Vampire Circus

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Vampire Circus

PG

1972

1h 27m

Horror

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

83%

Tomatometer

6 Reviews

63%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Traveling performers take revenge against the Serbian villagers whose ancestors killed their leader 100 years ago.

Maitland McDonagh

MaitlandOnMovies (Substack)

12/29/2024

[M]ore than half a century after it was made it’s still sharp, sexy and emphatically not “campy” ... a Hammer-style vampire movie minus the Dracula/Karnstein-family-line backstory ... wed to the eerie allure of old-school circuses.

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Bill Gibron

PopMatters

02/04/2011

4/5

Erotic, grotesque, chilling, bloody, suspenseful, and loaded with doom and gloom atmosphere, this is the kind of experiment in terror that reinvigorates your love of the scary movie artform.

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

02/02/2011

B-

Gory, cliched, silly and inventive.

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John Beifuss

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

01/18/2011

3/4

Hammer's most elusive Gothic horror movie contains frequent nudity, but its arthouse kinkiness -- its hints of pedophilia, bestiality and incest -- offers a more likely explanation for its limited distribution than its exposed skin.

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Bryant Frazer

Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

05/19/2008

B-

Never recovers the concentrated erotic-violent high ground of [its] delirious overture, which stands as a wildly entertaining example of over-the-top horror filmmaking.

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

07/23/2005

2/5

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Logan D

@Greynomad38 Apr 5

Early 19th century, Serbia. The villagers of Stetl live in the shadow of a castle that housed a vampire. Fifteen years earlier, the men killed the undead villain. But when a weird circus comes to town and their children start disappearing, the villagers are reminded of a curse the vampire uttered: "Your children will die to give me life!" One of the better Hammer films, it's bold and strange with some surreal circus imagery. The characters are pretty thin, sadly, but it does sport some nice set pieces. I felt like I was viewing one of the old horror comics from the 50s. Of note is David Prowse as the strongman. He was the actor in the suit for Darth Vader.

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Tim F

@Oldsoldier66 Sep 25

Surprisingly creepy and violent for a film from a major studio. Especially horrid was the number of child victims. Is it shakespeare? No. But it is a powerful and disturbing vampire flick.

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Ollie W

@RT90619198 11/09/2024

Really difficult to follow. Couldn’t really tell what was going on half the time. Pretty repetitive. None of the Hammer films are scary but they usually have some charm. This one was just confused and stupid.

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BigD J

@Jerminator 11/01/2024

Typical boring, dry British style film, as most from 70’s-80’s are. But hey, there’s chi chis and some cool ambiance scenes

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Thom G

@RT30917670 02/19/2024

A campy vampire movie with a great atmosphere.

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05/13/2021

Thank God for 70s horror

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Synopsis

Traveling performers take revenge against the Serbian villagers whose ancestors killed their leader 100 years ago.

Director: Robert Young
Producer: Wilbur Stark
Screenwriter: Judson Kinberg
Production Co: Hammer Films
Rating: PG
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 2, 2018
Runtime: 1h 27m

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