It might be an understatement to say there are quite a few vampire movies from Hammer, with seven featuring Christopher Lee and a host of others starring other blood suckers. Some are more interesting than others, with the most fun probably being Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter. So here I'll take a quick look at one of the more unusual releases in which the main villain of the piece is slain in the opening action sequence and the rest of the story follows the antics of his evil minions and their familiars. A gang or circus performers isn't the most obvious choice for this kind of story, so how does it stack up against their usual blood drenched affairs?
To begin it's probably worth noting that this is a bit stronger in terms of violence and naked flesh than the usual Dracula vehicles. There's plenty of blood and barely clad women, something that isn't only found in the prologue where nobleman Count Mitterhaus is found to be a creature of the night. It's nothing too excessive but it does lend the story a more grim and sometimes more sleazy atmosphere than the usual Gothic horrors from Hammer (in most cases). It turns out that several local girls have gone missing and that the schoolmaster's wife has become a willing servant of evil. The town takes action by burning his castle down in typical angry mob style, not before staking him and hearing his curse on them - that he will return using the blood of their children.
Fifteen years later the town has been quarantined because of a plague, and armed soldiers patrol their borders preventing escape. Some think this is due to the curse and others are more scientific about the problem. How this is possible isn't exactly clear, since the Count isn't yet resurrected and his plan is clearly to have the people killed off by the eponymous performers. Weird plot details aside this does at least lend the story some atmosphere, and soon a local doctor escapes under gun fire to research the problem and look for the right kind of medicine. Soon the band of travelling performers shows up to ease the stresses of the locals with a few acrobatic feats and magic tricks.
Nobody seems to be that worried when these acts of physical prowess seem to involve genuine sorcery. They just sit there and clap when people turn into panthers, tigers and bats. I guess you're not supposed to root for the villains but their victims aren't the sharpest tools in the box. Some of them are far too eager to enter the hall of the so called 'Mirror of Life' alone and under rather dubious circumstances. Others are also far too quick to follow the performers away from the safety of the crowd - whether it's through the allure of seduction or the promise of escaping the quarantine. Soon enough the body count begins to mount up.
All of these elements are the most interesting inclusions whether it's the cast of oddball circus employees or the way the villagers are killed off. There's an over acting dwarf permanently in clown make-up (Skip Martin) and a mute strong man (Dave Prowse) as well as a pair of somersaulting twins and a ... naked tiger woman? Okay sure, erotic dancers why not. They also seem to have a chimpanzee in one of the cages - though it's not clear if this is a human in animal form or another vampire. Since the locals all seem pretty happy to come back and sit through what is a fairly limited show every night they're quickly lured into the plan to resurrect the Count.
Some fall prey to the magic mirror and others die of heart failure. The most memorable moment (for reasons of both sudden violence and super low budget effects) comes along when a few people try and get away from the town and are torn to shreds by Emil the panther (Anthony Higgins). The execution of this attack is... interesting to say the least. However it has to be said that I'm impressed there are no terrible bat-on-string moments here, only real ones. They're clearly the wrong species, but hey kudos for trying. The blood is at least the proper colour most of the time, and the drops being absorbed by the Count's lifeless body are a nice touch.
It looks pretty good although the handful of sets and the same old woodland scenery gets tired quickly. There are still a few nice design choices - just take a look at those lurid violet credits. One rather baroque looking church interior feels a bit out of place with the darker locations but it's a good climactic scene anyway. With tighter plotting and a better villain it could have been stronger overall. The Gypsy Woman (Adrienne Corri) is a passable antagonist but having the Count (Robert Tayman) lay dead the most of the time isn't very threatening and the performance just isn't very intimidating. He's more... choker wearing wannabe rock star than Prince of Darkness.
The people do eventually take action against the circus which leads to a few more gruesome moments and things eventually ramp up as the twins decide to just grab some of the local teenagers without any attempt at subtlety. The general structure of the narrative is pretty repetitive unfortunately but I guess that's the nature of this story - the circus does it's thing, then the vampires do theirs, repeat a few times until everyone takes the hint. It's usually entertaining anyway, even if regular Hammer eccentric Thorley Walters as the Burgomaster could have been given more to do. It does a few interesting things with the usual mythology and it's fun to see a cast of villains that are not all undead to keep it from being too predictable. It's weird and fun which is sometimes just the ticket.
3/5
