Vampire Circus (1972) #1FromtheVaults #Horror

What’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys? Vampire Circus (1972). This one opens with the oiled down muscle dude hitting the giant gong, announcing ‘The Rank Organisation presents a Hammer Production,’ so you know it’s gonna be good. Well, you’d think.

Vampire Circus is just strange for me and is longer than it needed to be. The vampire action and film trickery are exceptional as are the gore effects and blook, which is not the standard can of red paint that was popular in the 1970s. Even the acting is good. And the cast includes David Prowse as the strongman.

The story revolves around a village with a vampire problem that they think is resolved after they stake Count Mitterhaus. Fifteen years later the town has a disease that is killing people off. Some think it is the count’s curse, but the doctor is more rational and disagrees. That’s when the circus comes to town with nefarious plans; somehow getting through the barricade to keep people from getting in or out of the town.

There’s so much that happens from beginning to end of Vampire Circus that I don’t think was needed. For instance, how many times did I need to see the same circus acts performing? I read some fun facts about the film and learned that they weren’t even done shooting it when production shut them down and sent the footage to the editor to put together a finished film. I can’t imagine the length if they hadn’t.

Just because of the repetition and slight boredom that I felt, I can only give Vampire Circus 2.5 out of 5 Stars.

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