Vampire Circus1972

Name: Vampire Circus
Genre: Vampire, Gothic, Folk Horror, Classic Monsters
Released: 1972-04-30
Rating: 6.6

“Human fangs ripping throats - no sawdust can soak up the torrent of blood!”

Directed by Robert Young

6.6

Crypt Score

Blended from 3 sources

IMDb 6.3Rotten Tomatoes 83%TMDB 5.9

✍ Review

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Year

1972

Runtime

87 min

The premise

After a spate of murders, the villagers of Schtettel kill the depraved perpetrator, Count Mitterhouse. Fifteen years later the Circus of Nights appeared in the plague-ridden village and its performers include Mitterhouse's mistress, children and cousins. They have come to Schtettel to fulfil the Count's last words, an evil, vicious curse of death and destruction on those who participated in his impaling. The children of Schtettel become the targets for a brutal and devastating revenge as the Vampire Circus rehearses for its most deadly performance.

Horror Vault's take

In a remote 19th-century European village already ravaged by plague, a mysterious travelling circus arrives bearing performers with a chilling connection to a vampire count the villagers killed fifteen years prior. The Circus of Nights dazzles and seduces the desperate townsfolk, but its true purpose is far darker than entertainment. Children begin to vanish and horror creeps through the quarantined streets as it becomes clear the troupe has come not to perform — but to collect a blood debt. This Hammer-era gem blends Gothic atmosphere with carnivalesque dread to unsettling effect.

Content: Violence, Sexual Content, Peril Involving Children, Vampire Attacks