Vampire Circus (1972)

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 ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Young

Writer:

Judson Kinberg (screenplay)

Stars:

Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters, Anthony Higgins

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

plague | circus | forest | hall of mirrors | hammer horror | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 October 1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

Le cirque des vampires

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hammer Film Productions, Rank Organisation, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

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

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Quotes

Michael: The Circus of Nights! A hundred delights!

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Connections

Referenced in The Monster Squad (1987)

User Reviews

Look Beyond The Poor Production Values ...

... And you'll find a pretty good story in there

It's interesting to note that just about everyone on this page enjoyed VAMPIRE CIRCUS . I can take or leave horror movies especially ones involving vampires because they're self limiting , ( I mean how scary is a person with false teeth ? ) and for much of this movie we're treated to some substandard production values typical of Hammer studios in the early 1970s , the circus arena is supposed to be in the open air but is obviously filmed on an interior film set , the editing and special effects are really poor , there's a sequence with villagers being thrashed to death with a rug ( Well that's what it looked like to me ) while the cast are very uneven with John Moulder-Brown as Anton being just about the most unlikely hero I've ever seen in a horror movie . Oh and there's plenty of scenes with people with false teeth like those ones you buy at a joke shop

But... ...despite all this VAMPIRE CIRCUS is a very entertaining horror movie . I don't know if it's because I've seen too many smart ass post modernist American horror flicks recently but a story featuring a Central European village being cut off from the outside world because of plague and its inhabitants being killed one by one by a bunch of vengeful vampires appeals to me more than a self referrential story set in 21st century America . In fact many of the killings are paedophillic murders so this gives the movie a disturbingly adult strength in what could easily be dismissed as a silly movie