Review #476: 'Vampire Circus' (1972)

After witnessing his wife take a child into the castle of Count Mitterhaus (Robert Tayman), Albert Muller (Laurence Payne) rouses the villagers to his cause, and they stake Mitterhaus, a vampire, killing him. With his last dying breath, the Count curses the villagers, claiming they and their children will all die to bring him back to life. Fifteen years later, the village is riddled with plague, but the arrival of a travelling circus lifts their spirits. During one of their performances, the village is treated to a panther who turns into a man, Emil (Anthony Higgins), a clown dwarf, a strongman (played by Darth Vader himself, David Prowse), and twins that can change into bats. But when the mayor (Thorley Walters) goes into the hall of mirrors, he has vision of the returning Count Mitterhaus.

By 1972, Hammer Studios was on the decline. Audiences were gaining more sophisticated tastes, and their lust for blood was being appeased in mainstream films, who were beginning adopt a more realistic approach towards violence. Hammer, naturally, tried to evolve and survive, and were abandoning their traditional period settings (one of the things they were known for), updating things to 'Swinging' London. This led to the catastrophic Dracula, A.D. 1972 (1972), and so they opted to focus more on the sexual side to draw the audiences. Thankfully, they had one good film left in them, which went back to a period setting, and told a slightly macabre, unconventional vampire story, that is rich in both gore and sexual content.

This tale of lust-ridden vampires who gleefully kill children amongst a plague-ridden landscape is surprisingly dark given my previous experience of Hammer's output. Not to say previous films are 'camp', but they are played out with such theatrical vigour that they do have elements of camp, and although there are moments of this in Vampire Circus, this has a much more sinister feel to it. However, as lovely as the cinematography is (as always), and as pleasingly twisted the plot happens to be, this is still very predictable fair, most of which has been done far better in the past. But there is a clear reason why this has a strong cult following, it is certainly memorable, and despite it's many flaws, has all the elements present to why I love Hammer.


Directed by: Robert Young
Starring: Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters, Anthony Higgins, John Moulder-Brown, Laurence Payne
Country: UK

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #423: 'Flavia the Heretic' (1974)

One of the more notorious films to come out of the 'nunsploitation' sub-genre, Flavia the Heretic is certainly a curious oddity, obeying the traditions of the genre with titillation and torture, while at the same time producing moments of art, exploring themes such as feminism, religion and sex. It tells the story of a 14-century nun, Flavia Gaetani (Florinda Bolkan), who after being placed into the church by her overbearing father, embarks on a journey through a world dominated by men. She witnesses one of her fellow nuns being brutally tortured after losing her way during a visit from the 'tarantula sect', sees rape at the hands of powerful men, and is even captured and whipped by her own father.

After the Moslems invade, Flavia falls in love with one of their leaders Ahmed (Anthony Higgins) and the two start a love affair. Returning to her convent, Flavia, with a band of Moslem warriors behind her, wreaks revenge on all those who have wronged her and succumbs to an orgy of sex and violence. It is here, within the last forty minutes where the film certainly ignites the interest. The juxtaposition of sexual violence (which includes male rape and sex with swords) with the violence is quite disturbing in the same way as Pasolini's Salo (1975) was, but came out the year before. Pasolini's controversial movie is by far a better film, but Flavia did surprise me with its world cinema attitude and scenes of almost avant-garde strangeness (a naked woman crawls inside a hanging animal carcass as the violence explodes around her).

Although I would say it is unfair to label this as simply 'exploitation', the film does succumb to the Grindhouse audiences desire for cheap thrills. The endless array of 1970's flesh does become tiresome in the first half, where the events that are supposed to be developing Flavia's feelings of injustice come across as nothing more as an excuse to get more tits on the screen. This causes the majority of the first film to be extremely slow-moving and often quite tiresome. Yet overall, when you peel back the layers of exploitation, there is an interesting movie beneath that does a lot with its apparent small budget, just as long as you can stomach scenes of sexual mutilation and human skinning.


Directed by: Gianfranco Mingozzi
Starring: Florinda Bolkan, María Casares, Claudio Cassinelli, Anthony Higgins
Country: Italy/France

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie