Vampire Circus (1972)

Director: Robert Young

Starring: Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters, Anthony Higgins, David Prowse

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Human fangs ripping throats - no sawdust can soak up the torrent of blood!

Plot: A village in Nineteenth Century Europe is at first relieved when a circus breaks through the quarantine to take the local's minds off the plague. But their troubles are only beginning as children begin to disappear and the legacy of a long-ago massacre is brought to light.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Eventually, I guess.

#53 on Hammer Horror (1957-1976)

#23 of 31 Days of Horror 2010.


I was jonesing for a Hammer vampire flick I hadn't seen and this was next on the list. Sadly, there's few left that I haven't seen. It satisfied. It was neat seeing a pre-STAR WARS David Prowse (the man inside the Vader outfit in the original trilogy). Too bad he didn't speak.


David Whittaker's score is outstanding. The story's great, too, filled with revenge and gore. And there's no shortage of Hammer sexy! The dance sequence alone must have sent thousands of young boys to wonder, "What's that tingling sensation I'm feeling?" Nice!





I'll have to wait for a second viewing to figure it out but I think part of what gave the picture an overall underwhelming feeling is the abundance of use they got out of the circus set. It's on a soundstage and it feels like it. It's too clean. Yeah, that's it. VC could use some dirtying up. Oh, and this guy was hands down the worst actor of the bunch. I almost forgot about that. He was often cringe-inducing.


I do recommend it as it's quite different than the usual vampire fare. Lots of people die, you get to see Darth Vader with his shirt off and hear some great music.