Rather, they're excited at having something new to entertain them.
The caravan is led by an alluring, almost hypnotizing, gypsy woman and a dwarf named Michael.
Little does anyone know that one of the performers named Emil, who can transform into a panther, is actually Mitterhaus's cousin as well as a vampire.
Other performers are vampires as well. And little by little, they begin to fulfill Mitterhaus's curse from 15 years ago as they lure in unsuspecting villagers intrigued by the wonders the circus has brought to town during this sad time. Children go missing, falling prey to the vampires, while the village scrambles to grasp what is happening.
It's suspenseful and still manages to be scary all these years later. Most Hammer movies are!
Hammer played a huge rule in reviving the classic Universal monsters - Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy - back in the 1960s and 1970s. A lot of their horror movies star Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing (Star Wars: A New Hope) Michael Gough (Tim Burton's Batman) and other famous British actors whose faces modern audiences are familiar with.
With titles such as Taste the Blood of Dracula, Curse of the Werewolf, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, watching a Hammer horror movie is as great and nostalgic as watching a Godzilla monster brawl from Toho Studios.
The movie doesn't have to be great. The novelty is still exciting.
Hammer monster movies are often period films with high quality production standards. It adds to their charm and appreciation.
This movie works really well with its macabre circus setting, imagery and camera angles, and sinister tone as vampires go after youth for the sake of revenge.
The deadly peril of children is something not often touched on in horror movies. If it is, it's generally depicted behind the scenes.
Or, in the case of the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the teenagers look enough like adults so the audience doesn't cringe as much when they see them fall victim to Freddy Krueger.
That's why the recent adaptations of Stephen King's It seem to pinch nerves with audiences as the main villain Pennywise's blatant evil nature and hunger for children's fears, is shown right before your very eyes.
Right in the opening shot of Chapter One, the audience gets to see exactly what he does to little Georgie Denbrough before he drags him into the dark recesses of the sewer. It was a frighting scene. Nothing else could have set the tone of the entire story as well as Pennywise attacking little Georgie.
It's a pretty bold movie.
Children depicted as pray to the monsters is a line most movies won't cross.
Vampire Circus does dip its toe past that line of sensitivity. It's really unsettling and sets the tone so superbly.
Vampire Circus also stars David Prowse (Darth Vader himself) as the strong man. Prowse appeared in a few other Hammer productions such as The Horror of Frankenstein (1970).
This movie was filmed at Pinewood Studios in England were some legendary movies have come to be - Dr. No and a ton of other James Bond movies, Superman, Tim Burton's Batman, and Aliens to name a few.
Though the story is easily predictable at times, its style and pace is alluring. Though the effects and visuals may be dated, it still creates an uneasy, unsettling feeling for the audience.
A Hammer movie with vampires is classic, indeed. "Vampire Circus" fits in the genre so well.
Muller screams for his wife to stop, but she doesn't. Both he and the villagers know Mitterhaus is a vampire.
And seeing his wife run into the castle is Muller's confirmation that she's really the vampire's mistress and slave. Anna brings him young Jenny so he can consume her blood.
And that's what he does.
The villagers of the nearby town of Stetl, located in Serbia, assemble at the castle doors to find Mitterhaus and kill him. They plan their attack and storm the castle. Inside, they find the dead body of Jenny which really drives them all to kill Mitterhaus without mercy.
After several in the mob are killed, the group ultimately subdues Mitterhaus and drives a steak through his heart.
Before he dies, though, Mitterhaus curses the town claiming their children will die and their blood will bring him back to life.
They then take Anna outside where they whip her as punishment before banishing her.
Fifteen years later, a disease plagues the villagers, and local authorities place a blockade on all the entrances into Stetl.
Villagers are warned that anyone who tries to leave town during the quarantine will be shot.
Those who remember the curse fear the sickness that's spreading is part of it. But the new local doctor, Kersh, thinks vampires are nothing but a myth.
A traveling circus called "Circus of Night" comes into town. The villagers don't seem too concerned how an entire travelling circus was able to pass the barricades. Rather, they're excited at having something new to entertain them.
The caravan is led by an alluring, almost hypnotizing, gypsy woman and a dwarf named Michael.
Little does anyone know that one of the performers named Emil, who can transform into a panther, is actually Mitterhaus's cousin as well as a vampire.
 |
| Robert Tayman as Count Mitterhaus. |
It's suspenseful and still manages to be scary all these years later. Most Hammer movies are!
Hammer played a huge rule in reviving the classic Universal monsters - Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy - back in the 1960s and 1970s. A lot of their horror movies star Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing (Star Wars: A New Hope) Michael Gough (Tim Burton's Batman) and other famous British actors whose faces modern audiences are familiar with.
With titles such as Taste the Blood of Dracula, Curse of the Werewolf, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, watching a Hammer horror movie is as great and nostalgic as watching a Godzilla monster brawl from Toho Studios.
The movie doesn't have to be great. The novelty is still exciting.
Hammer monster movies are often period films with high quality production standards. It adds to their charm and appreciation.
This movie works really well with its macabre circus setting, imagery and camera angles, and sinister tone as vampires go after youth for the sake of revenge.
The deadly peril of children is something not often touched on in horror movies. If it is, it's generally depicted behind the scenes.
Or, in the case of the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the teenagers look enough like adults so the audience doesn't cringe as much when they see them fall victim to Freddy Krueger.
That's why the recent adaptations of Stephen King's It seem to pinch nerves with audiences as the main villain Pennywise's blatant evil nature and hunger for children's fears, is shown right before your very eyes.
Right in the opening shot of Chapter One, the audience gets to see exactly what he does to little Georgie Denbrough before he drags him into the dark recesses of the sewer. It was a frighting scene. Nothing else could have set the tone of the entire story as well as Pennywise attacking little Georgie.
It's a pretty bold movie.
Children depicted as pray to the monsters is a line most movies won't cross.
Vampire Circus does dip its toe past that line of sensitivity. It's really unsettling and sets the tone so superbly.
Vampire Circus also stars David Prowse (Darth Vader himself) as the strong man. Prowse appeared in a few other Hammer productions such as The Horror of Frankenstein (1970).
This movie was filmed at Pinewood Studios in England were some legendary movies have come to be - Dr. No and a ton of other James Bond movies, Superman, Tim Burton's Batman, and Aliens to name a few.
Though the story is easily predictable at times, its style and pace is alluring. Though the effects and visuals may be dated, it still creates an uneasy, unsettling feeling for the audience.
A Hammer movie with vampires is classic, indeed. "Vampire Circus" fits in the genre so well.
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