VAMPIRE CIRCUS

VAMPIRE CIRCUS

Bowing to 1970s audiences' requirements for sex and violence, VAMPIRE CIRCUS quickly establishes itself as a harsher, more explicit beast than the more quaint Hammer horrors that preceded it in the late 1950s and 1960s. A pre-credits sequence opens proceedings with a horde of vengeful villagers storming the castle of Count Mitterhaus (Robert Tayman), who they believe has been murdering their children.

This opening salvo includes full-frontal female nudity (the gorgeous Domini Blythe), a sadistic whipping, child murder and the staking of Mitterhaus' heart.

As Mitterhaus' immortality slips away from him and moments before the villagers burn his castle to the ground, he places a curse on their village - promising that their kids will die in years to come.

Several years later, and we learn that people are indeed dropping dead at an alarming rate in the village. The locals are superstitious, believing the cause for the fatalities to be far more supernatural in origin than a mere plague - and even the neighbouring hamlets have set up roadblocks to prevent anyone leaving the village and spreading the curse.

Albert (Laurence Payne), husband of Anna, insists that Mitterhaus is not a vampire as his peers believe, and that the curse he uttered is nothing but a flight of fancy. But he's in the minority in trying to rationalise events: most others are panic-stricken.

That is, until the travelling Circus Of Nights rides into the village square. The gypsies leading the troupe ignore questions about how they got through the roadblocks and why they're not scared of the village's reputation for death, instead explaining that their intention is to "steal the money from dead men's eyes".

Come nightfall, the beleaguered villagers decide they need some entertainment anyway and forget about their misgivings - instead settling down to watch the circus' first performance.

But before long, the local children begin to go missing again ...

One of the later films to emerge from the Hammer Studios roster prior to their recent resurrection, VAMPIRE CIRCUS was filmed in 1971 and released to mixed reviews in the following year.

It's an uneven film, with fair-to-middling performances and very little in terms of cast charisma, save for the aforementioned Blythe (a stunner) and the ever-watchable David Prowse as the circus strongman.

Direction-wise, Robert Young keeps things brisk but only sporadically shows signs of visual flair. For the most part, the period costumes and austere mannerisms are the only elements of style that the film has - it's rather ugly to look at otherwise. It's no surprise that Young's subsequent career was restricted to television.

Even so, the film has an unwavering pace that works tremendously in its favour and the circus vignettes are colourful and darkly comedic in a manner that sometimes recalls Fellini. David Whitaker's music adds to the more surreal moments.

Most of all though, VAMPIRE CIRCUS is trashy pulp that comes peppered with the occasional pair of voluptuous knockers and a fair smattering of tame gore. All of this, wrapped in a vaguely moralistic fable of simple but compelling forthrightness ... It's hard not to appreciate.

Watching it now, it's easy to consider that the film must have had an influence on THE MUTATIONS and possibly even SANTA SANGRE. Even the opening sequence bears striking similarities to THE BEYOND ...

Synapse's maiden blu-ray release presents the film, fully uncut and restored, in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio and enhanced for 16x9 television sets. The AVC encoded transfer is presented in 1080p high definition and looks, for the most part, superb.

Colours are bolder than ever before, flesh tones are natural and blacks come through strongly thanks to a lack of compression worries. Minor print damage can be found in the early moments of the film but this is negligible and is only mentioned for the benefit of the terminally anal. The picture is a tad soft at times but that's to be expected of a low budget British horror film which is approaching 40 years of age. It's certainly the best VAMPIRE CIRCUS has ever looked to these eyes, by a wide margin.

Interestingly, the film opens with an ITV logo, and then the MGM logo.

Original English 2.0 mono audio is provided in a pleasing DTS-HD Master Audio mix which is pretty much flawless throughout. An isolated "music and effects" track is also provided, also in DTS-HD Master mono.

An animated main menu leads to unfussy pop-up menus, including a scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 12 chapters.

Extras begin with the excellent new "Bloodiest Show On Earth" documentary, which takes a look back at the making of VAMPIRE CIRCUS. This is expertly produced and edited, proffering a slick and informative study into what motivated the contents of VAMPIRE CIRCUS. Hammer historian Tim Newsom, author Philip Nutman and filmmaker Joe Dante lead the dance initially, but the real point of interest here is Prowse who is on hand to give personal recollections of the shoot. This comes in at a weighty 32 minutes in length, and is a marvellous accompaniment to the main feature.

"Gallery Of Grotesqueries" is a 15-minute featurette that looks further into the history of circus-related horror films. Narrator Randal Turnbull seems to be rushing to get his words in to the running time but, aside from that, this is another insightful documentary with more solid contributions from Nutman etc. It takes in the likes THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, FREAKS, CIRCUS OF HORRORS, NIGHT TIDE, SHE FREAK and more.

"Visiting The House Of Hammer" is a 10-minute reminisce over the short-lived but fondly remembered magazine of the same name.

The next extra is a very welcome curiosity: the comic book from the above magazine, reproduced here in a well-edited motion gallery with excerpts from the film's score to help with atmosphere. It's a fun, and novel, way of experiencing the film in just over 3 minutes.

A 2-minute gallery of stills and posters follows.

Finally, we get the original theatrical trailer for VAMPIRE CIRCUS. This clocks in at just over two-and-a-half minutes in length and is nicely cheesy.

All of the extras are presented in HD and presented in 16x9 enhanced widescreen.

As if all of this wasn't enough, Synapse have gone the extra mile and released the film in a 2-disc "combo" pack - a DVD is also included, containing the film and all of the same extras. It's worth noting though that the blu-ray is Region A restricted and the DVD is locked to Region 1. Synapse president Don May Jr has stated on forums that this is something that's out of Synapse's hands.

But, with multi-region blu-ray players coming down in price by the week and the amount of quality Region A-locked blu-rays out there nowadays (VIDEODROME, IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES, DEATH RACE 2000, HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP, FORBIDDEN WORLD, GALAXY OF TERROR, AUDITION, PIRANHA, SHOCK CORRIDOR, REPULSION, VENGEANCE TRILOGY, KING OF NEW YORK ... off the top of my head), this disc remains pretty essential.

The front cover states that this is part of Synapse's "Hammer Horror Collection". I can't wait to see what else they have in store (they've already confirmed TWINS OF EVIL, HANDS OF THE RIPPER and the "Hammer House Of Horror" TV series as future releases).

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Synapse Films
Region A
Not Rated
Extras :
see main review
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