|
By 1971, after nine vampire films, Hammer had begun to move away from the
Gothic symbolism of the traditional Dracula tale to explore new aesthetics and
settings. Vampire Circus places the blood-suckers in a more mythical, fairy-tale
milieu, and the Circus of Nights provides entertainment of a magical kind with
an erotic, hypnotic show featuring shape shifting, semi-naked writhing dancers
and a sinister dwarf clown. This distracts the villagers from the sickness and
death around them, but also acts as a smokescreen to obscure the circus's true
purpose in coming to Schtettel: to fulfil the curse put on the village by Count
Mitterhaus as he expired.
The film's strangeness and incoherence can be attributed partly to the
circumstances surrounding its filming. It was director Robert Young's first
feature, and his failure to complete shooting within the six-week schedule meant
he had to edit together the material already shot, omitting some of the scenes
in the script.
Despite this, the film fared well, and shows how Hammer managed to keep alive
its cycle of vampire films; each episode managed to reach new extremes of
intensity. With the gradual relaxation of censorship, the studio had already
begun to inject bigger helpings of eroticism to complement the gore in its films
and Vampire Circus delivers generously on this score. The twelve-minute pre-credit sequence
alone contains enough sex, violence and destruction for most full-length films.
Along with the boundaries of taste, Hammer was also expanding the
strictures of vampire lore. While the creatures still recoil at crucifixes, they
employ human slaves to protect them from such weapons; not only can they
transform into bats but also into other creatures, even other humans.
To complement the change of mood, Hammer chose to sidestep its regular cast
and brought in newcomer Robert Tayman, whose Count Mitterhaus is very different
to Christopher Lee's Dracula. A more louche and enigmatic figure, his shadowy
presence dominates proceedings, despite the character being absent for most of
the film. No need for him to make nocturnal forays to hunt for his prey; his
human accolytes go out into the world to feed and avenge
him.
Jo Botting
| 
Production stills
