Vampire Circus [reviewed by Lackey]

Robert Young, 1972 (87 min.)
My rating:
IMDB

Few things go together as well as Hammer Film Productions and vampires.

* * *

Premise

Fifteen years ago, the villagers of Stettel destroyed the vampire Count Mitterhaus, who cursed the town before his death and vowed to return from beyond the grave. Now the town suffers from two evils. The first is a highly virulent plague which has caused the village’s neighbors to quarantine it, fearing contagion. The second is a mysterious gypsy carnival whose leaders hide a horrific agenda—one tied to the long-dead Count Mitterhaus…

Critique

Hammer Horror and vampires: they’re the Reese’s peanut butter cups of horror movies, two great tastes that go great together. Of course, it’s important to remember that not all Hammer vampire flicks had “Dracula” in the title, and they didn’t all star some combination of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Ingrid Pitt. Vampire Circus, a 1972 entry, is a middling example of the form: it’s not great, it’s a bit wonky, but it’s still got a lot going for it.

As with most of Hammer’s output at the time, Vampire Circus is as much about the sexuality as the violence, and the emphasis is more on exploring the sexy/scary dichotomy than on tension or shocks. A couple of scenes gain great effect from this, most notably an early scene in which Mitterhaus’s mistress/familiar watches—and gets off on watching—her vampire lord drain a young girl. Apparently Vampire Circus was rated PG upon its initial American release, and given the amount of nudity in the film, plus a dance scene which occasionally doubles as a gynecology lesson, I have to assume some rather brutal cuts were made.

The storyline works well, even if it tends to rely a bit too much on evil-circus clichés (there are times when it resembles a British borderline-softcore interpretation of Something Wicked This Way Comes), and the overuse of flashback dialogue (particularly the count’s curse) does tend to grate. The final resolution is stupid, but not unforgivably so. Production values are solid, although there are a couple of ridiculous continuity errors and a couple of effects that don’t quite come off right. As might be expected, the production design is quite lush, although some of the styling and costuming stands right on the border between “evocative period” and “hilariously glam-rock.” (It was 1972, after all.)

Vampire Circus is anchored by a solidly competent cast, at least when it comes to the baddies. Robert Tayman, as Count Mitterhaus, really has to struggle against some ridiculous hairstyling and costuming to exude menace, but he somehow pulls it off. Adrienne Corri (Doctor Zhivago, A Clockwork Orange), playing the carnies’ matriarch/leader, is as compelling as ever. Anthony Higgins (Young Sherlock Holmes, The Bride) is readily believable as a sex symbol as Emil, a vampire who doubles as a black panther, despite the fact that he looks like he doesn’t shower often. Skip Martin puts a delightful performance as a dwarf who also serves as the troupe’s clown, and always seems to be putting on a performance even when he doesn’t need to. (He also gets the film’s best line: “Don’t bless me…pay me!”)

Even minor roles get good performances: Doctor Who’s Lalla Ward (or the Honourable Dame Sarah Ward-Dawkins if we’re standing on ceremony), playing one half of a fraternal-twin acrobat team, says more with a smile than some actors can say with a soliloquy. And, yes, that’s David Prowse (the guy in the Darth Vader suit) as the strongman. It would have been nice to see more of Domini Blythe, though.

It is, however, an unfortunate fact of life that in movies like this the villains’ acting is always better than the villagers’, with only Laurence Payne (the schoolmaster) and Richard Owens (the town doctor) doing all that well. The film’s nominal heroes, played by John Moulder-Brown and Lynne Frederick (playing the doctor’s son and the schoolmaster’s daughter), are shockingly ill-suited to the task at hand, while there’s some horrific overacting on the part of Thorley Walters as the town’s mayor.

There’s something about Hammer’s Technicolor Brits-and-boobs romps that really draws me in: the themes, the design, the atmosphere, the nudity…I love stuff like this. Vampire Circus is a bit uneven, but it’s never not fun.

Moment of Zen

Emil walking up the staircase at the schoolhouse. I’m rarely impressed by special effects, but this one works brilliantly.

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