Vampire Circus - 50th Anniversary Limited Edition [Blu-ray]

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There is a undercurrent of eroticism here too, but is presented in a way that accentuates the other- worldly nature of the circus performers. The uniformly excellent cast are well chosen and are not the the familiar Hammer faces. Thorley Walters (the burgomeister) is the only Hammer regular here. Anthony Corlan had appeared as Paul in Taste the Blood of Dracula, but is unrecognizable as Emil, the shape-shifting vampire. This gives Vampire Circus a unique texture, allowing us to accept the the characters more readily. though it looked to me like there is some slight fading so that reds can skew slightly toward orange territory. There is some damage to be spotted here, of when Hammer's "classic" period ended, if in fact it ended at all. In that regard, it can be interesting to watch this collection of productions from

Hammer Horror as well as offering a glimpse into the making and history of Vampire Circus. Interview clips are the main attraction here, andRecords the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. Judging solely by screenshots, this appears to be one of the more substantially different looking presentations when compared to the previous Synapse Thus, we find that Synapse provide fans with a few things that they never thought they would see. Not only have we now got one of Hammer's most outlandish and controversial titles on Blu-ray, but we've also got an honest-to-goodness making-of for it, as well, entitled The Bloodiest Show On Earth: Making Vampire Circus. Now, granted, a lot of those involved with the film are no longer with us, or possibly disinclined to discuss their contribution but, with the extensive aid of Philip Nutman, Ted Newsom, Tim Lucas, Joe Dante and Dave Prowse, this still delivers lots of goodies in the process of telling us how Vampire Circus came into being, and how Hammer was forced to accept new blood and a new style if they wanted to survive into the seventies, and not merely rehash former glories and eventually wither away and crumble to dust like the Count, himself. Well, okay, they did still wither away and crumble do dust, but, just like the Count, himself, they would return with the great TV series, Hammer House Of Horror, and then, finally, against all the odds, be resurrected with Let Me In in 2010. Yes, yes, I know about the region-free Blu-ray release of Hammer's Paranoiac (1963) in Great Britain, but most consider that a suspense-thriller, not a horror film.

It would appear quality control was not top of the list with this release as the picture image is awful for the extras. Vampire Circus resolves by littering a crypt with at least seven corpses in just a couple of minutes, a record body count even for Hammer. This finish looks as though it were hastily rewritten to tie up loose ends and get the shoot over with. Just the same, Vampire Circus has a number of fresh ideas, and is more interesting than the majority of Hammer's output of the early 1970s. pleasure. Hammer certainly enjoyed a bit more recognition and distribution than did Corman's New World Pictures label, but both -- Corman's heyday Fifteen years later the village is decimated by the plague, which some blame on the dying Count's curse upon the children of the three major families that led the siege against him. Plague notwithstanding, a traveling circus arrives and the locals are grateful for the distraction. (Insofar as the plague is highly infectious, this begs the question: Why would anyone even consider attending such a public, germ-spreading and potentially deadly attraction to begin with?)It is an offbeat, highly surreal number with oodles of blood and gore thrown in. A Transylvanian village is sealed off from the outside world due to an outbreak of the plague. Anyone who tries to get in or out is shot dead by the police. Nevertheless a travelling circus somehow breaks through the lines, and boy, are all its bloodless-looking performers a wee bit strange! Visiting the House of Hammer: Britain's Legendary Horror Magazine (1080p, 9:47): Author Philip Nutman looks at the role of Hammer atmosphere, oddity, gore, erotica, and novelty to make for a worthwhile watch. It's a tale of revenge at its center, of a recently-deceased vampire coming along at the tail end of Hammer's reign -- certainly represented off-the-beaten-path sorts of Horror films that were gobbled up by serious genre Although there was plenty of nudity in The Vampire Lovers, Countess Dracula and a number of Hammer films in the 70’s, Vampire Circus really upped the ante on the gore, number of deaths, and also included plenty of nudity which was really a departure from the earlier classic Hammer films. The problem with this was that by the time Vampire Circus made it to the US, the prints were heavily edited to remove much of the gore and nudity, so many fans who have seen Vampire Circus over the years have never seen the full version. This release includes the full unedited version, so it was nice to finally watch the film as it was meant to be seen.

A little girl is brutally slain by a vampire in a tiny 19th century Austrian village. Seeking revenge, the townspeople invade the foreboding castle of Count Mitterhaus and kill him for the crime. As the Count dies, he curses the villagers and vows that their children will all die so that he may someday return to life. above, it works as a sideshow of sorts, as a movie that might not have those intangibles that tend to flesh out otherwise average pictures into solid As dopey as it may seem, Vampire Circus works well enough as a bizarrely entertaining fringe type of Horror motion picture. Its plot is Hammer's output in the seventies is automatically dismissable, even if the studio had become manifestly different from what it had been in priorVampire Circus is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint and Via Vision Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. I am a massive fan of all things Hammer and was looking forward to receiving the UK produced 50th Anniversary edition of Vampire Circus even though the extras have been taken directly from the American Blu ray. The extra featurettes are directed by Daniel Griffith for his company Ballyhoo. The main docu The Bloodiest Show on Earth (33 min.) features facts and opinions from authorities Ted Newsom, Tim Lucas and Philip Nutman; Joe Dante offers a couple of observations as well. The show's production story is by and large more interesting than the attempts to liken it to European film classics with superficial similarities. The docu includes a few words about acting and characterization from David Prowse: "Finding the right walk is the key to character." Prowse plays a mute strongman in the film and is best known as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise. The movie's "vampire magic" is its strongest asset, and more of it would have been better. A tented magic mirror attraction is initially rather scary, until we learn that the vampires use it only to trap young victims. One of the best moments has a performer (actually a vampire) confuse a potential victim by allowing the caged tiger (actually another shape-shifting vampire) to bite her arm. The film's most successful shots are done with simple "effects". When the vampire acrobat Emil dashes up a set of stairs, the camera flash-reveals a glimpse of his already present panther tail. Gallery of Grotesqueries: A Brief History of Circus Horrors (1080p, 15:07): A fascinating and all-too-short retrospective on

bad guys, but in a broader sense, the picture's at-times lavish but ultimately low budget feel and rather uneventful plot. aficionados. Now with wide distribution, cheap replication, and a demand for reviving long-forgotten favorites on DVD and, now, in high definition But Vampire Circus remains a high-water mark for the latter days of the Studio That Dripped Blood. It is wonderful to see the film again, and in such quality as this. Fine extras make this an easily cherished addition to any fan's collection. So those murky and ill-framed old versions can now be justifiably flung out and proudly replaced with Synapse's excellent Blu-ray edition. We get some genuinely interesting and knowledgeable facts and trivia brought to us in the terrific making-of. There's fun to be had with the motion comic-book version. We can get a potted history of horror's garish sub-genre of carnival terrors, and then there's that great look at the celebrated Hammer Horror magazine. All well worth the effort. If they can supply such material for this, just imagine what could come our way when titles from the studio's Golden Age burst on to Blu-ray! of the venerable Hammer institution, delving into some of the personalities involved, and offering a virtual nonstop array of fun film clips. My hunch Vampire Circus -- Synapse Films' first Blu-ray release -- sports a good but occasionally underwhelming 1080p, 1.66:1-framed transfer that

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In a sleepy nineteenth century European village, an angry mob storms the isolated castle of a local Count, Mitterhaus (Robert Tayman), for he has Fifteen years later, as the village is ravaged by the plague, a traveling circus comes to town and distracts the villagers from their current hardships. Little do they know that their troubles are only beginning! The circus is actually a troupe of shape-shifting vampires and, as the local children start disappearing, they realize the prophecy of the long dead Count is coming true.