A chance for me to sit down with a proper Hammer Horror movie for a change, 1972's VAMPIRE CIRCUS. The first time I've seen this on DVD and for the first time this millennium too. It's a good little movie that holds up today and stands out from the plethora of Hammer's other vampire movies thanks to a willingness to shake up the old formula and present the elements in a more creative and original way, much like CAPTAIN KRONOS did. The East European setting is well realised and I loved the idea of the action taking place in a plague town cut off from the rest of society; if you want to go to the next village you end up having to run a gauntlet of guns to get there!
The film is handsomely made and produced, perhaps not one of Hammer's biggest budgets here, but it's colourful and has plenty of action going for it. The weakest point is the characterisation: too many middle-aged guys on the side of good, many of them interchangeable, the only ones standing out being John Moulder-Brown and Lynne Frederick as the Romeo and Juliet-style star-crossed lovers. Both are so young and innocent-looking here that they feel like kids playing dress up. The circus itself is the best part of the film and there are plenty of interesting-looking performers present, not least Skip Martin's evil dwarf (seemingly every '70s horror film had one!), Dave Prowse's silent strongman, Lalla Ward's acrobat, Anthony Higgins as a Heathcliff-alike, and of course Adrienne Corri's gypsy woman. Hammer throw in the nudity and gore too and it all works quite nicely. Not quite one of their top-tier productions, but it's a keeper all the same.
The film is handsomely made and produced, perhaps not one of Hammer's biggest budgets here, but it's colourful and has plenty of action going for it. The weakest point is the characterisation: too many middle-aged guys on the side of good, many of them interchangeable, the only ones standing out being John Moulder-Brown and Lynne Frederick as the Romeo and Juliet-style star-crossed lovers. Both are so young and innocent-looking here that they feel like kids playing dress up. The circus itself is the best part of the film and there are plenty of interesting-looking performers present, not least Skip Martin's evil dwarf (seemingly every '70s horror film had one!), Dave Prowse's silent strongman, Lalla Ward's acrobat, Anthony Higgins as a Heathcliff-alike, and of course Adrienne Corri's gypsy woman. Hammer throw in the nudity and gore too and it all works quite nicely. Not quite one of their top-tier productions, but it's a keeper all the same.