Vampire Circus

Directed by Robert Young
A long, disturbing and creepy precredit sequence ensues when a young girl is seen frolicking in the forest, she is being watched over by the local school teacher. He is occupied with reading a book, when he looks up next he sees the little girl being led  away by Anna, a busty woman ( this is a Hammer production ). The school teacher chases after the two, but is too late. They have already entered the castle of Count Mitterhaus, who is known to have seduced and killed many young girls.The school teacher returns with an angry lynch mob, whom many have had their own daughters go missing. Once inside they find the young girl dead, her throat torn apart. The Count puts up a good fight but is eventually taken down with a wooden stake through his heart. As he lays dying he places a curse on the small Austrian village, vowing their children will die, so he may return. Fifteen years later, a plague like illness falls on the village. The town's doctor and his son risk their lives for medicine by leaving the quarrentine boundaries of their village . Meanwhile the Circus of the Nights  has  come to town, but the performers have more on their minds than entertaining the small crowds.
Vampire Circus presents plenty of  dream like, surreal and hallucinatory images within it's circus motif  like animals that  jump into the air but land as  humans, a strongman that acts as the protector of the circus family and a creepy, menacing midget that is literally two faced. Leading the caravan is an older gypsy woman with a mysterious past. Also adding to the circus atmosphere is the traditional caliope music which makes itself present  quite often . The mirrors of life, a tent housing mirrors that distorts images, but can have deadly results as well when two young brothers are seduced and killed by a pair of vampires.
Vampire Circus is oozing with sexuality, some quite sensual such as a beautiful woman naked , all but the grease paint that covers her entire body. Performing a strange dance with her partner, an animal trainer she slinks around like a tigress, once in his arms she succumbs to an orgasmic pleasure with her outstretched legs quivering. Director Young cuts the camera away showing a caged tiger's back legs reacting the same way. Other scenes are down right disturbing as young children, both boys and girls are seduced and killed by the vampires. Even in today's movies the act of violence towards children are shunned upon.
With the Circus of Nights arriving to the small town of Schettel the morality of the towns people has steadily declined as seen in such instances when a wife is being seductively kissed by one of the circus performers with her husband and children present. I have to wonder if the men band together to rid their town of this circus because they are vampires or is it because their women are being seduced ? Also the Burgermaster's (mayor ) wife allows their young daughter Rose to spend the night with one of the performers she is crushing on. Subsequently when her father attempts to protect her, he dies from a heart attack, instead of Rose tending to her dead father's body she returns to her vampire lover and takes his hands, placing them onto her breasts. Not a very lady like characteristic of a 19th century young woman, never mind being the daughter of a dead Burgermaster. And let's not forget about that twelve minute opening scene where little Jenny is abducted which hints at the Count's perversion of pedophilia. " One lust leads to the other" as he then gets it on with Anna, the school teacher's wife. This is very racy subject matter.
There is plenty of decent scenes of gore and vampire mayhem to please the blood lust, if you were thinking that this picture was all sex and no blood. There is your typical wooden stakes impalings, torn throats, bitten necks, gun blasts to an abdomen and a decapitation by the string of a crossbow. All which are done decent enough. One scene of a trio of would be escapees are tricked , and led to a black panther in waiting. The jungle cat shreds them to pieces, the panther's head is shown quickly and in rapid edits but still looks just like what it is, a stuffed toy. The blood seen splashed onto the forest foilage looks terrible, more like that of a child's finger paint,the colour is not a natural blood colour. The look of the blood throughout the film is the same unnatural look but is comparable to most of the other horror pictures of the 1970's. A couple of decapitated heads seen later from the panther attack looks rather unsophisticated  by today's standards but still grisly enough with maggots filling the orifices.And dangling eyeballs.
This is the most offbeat Hammer production of a vampire movie I have ever witnessed and I believe it's a keeper. Not the best vampire picture out there, but with it's equal doses of sex, circus themes and the Gothic imagery of castles, fog, lynching mobs and bats, especially the one that sneaks away from the eye socket of a skull. Add all these elements together and you have yourself  a couple hours of some fun entertainment.

My Thoughts: If you are looking for something a little different, a little kinky and daring, try this on for size.
My Rating: 4 Go Go Girls out of 5