VAMPIRE CIRCUS (1972)

Count Mitterhaus lives in a castle in the village of Stetl and is rumored to be a vampire, responsible for the disappearance of several young women of the village. Albert Mueller discovers that his wife Anna, under the count's power, has taken their daughter Jenny into the castle to serve as a blood sacrifice to Mitterhaus. He gathers several villagers together to attack the castle and manages to drive a stake into Mitterhaus, but with his dying breath, the count curses the village and sends Anna off to find his cousin Emil who is with the traveling Circus of Night. Fifteen years later, though the Count's castle has been destroyed, a plague has spread through Stetl, leading nearby villages to block their roads to stop its spread. When the Circus of Night comes to Stetl, the villagers embrace the gypsy troupe, with its dancers and acrobats, its animal performances and hall of mirrors, as a way to forget about the plague. We soon discover that evil lurks beneath the surface: a pair of acrobats seem to turn into bats high in the air, and the darkly handsome Emil, Mitterhaus' cousin, is a shapeshifter—he can turn into a panther—and a vampire. Emil and the circus members plan to resurrect Count Mitterhaus. While a town doctor heads out to get medicines for the plague, the circus folk begin terrorizing the village, mostly the children (some of whom disappear in the hall of mirrors) and the doctor's son Anton and his girlfriend Dora are left, with only crucifixes as weapons, to fight the vampire plague. 

This Hammer film is colorful, stylish, and a little sexy, and it's nice to see them leave the Dracula movie formula, which they used for years to the point of overkill, behind and try something a little different. The whole thing has a folklore feel to it, and the concept of the Circus of Night is intriguing, though it ends up not being exploited as much as it could be. Characterization is minimal; when we discover that a gypsy woman with the circus is Anna Mueller from the opening, there is no real impact. The atmospheric look of the movie is its biggest selling point, with the circus at times conjuring up Ray Bradbury’s sinister circus in his novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. Adrienne Corri, usually an asset in her movies, is mostly wasted here. John Moulder-Brown and Lynne Frederick are fairly bland as the young heroes Anton and Dora. Anthony Higgins (Emil) doesn't really have a lot of acting to do—he just has to look mysterious or menacing—but he certainly looks the part of a sexy and evil panther man. The animal transformations are a welcome addition to the Hammer template. Recommended. Pictured are Corri and Higgins. [Amazon Prime]