Vampire Circus Movie Review

Vampire Circus is a 1971 horror movie directed by Robert Young and starring Adrienne Corri, Laurence Payne and Lynne Frederick.

The movie begins with a teacher, Professor Muller(Payne) who sees his wife, Anna taking a local little girl, Jenny to a castle. It is the castle of Count Mitterhaus, who is a vampire. She gives the girl to him and he drains her blood. Anna is under his spell and she will do anything for him. The village are angry over the girl and they all go to the castle to get the Count. The Count kills some of the group, but he gets staked by Muller. He curses the villagers and says that they will lose their children and that he will come back to life. He tells Anna to go and find his cousin who is called Emil(Anthony Higgins). She escapes through an underground tunnel as the castle is destroyed by the angry locals.

Cut to years later and the village is full of disease. The locals can't allow anyone in or out. It seems that the Counts curse has come true. The local doctor wants to leave to get medicine. The locals talk about the Count and his curse. Some of them think that the bats in the town are really vampires. The circus arrives in town. The leader of the circus is a gypsy woman(Corri) and a weird dwarf. Also in the circus is a man called Emil who we know is related to the Count. He can change into a panther.
Him and the gypsy go to the castle where the Counts remains are and they swear that the curse will live on.

A local girl, Rosa likes Emil and this worries her family. The doctor manages to get away from the village to get medicine. He is helped by his son, Anton(John Moulder Brown). Anton is in love with the doctor's daughter, Dora, who turns up in the town as she missed her father and Anton. People start to get killed by the circus folk and it isn't long before the locals are suspicious. The vampires want Dora's blood. They kidnap her and take her to the castle. Meanwhile, the doctor comes back with news that there have been lots of killings in places where the circus has been. The locals destroy the circus and head to the castle to get Dora.

The locals battle Emil and Muller gets bitten and dies. Anton tries to save Dora. The Count is coming back to life. Muller uses the stake in his heart to kill Emil and the Count stands up and comes for Dora and Anton. Anton decapitates him and the locals set fire to the castle once again. This time, the curse is broken. The doctor, Dora and Anton leave the place but they see a bat fly into the sky. Has the count really been killed??

This is a fun film. It is a Hammer movie, so you know what to expect. The cast are good, the story is good and the film is decent. I liked it and I found it entertaining. I like these old movies as they can be very enjoyable. There are good moments in this movie and the creepy circus makes for a good horror tale. All in all, this is an above average movie from the 1970's with a lot to enjoy, so if you haven't seen it, I would recommend it! I will give it a 6/10.