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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1970s
    Movies - 1970s Movies - V 2 Mins Read

    Vampire Circus (1972)

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    In one of the longest pre-credit sequences, we follow a bucolic family scene in 19th century Serbia dissolve to terror as the wife and child of schoolmaster Albert Müller (Laurence Payne) enter the forbidding castle of Count Mitterhaus (Robert Tayman), a local vampire who has held the area in something of a blood siege while devouring its youth.

    The film cuts to an evening scene where a torch-bearing horde of villagers plan to descend on the count’s lair. In the remarkably bloody battle that follows, Mitterhaus is staked out (literally) but not before he curses the town of Stetl for “all eternity” and disposes of quite a number of stalwart citizens.

    Fifteen years later, Stetl lies under the curse of a plague and has been quarantined and sealed off physically by a roadblock and roving patrols ensuring nobody enters or leaves.

    The local doctor (Richard Owens) tries to procure some medicine from the outside world, along with his son Anton (John Moulder-Brown).

    vampirecircus3 vampirecircus4

    Upon his return to Stetl, Anton finds a circus – the “Circus of Nights” – has been set up there with a Gypsy woman (Adrienne Corri), a clown-faced dwarf (Skip Martin), a strongman (future Green Cross Man and Darth Vader, David Prowse), twin acrobats (Robin Sachs and Lalla Ward) and various others in tow.

    Shortly afterwards people in the town begin to die mysteriously, their bodies drained of blood. It transpires that the ‘circus’ is populated by vampires able to change into animals at will, and is run by Emil (Anthony Corlan), a cousin of the notorious Count Mitterhaus.

    Hammer re-used the sets from Twins of Evil (1971) for Vampire Circus.

    vampirecircus11Gypsy woman
    Adrienne Corri
    Albert Müller
    Laurence Payne
    Burgermeister Peter
    Thorley Walters
    vampirecircus13Anton Kersh
    John Moulder-Brown
    Emil
    Anthony Corlan
    Dora Müller
    Lynne Frederick
    Anna Müller
    Domini Blythe
    Dr Kersh
    Richard Owens
    vampirecircus4Hauser
    Robin Hunter
    Gerta Hauser
    Elisabeth Seal
    Gustav Hauser
    Barnaby Shaw
    Jon Hauser
    Roderick Shaw
    Michael
    Skip Martin
    Count Mitterhaus
    Robert Tayman
    Schilt
    John Bown
    Jenny Schilt
    Jane Derby
    Mrs Schilt
    Sibylla Kay
    Elvira
    Mary Wimbush
    Rosa
    Christina Paul
    Heinrich
    Robin Sachs
    Helga
    Lalla Ward
    Strongman
    David Prowse
    Granma Schilt
    Dorothy Frere

    Director
    Robert Young

    Video

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