Vampire Circus *** (1972, John Moulder-Brown, Laurence Payne, Adrienne Corri, Lynne Frederick, Thorley Walters, Elizabeth Seal, Anthony Higgins) – Classic Movie Review 3157

Director Robert Young’s 1972 Hammer Films British chiller Vampire Circus is a neat, eerie and attractively strange Hammer horror about a 19th-century touring circus show, whose performers are vampires, able to break through the black death quarantine to cheer up the locals and take their minds off the plague. But the cheering up doesn’t last for all that long…

Adrienne Corri plays the head gypsy woman.

It comes complete with John Moulder-Brown (then 18) as the young doctor hero Anton, Laurence Payne as the vampire hunter Mueller, Adrienne Corri as the head gypsy vampire woman, Anthony Higgins (billed as Anthony Corlan) as Emil, and Thorley Walters as the Burgermeister.

Plus there is also a good support cast of Elizabeth Seal, Lynne Frederick, Robin Hunter, Richard Owens, Mary Wimbush as Elvira, Robin Sachs, Domini Blythe, John Bown, Christine Paul, Lalla Ward, Skip Martin, Roderick Shaw, Barnaby Shaw, Robert Tayman, Jane Derby, Sibylla Kay, Dorothy Frere, Sean Hewitt, as well as Milovan Vesnitch and Serena as The Webers, and Dave Prowse [David Prowse] showing off his physique as the circus Strongman.

Prowse played the Frankenstein monster in Hammer’s The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974). RIP Star Wars actor David Prowse, who played Darth Vader, and died on 28 November 2020, aged 85).

When the vampires come to a 19th-century Serbian small-town, children begin to disappear as the vampires exact a terrible revenge on the villagers whose forebears killed their blood-sucking ancestor in a long-ago massacre when their master Count Mitterhaus (Robert Tayman) was staked in the heart 15 years earlier. Most of the circus performers are vampires and some of the circus animals are human vampires.

Based on a story by George Baxt, Judson [Jud] Kinberg’s screenplay is unexpectedly subtle, especially given the heated subject matter, though more expectedly it is muddled and messy plotwise. And there is surprisingly restrained acting, given the circumstances, and Gothic atmospheric direction from début director Young, plus flavourful circus atmosphere, all of which combines to outweigh a fair tally of horror clichés and indulgence in Seventies-style explicit sexuality, nudity and sexual ambivalence. The film is a heady mix, enjoyably lurid and lustful, as well as cheesy and campy.

Apart from the forest scenes, it is quite set bound, but effectively so, making the most of a tiny budget. Like so many Hammer films, it uses its artificial-looking studio sets for a horror universe nightmare-like backdrop, creatively using what could be a handicap into an advantage.

It was shot in six weeks around August 1971 but went over schedule and some key scenes were not filmed, but it was hailed as Hammer’s best film in a decade.

Laurence Payne replaced a sick Anton Rodgers at the last minute. Robert Tayman was dubbed by David de Keyser.

It was released in the UK on 30 April 1972.

It is shot in DeLuxe color.

It runs 87 minutes and 84 minutes in the US.

The BBFC required heavy cuts though many were waived after Hammer consulted BBFC head Stephen Murphy. Probably the cut footage does not survive as all video and DVD releases are the UK cinema print.

The forest scenes are shot at Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, the rest in the studio at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England.

Robert Tayman as the vampire master Count Mitterhaus.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3157

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