Vampire Circus is a 1971 British
horror film, directed by
Robert Young. It was written by Judson Kinberg, and produced by Wilbur Stark and
Michael Carreras (who was uncredited) for
Hammer Film Productions. It features
Adrienne Corri,
Thorley Walters and
Anthony Higgins (adverised as Anthony Corlan). The story concerns a travelling
circus the vampiric artists of which prey on the children of a 19th-century
Serbian village. It was filmed at
Pinewood Studios.
Cast
- Laurence Payne as Professor Albert Müller
- Thorley Walters as Peter, the Mayor of Stitl
- Lynne Frederick as Dora Müller
- John Moulder-Brown as Anton Kersh
- Elizabeth Seal as Gerta Hauser
- Anthony Higgins (billed as Anthony Corlan) as Emil
- Richard Owens as Dr. Kersh
- Domini Blythe as Anna Müller
- Robin Hunter as Mr Hauser
- Robert Tayman as Count Mitterhaus
- Robin Sachs as Heinrich (twin brother of Helga)
- Lalla Ward as Helga (twin sister of Heinrich)
- Skip Martin as Michael the dwarf
- David Prowse as the Strongman
- Mary Wimbush as Elvira
- Christina Paul as Rosa
- Roderick Shaw as Jon Hauser
- Barnaby Shaw as Gustav Hauser
- John Bown as Mr Schilt
- Sibylla Kay as Mrs. Schilt
- Jane Darby as Jenny Schilt
- Dorothy Frere as Granma Schilt
- Milovan Vesnitch as the erotic male dancer
- Serena as the erotic tiger-woman dancer
- Sean Hewitt as First Soldier
- David de Keyser as the voice of Mitterhaus's curse (uncredited)
Three of the cast—Laurence Payne, Adrienne Corri and Lalla Ward—would be reunited in the 1980 season of the British
sci-fi/
fantasy series
Doctor Who in the serial
The Leisure Hive. The film also heralded the screen debut of Lynne Frederick, who would later marry comic
Peter Sellers. David Prowse, who later played
Darth Vader in the first
Star Warstrilogy, appears in a silent role as the circus strongman. Robin Sachs would later appear later in his career as a recurring villainous character
Ethan Rayne in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as the space conqueror
Sarris in the science-fiction comedy
Galaxy Quest. In Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film of "
A Clockwork Orange", Corri had played the wife of writer F. Alexander, being ravaged by Alex and his droogs who left her husband crippled, to be shown later relying on the care of bodybuilder "Julius", portrayed by Prowse.
Critical reception
Vampire Circus has been well received by modern critics, and currently holds an 80% approval rating on movie
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes.
AllMovie called the film "one of the studio's more stylish and intelligent projects".
[2] PopMatters also called it "one of the company's last great classics", writing, "erotic, grotesque, chilling, bloody, suspenseful and loaded with doom and gloom atmosphere, this is the kind of experiment in terror that reinvigorates your love of the scary movie artform".
Critics at the time of its original release weren't quite as impressed.
New York Times film reviewer Howard Thompson dismissed it outright without even the courtesy of a proper review in favor of its double-billing Hammer counterpart "Countess Dracula". His curt review measured two sentences, "Wise horror fans will skip 'Vampire Circus' and settle for 'Countess Dracula' on the new double bill at the Forum. Both are Hammer Productions, England's scream factory, but the first was dealt a quick, careless anvil." before continuing with semi-praise for
Countess Dracula.
[4]
Novelization
An 'updated'
novelization by
Mark Morris was published in 2012.
[5]
