IN SAYING
EVERYTHING ABOUT A MOVIE?
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IN SAYING EVERYTHING ABOUT A MOVIE? |
| VAMPIRE CIRCUS (director: Robert William Young; screenwriter: Judson Kinberg; cinematographer: Moray Grant; editor: Peter Musgrave; music: David Whitaker; cast: Adrienne Corri (Gypsy Woman), John Moulder-Brown (Anton Kersh), Anthony Corlan (Emil), Thorley Walters (Burgomaster), Lynne Frederick (Dora Mueller), Laurence Payne (Professor Mueller), Elizabeth Seal (Gerta Hauser), Robert Tayman (Count Mitterhouse), Skip Martin (Michael), Richard Owens (Dr. Kersh), Robin Hunter (Hauser), Robin Sachs (Heinrich), Lalla Ward (Helga), Domini Blythe (Anna), Dave Prowse (Strongman), John Bown (Schlit), Roderick Shaw (Jon Hauser), Barnaby Shaw (Gustav Hauser), Mary Wimbush (Sylvia), Christina Paul (Rosa); Runtime: 83; MPAA Rating: PG; producer: Wilbur Stark; 20th Century-Fox; 1972-UK) |
| "Gory,
cliched, silly and
inventive."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz English filmmaker Robert William Young ("Captain Jack"/"Bye Bye Harry!"/"Wide Blue Yonder"), in his directorial debut, keeps things gory, cliched, silly and inventive. The stylish Technicolor Hammer film, filled with sexy vampires to resemble a '70s sexploitation film, is written in a tongue-and-cheek manner by Judson Kinberg. It's set in the quarantined Serbian village of Schtetel in
1825,
where
there's a plague and a vampire curse hanging over its
head.
Fifteen years ago the villagers put a stake through
the heart of its
active vampire, Count Mitterhouse (Robert Tayman),
who
abducted
several children and has the schoolteacher's wife Anna
(Domini Blythe) under
his power as his mistress. Before the
villagers put the vampire count into a crypt for
safekeeping and
destroy his castle, he vows in his dying breaths that
those who killed
him (the schoolteacher, Hauser, the Burgomaster and others) will
have
their
children
die to give me back my life. Dr.
Kersh
(Richard Owens) breaks
through the armed roadblocks set up by the
neighboring villages and
learns the cause of the plague while in the big
city, but also learns
by observing other deaths in the nearby villages
that the vampires have
returned to fulfill the count's promise. The
vampires are part of a
gypsy circus, the Circus of Nights, that sneaks
through the roadblock
and comes to the village to stay for a week; and
under the leadership
of the ringmaster, the Gypsy Woman (Adrienne
Corri), really the schoolteacher's estranged wife,
they start a
massacre. The
doctor
returns
with soldiers to get him through the roadblock and
bring medicines for the plague. But it's up to the
doctor's 18-year-old
son Anton (John
Moulder-Brown) and the
schoolteacher's teenage daughter
Dora (Lynne Frederick) to save the
village from the vampire assault. Many of the
assaults are by the
count's cousin, Emil (Anthony Corlan), who transforms himself
from time to time into a panther (using stop-action
effects) to an animal trainer to a
vampire (other
vampires transform themselves into bats). Several
locals are torn to
pieces by the animal attacks, who at first are not
suspected because
the tiger and panther are always caged. The
whole
affair
is awkwardly executed like a fairy tale, but it's
visually
appealing and is harmless entertainment suitable for
those who like
horror
cult films that are traditional vampire flicks yet
have a slightly
different trendy spin. It also benefits critically
from having fresh
faces for its cast, only
by not having stars it
cost them at the box office. REVIEWED ON 2/2/2011 GRADE: B- Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |