My love for old horror films started in my formative teen years. The BBC would show cult horror films late on Friday and Saturday nights in the early to mid-90s and, when we got Sky, late 90s/ early 2000s Bravo Channel. Some were the more salacious films of 60s and 70s European cinema, often in the horror genre but not always- some were experimental pieces which had a deeply ethereal feel and long moments of quiet where the gorgeous scenery and silence would wash over you. It was here I first saw Circus of Horrors, Vampiros Lesbos, The Witchfinder General and many, many more.
Whilst flicking through the ITVX app, I saw the image for Vampire Circus. I vaguely remembered the film so decided to revisit it for the first time in 30 or so years.
Vampire Circus was produced in 1971 which was the start of the period of decline for Hammer. Hammer had risen to prominence in the two decades before with its gothic top tier b-movie films which were rich in detail and storytelling. However, by the 70s the audience’s tastes were changing and the drop in production quality led to a glut of poorer Hammer movies that seemed to be poorer imitations of what had come before. Luckily, Vampire Circus is not one of these films as it still stands as a great film- maybe one of the last great Hammer films before its decline. Taking inspiration from post-modern European films, it is an erotic dreamlike venture with lashings of gore thrown in for good measure.
The film is about a small town in a forest which is beholden to the evil Count Mitterhaus (played in bohemian Byronesque fashion by Robert Tayman). He feasts on the blood of children and preys on the beautiful women within this community. When the people rise up and kill him he curses them, saying that they and their children, and their children’s children etc will die. Cue the title card and the beginnings of an intriguing story.
We fast forward 15 years and see that the village is in decline as the neighbouring villages know about the curse and do not want the isolated village to spread the curse further. However, a travelling circus troupe, The Circus of Night, visits the village and performs for the people whilst secretly exacting revenge by killing the children of the families and dripping their blood onto the corpse of their cousin Count Mittterhaus. Will the village discover what is happening or will all the children of the village die and the Count resurrect?
I throughly enjoyed the film. Even though any film with child death is challenging to watch the overall plot of the story and the sheer sense of place in this Germanic town is well realised. Sure, there are bare bodies aplenty and lots of gore but the story at its heart of a class battle between the aristocratic class against the poorer and middle classes is still a relevant one even today. This film is not for the faint of heart but is well worth your time.
LINK: Kolchak: The Night Stalker- Cult TV Series Review
LINK- Dead of Night: Cult TV Review
LINK- The Stone Tapes: Cult TV Review
LINK- Twin Peaks Retrospective
LINK- On, and On and Colston (Or, ‘How We Learned to Talk About the Legacy of Colonialism in GB’)