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Review by
Brian Lindsey
Film:7
BD/DVD:9
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| NOTE:
Screenshots were taken from the DVD |
| Hammer's
most perversely twisted tale of the Undead. |
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Substantially
upping the quota of sex and violence, Vampire
Circus was an attempt by the venerable British studio to
infuse new blood into its faltering line of gothic/period horrors,
which were already considered passé by the dawn of the
swinging '70s. Not content just to offer more nudity and gory
mayhem, however, the filmmakers also mix in some not-so-subtle
allusions to pedophilia and incest, all while driving the lurid
story forward at a rapid-fire clip lending further appeal to
those who pooh-pooh Hammer films for their often stately (i.e.,
glacial) pace. This Hammer flick, it must be stated, opens
with a certifiable bang. |
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It
begins with a nearly 12-minute pre-title sequence, aptly referred
to in the main documentary featurette (see below) as a sort of
mini-movie unto itself. We're quickly clued-in that the rural
Balkan village of Stettel has a serious nosferatu problem:
Little girls are disappearing, lured to the castle of the evil
Count Mitterhaus by the village schoolmaster's pretty young wife,
Anna (yummy Domini Blythe). She has become the vampire's wanton
whore and helpmeet. Watching her undead lover drain the life from
his small victims is the ultimate aphrodisiac. |
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Quite understandably, Anna's husband, Prof. Mueller (Laurence
Payne), isn't very happy about the situation. He rouses the men
of the village to action, vowing to end the count's reign of terror
once and for all. An armed mob attacks the castle, catching Anna
in bed with Mitterhaus (Robert Tayman) after the murder of their
latest victim. During a bloody battle in which several of the
villagers are killed, Mueller drives a stake through the count's
chest. But is he truly defeated? Before expiring, Mitterhaus invokes
a curse on his slayers not only will they, in time, suffer his
revenge, but their children as well... all to restore his undead
existence. The men of Stettel don't bother mulling over this ominous
pronouncement, however; they're too busy placing barrels of gunpowder
all around the castle. Just before the fuses are lit Anna breaks
free from her captors and runs back inside to join her lover.
The castle is then blown up. Roll those opening credits! |
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Flash forward 15 years: The village may have freed itself from
vampirism with the death of Count Mitterhaus but now it's dealing
with a different kind of plague citizens are dropping dead of
a mysterious disease producing blackened sores on the bodies of
the infected. Things have gotten so bad that the authorities have
imposed quarantine, cordoning off the entire town with a picket
line of soldiers. No one can go in and no one comes out; otherwise
they are shot. Stettel's elders debate what to do about the situation,
agreeing that the local physician, Dr. Kersch (Richard Owens),
must try to slip through the cordon and make for the capital to
acquire special medicines. Having moved to Stettel some time after
the slaying of the count, Kersch scoffs at the men's warnings
of a supernatural evil festering in the ruins of the castle. (As
a man of science he insists there are no such things as vampires
and curses, and is obviously more concerned about getting a musket
ball in the back when defying the quarantine.) But even before
the doctor can make the attempt, a small travelling carnival,
the so-called "Circus of Nights", inexplicably arrives
in town. Its leader, a mysterious gypsy woman (Andrienne Corri,
A Clockwork Orange), won't say how
she and her troupe got past the soldiers; the townspeople are
just happy to host them as a welcome diversion from their ongoing
troubles. What they don't know is that the circus performers include
a family of vampires, among them Emil (Anthony Corlan) the shape-shifting
cousin of the late, unlamented Count Mitterhaus... |
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Vampire Circus was exactly the kind
of shot in the arm that Hammer needed to invigorate its traditional
gothic horrors, although in the end it was all for naught... The
film's distribution in America was poorly handled (nudity and
gore were cropped out to secure a PG rating, rendering the story
nearly incoherent) and within two years the flagging studio would
suspend production of feature films altogether. Be that as it
may, the movie remains an entertaining blend of classic gothic
horror tropes and sleazy exploitation elements a tasty recipe
that continental competitors (especially in Italy and Spain) had
heretofore been much more willing to consult than Hammer. |
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Director Robert Young relatively inexperienced at the time
does a fine job camouflaging the low budget, which is really only
apparent in the almost comically small circus set.*
Sequences calling for elaborate (and expensive) optical or make-up
effects are for the most part deftly handled via clever editing.
And while he and his crew are certainly treading familiar Hammer
terrain (i.e., gothic horror in a 19th Century Middle European
setting), that landscape is traversed in a more permissive, less
traditionalist way. The use of slow motion and flash cuts are
modernizing departures from the typical Hammer 'style'. (And heck,
while we're at at, let's throw in a nude dance number in front
of an audience of children and their stunned parents!) Adding
to this sense of freshness is a notable dearth of familiar Hammer
faces, a fact extending beyond the main performers big guns
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are nowhere to be seen to
also include the roster of supporting players. Only Thorley Walters,
known to Hammer fans for appearances in some of the studio's Dracula
and Frankenstein flicks, is a holdover from Hammer's 1960s heyday.
(Nope, the nearly ubiquitous Michael Ripper is not on hand
as the village innkeeper or gravedigger.) |
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The
film's flaws are pretty glaring, it's true. The logic of certain
story elements doesn't hold up to even minimal scrutiny. Acting
occasionally goes a little over the top (Walters' burgomeister,
for example, is practically a cartoon character) and some of the
vampires' goofy fang-baring facial contortions may provoke
more snickers than shudders. A couple of the FX shots don't work
at all
in fact, they're downright piss-poor. (Those 'transparent' bats
in one sequence look like something out a Bert I. Gordon pic from
the '50s.) And the ending, as every review of this film is mandated
to mention, is rather chaotically rushed. (So
that's it, then?)
But getting there is actually quite a lot of fun. Vampire
Circus is a sexy, fast-paced fairly tale for adults...
Hammer Horror with a kinky twist. |
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*
I realize the film depicts a ragamuffin gypsy sideshow... but
eight performers and
three animals (not counting the bats!) hardly constitute a "circus".
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| It
has been a long wait indeed for region-locked North American Hammerheads
to get their hands on something other than a bootleg version of
Vampire Circus. And now here it is,
courtesy of genre/cult specialists Synapse Films, complete and
uncut and on Blu-ray no less! (Not only does VC
mark Synapse's 100th release, it's also the first Hammer title
to come out on Blu-ray in this hemisphere.) |
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The
package is a two-disc "combo" set containing the film/all
bonus features in both high definition Blu-ray and standard definition
DVD formats, each on its own respective disc. Although there have
been a few complaints about the print used by Synapse being too
dark, I have to disagree; the heavily edited TV version (shown
in the '80s on the USA Network) was simply too bright in my estimation.
VC truly looks terrific via this
new 1080p Blu-ray. Colors really pop, detail is heightened, and
the day-for-night photography now looks a tad less 'Ed Woodian'.
The BD's main 2.0 Mono DTS-HD audio track is similarly pleasing,
very clean and crisp, albeit dropping a line of (inconsequential)
dialog at 29:50. Additionally, an isolated music/sound effects
audio track is available on both discs. (The R1 DVD is anamorphic
1.66:1/Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono.) |
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Along with the British theatrical trailer,
an image gallery and the aforementioned music/sound FX audio track,
three featurettes are included as extras. In The Bloodiest
Show on Earth (32 min.), actor/producer/Hammer documentarian
Ted Newsom, film critic/Video Watchdog publisher Tim Lucas,
director Joe Dante (Gremlins, the
original Piranha)
and film historian Philip Nutman are interviewed about the making
of VC and their assessment of its
merits and shortcomings; actor David Prowse, who plays the circus
strongman, briefly regales his initial association with Hammer
(as the monster in Horror
of Frankenstein). Gallery of Grotesqueries: A Brief
History of Circus Horrors (15 min.) uses still photos, lobby
cards, poster art and (somewhat annoying) narration to give a
quick tour of circus/carnival-themed chillers from the silent
era through the 1970s. Philip Nutman
is again featured in Visiting the House of Hammer: Britain's
Legendary Horror Magazine (9 min.), discussing the studio's
short-lived magazine and comic book imprint. A portion of the
original comic book adaptation of VC
(covering the film's prologue) is provided in "motion comic"
form. 2/19/11 |
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