Vampire Circus (1972)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Robert Young

Writer:

Judson Kinberg (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 October 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror

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...

Plot Keywords:

Circus | Mayor | Panther | Vampire | Crossbow

Cast

Adrienne Corri	...	Gypsy Woman
Thorley Walters	...	Burgermeister
Anthony Higgins	...	Emil (as Anthony Corlan)
John Moulder-Brown	...	Anton Kersh
Laurence Payne	...	Prof. Albert Mueller
Richard Owens	...	Dr. Kersh
Lynne Frederick	...	Dora Mueller
Elizabeth Seal	...	Gerta Hauser
Robin Hunter	...	Hauser
Domini Blythe	...	Anna Mueller
Robert Tayman	...	Count Mitterhaus
John Bown	...	Schilt
Mary Wimbush	...	Elvira
Christine Paul-Podlasky	...	Rosa
Robin Sachs	...	Heinrich

Runtime:

87 min | USA:84 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Germany:18 | UK:X (original rating) | France:-12 | Finland:K-15 (video rating) | Argentina:18 (re-rating) | Argentina:X (original rating) | Australia:R | Singapore:M18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:PG (certificate #23072)

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

Laurence Payne was an 11th hour casting choice replacing Anton Rodgers who dropped out because of illness.

Movie Connections:

Features Lust for a Vampire (1971)

One of the best vampire movies of all time

A small village uprises against Count Mitterhouse, their vampiric lord. He vows a curse upon the town as he is being destroyed.Years later the town is struck by an outbreak of disease.

Among this horror a travelling circus comes to town. As we slowly find out most of the circus performers are vampires.Some of the animals are vampiric humans! They begin to wreak vengeance upon the village slaughtering indiscriminately.

There is a rousing finish to this as vampires and villagers square off to do battle.Who will survive?

I was lucky enough to see an uncut foreign laserdisk of this film.Plot confusion stemming from the cut video is cleared up. The colors are lush.The direction is tight and there really isn't a wasted moment in this classic.The acting is top notch as well.This is even better than Horror Of Dracula in my opinion.

Sadly this is only available on laserdisk in the USA at this time. Hopefully Anchor Bay will release a complete version of this film to the video market.All you can do is wait...