Vampire Circus
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| Vampire Circus | |
|---|---|
 European DVD Cover |
|
| Directed by | Robert Young |
| Produced by | Wilbur Stark |
| Written by | Judson Kinberg |
| Starring | Adrienne Corri Anthony Higgins John Moulder-Brown Lalla Ward Robin Sachs Lynne Frederick |
| Music by | David Whitaker |
| Cinematography | Moray Grant |
| Editing by | Peter Musgrave |
| Distributed by |  J. Arthur Rank
|
| Release date(s) | 30 April 1972
|
| Running time | 87 min.
 84 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Vampire Circus is a 1972 horror film directed by Robert Young for Hammer Film Productions. It stars Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters and Anthony Higgins (billed as Anthony Corlan).
The story concerns a travelling carnival whose vampiric artistes prey on the children of a 19th-century village.
It was filmed at Pinewood Studios.
Contents |
[edit] Plot Summary
Film begins with a prologue. A young woman in a European village (presumably Austria, as the clothes and German names suggest) lures a little girl to the castle of Count Mitterhouse, a vampire. He feeds upon the child, while the young woman watches, aroused. Then they make love. Villagers realize the little girl is missing, and already know who is responsible. The Burgermeister leads a mob, including the schoolteacher Mueller, whose wife Anna is the Count's lover and accomplice (the young woman above). They attack the castle, breaking in and driving a stake through the Count's heart. With his dying breath the Baron curses them and swears that he will return to prey upon their children. Afterwards, the villagers beat Anna and leave her in the castle, which they set on fire.
Anna drags the Count's body to an underground crypt as the fire burns around them. The Count seems to speak to her, telling her to find his cousin Emil...
Fifteen Years Later...
The town is under quarantine due to a plague raging through the village. The town's doctor, along with his son Anton, intends to break through the quarantine blockade to get help and medical supplies. When cornered by the guards, Anton volunteers as a decoy, drawing their attention until his father is safely out of range; then he returns to the village. But then, a travelling circus arrives. People enjoy their performances, which distract them from local troubles. The Burgermeister's daughter seems to fall in love with one of the performers, named Emil. She even begins to sneak out of her house to make love with him at the circus.
But one by one, the families of those who led the attack on the Count begin to suffer. A pair of brother and sister acrobats (actually vampiric twins conceived by the exiled Anna) lure two small boys into the House of Mirrors, where they drain the children of blood. The Burgermeister himself, visiting the funhouse, has a vision of the Count returning to life and collapses. One family is in theory led by a circus dwarf past the blockades surrounding the town--but it is a trap and they are devoured the circus' wild animals.
It was unexpected, but Dora, the daughter of the teacher Mueller who had been safely out of town, races through the quarantine barrier to be with her father and her sweetheart Anton in this time of crisis. She is almost victimized by the brother and sister as well, but her cross saves her. The vampires plan on having her mother (whom no one has recognized) remove the cross so her children by the Count (the acrobats) can feed on her. But Dora flees into her house chapel when this happens, and a wooden cross falls on the sister, piercing her heart. Due to their special connection as twins, her brother dies instantly as well.
The town's doctor returns from the capital with an imperial escort and medicines for the plague--which turns out to be a form of rabies spread by bats that infest the ruins of the castle. He also brings news that the Circus of Night is responsible for vampire killings in the villages they have toured, and that its propietor Emil is Mitterhouse's cousin. Half-crazed, the Burgermeister insists on leading an attack of the Circus. He proceeds to have the circus animals killed and sets fire to the House of Mirrors; but then he is caught by yet another vision of Baron Mitterhouse and burns along with the tent.
By now Emil and his compatriots have dug their way to the Count's crypt, and Dora is kidnapped. Emil prepares to resurrect the Baron; Anna is killed by Emil before he turns to Dora. Anton goes with Mueller and manages to defeat Emil by grabbing the stake from the Count's chest and plunging it into him. Mueller himself does not survive the battle. But then the Count wakes and rises from the sarcophagus. Fortunately, Anton's crossbow makes a kind of makeshift cross and then he uses the drawstring to behead the Count. As the two young people exit the tomb, the villagers set the ruins alight with torches.
[edit] Cast
- Adrienne Corri as Gypsy Woman (aka Anna Mueller)
- Thorley Walters as Burgermeister
- Anthony Higgins as Emil (Count Mitterhouse's cousin)
- John Moulder-Brown as Anton Kersh
- Laurence Payne as Prof. Mueller (Dora's father, Anna's husband)
- Richard Owens as Dr. Kersh
- Lynne Frederick as Dora Mueller (Anna and Professor's daughter)
- Elizabeth Seal as Gerta Hauser
- Robin Hunter as Hauser
- Domini Blythe as Anna Mueller (the Count's lover)
- Robert Tayman as Count Mitterhouse (a vampire)
- John Bown as Schilt
- Mary Wimbush as Elvira
- Christina Paul as Rosa (the Burgermeister's daughter)
- Robin Sachs as Heinrich (the Count's son by Anna Mueller)
- Lalla Ward as Helga (Heinrich's sister)
[edit] Trivia
- Robin Sachs later played the recurring character of Ethan Rayne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Lalla Ward later played a vampire (temporarily) in the episode "State of Decay" on Doctor Who.
[edit] External links
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) • The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) • The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) • The Phantom of the Opera (1962) • The Kiss of the Vampire (1962) • The Devil-Ship Pirates (1963) • The Gorgon (1964) • Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966) • The Plague of the Zombies (1966) • The Reptile (1966) • The Witches (1966) • The Devil Rides Out (1967) • Hands of the Ripper (1971) • Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) • Countess Dracula (1971) • Vampire Circus (1972) • To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
