Vampire Circus (1972, Blu-ray Review) Synapse Films
Director: Robert Young
Cast: Adrienne Corri, Lynne Frederick, Thorley Walters, Laurence Payne, Anthony Corlan
Synapse Films / Blu-ray Region A / Unrated / Anamorphic Widescreen (1.66:1) / Digital Mono / 87 minutes / PURCHASE FROM AMAZON
Extras: The Bloodiest Show on Earth: Making of Vampire Circus Documentary / Gallery of Grotesqueries: A Brief History of Circus Horrors Featurette / Visiting the House of Hammer: Britain’s Legendary Horror Magazine Featurette / Vampire Circus: Motion Comic Book / Still and Poster Gallery / Theatrical Trailer
———————
In the past few years the vampire mythos has had an explosion in popularity, due in no small part to Stephenie Meyer’s ultra popular Twilight series. Thanks to these books and the movies based on them that are skewed toward a younger audience (i.e. the driving force behind pop culture) we are inundated with TV series like the incredible True Blood and the teen soap opera The Vampire Diaries as well as movies like Let the Right One In and a plethora of vampire and supernatural literature. Just look in your local bookstore to see what I mean. There is a whole section just for these books! But in the 1960s and 70s Hammer Films had their own blood sucking revival, including Robert Young’s 1972 classic Vampire Circus.
Some time in the 1800s a villager’s wife is having an affair with Count Mitterhaus, a creepy vampire dude who lives in a dilapidated castle and feeds on the children of the village with the woman’s help. After an eyewitness sees a little girl enter the castle with the woman, he returns with a mob to rescue her only to find her dead. After a short struggle the men kill Mitterhaus but not before he curses them. He says that they and their children will die so that he may come back from the dead. Fifteen years later most of the townspeople are dying from an unknown plague when a caravan of carnies ride into town. The circus performers entertain the downtrodden populace but soon weird things begin to happen and the children begin to disappear and die. Little does the village know that some of the performers are shape-shifing vampires there to exact the Count’s revenge.
I don’t have much screen time with the Hammer cannon other than the fantastic The Vampire Lovers starring one of my sexy scream queen favorites, Ingrid Pitt. So I was intrigued when Synapse Films announced that they would be releasing some of Hammer’s best under their Hammer Horror Collection umbrella. To say that I enjoyed their first release in the collection is an understatement. It is completely different from the exploitation stuff I am used to in a lot of ways, yet in its own way, it has everything that I love about exploitation. There is a smorgasbord of Hammer Hotties on display here. Young, nubile babes running around in peasant dresses getting attacked –and doing some of the attacking in some cases– by sharply-fanged vampies. And they are not shy about showing off their tits and asses. The campy, low-budget blood and gore effects also give it an indescribable charm that I am sure runs through most Hammer films. The movie’s pace and acting kept me interested even though there was not really any “action” happening through a lot of the movie’s run time, rather fantastic Gothic storytelling, interesting characters and yes, there is a fair share of blood, violence and sex.
This release by Synapse Films put out in a blu-ray/DVD combo pack is pretty fucking amazing. The HD transfer is gorgeous and really showcases the carnival of colors on display and from what I can gather, looks better than anything since its original theatrical run. The anamorphic 1.66:1 widescreen is a little weird just because if you are watching on a 16×9 TV, it has tiny black bars on the side but it doesn’t really detract from the film. The mono mix also sounds really good with minimal hissing and popping. Synapse always goes the extra mile with the blu-ray/DVD supplements and this is no different. “The Bloodiest Show on Earth” is a really interesting documentary on the making of Vampire Circus and there are two, that’s right two, Hammer horror featurettes to feed your need for blooooood. I look forward to broadening my Hammer horizons with the upcoming releases of The Hammer Horror Collection from Synapse and I can only hope that the future ones are as stellar as this one.
Screencaps courtesy of www.Blu-Ray.com
Keep in mind Vampire Circus is a bit of an oddity in the Hammer catalogue rather than the rule. I came out as they were getting more desperate to get some more hits as their tried and true formula’s weren’t bringing in the bank any more. It’s still very hammer of course but I’d say it’s faster paced and has significantly more going on then their earlier output.
Thanks for the info KaL, I will keep that in mind. I can get into atmospheric, story driven stories if they are done right.