This film begins with a man sitting outside writing while at the same time keeping an eye on his young daughter who is playing in a field. When he looks up he notices a young woman walking off with his daughter and immediately gives chase. Unfortunately, he is unable to prevent the two of them from entering through the doors of a castle which close upon his arrival. Since there have been several child abductions recently he immediately gets help from the local village who decide to take matters into their own hands without regard to the fact that the inhabitant of the castle happens to be an extremely powerful and influential nobleman by the name of "Count Mitterhaus" (Robert Tayman). Be that as it may, upon successfully forcing their way into the castle they find the little girl already dead and although several men are killed in the process they end up eventually slaying the vampire by driving a stake through his heart. However, right before he dies he utters a curse upon them and promises to return to slay their children sometime in the future. The scene then shifts to 15 years later where that same village has been cut off from the rest of society due to a severe case of the bubonic plague which is killing off a number of the people there. Strangely enough, however, a small band of gypsies manage to pass through the roadblocks and enter the village as if it were no problem. And not long afterward several young people begin to die-but not because of any disease. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a decent vampire film which--as is often the case with Hammer productions--had a good Gothic feel to it and managed to maintain my attention throughout. Admittedly, while I didn't like the fact that the plot deviated from the typical vampire traditions, I still enjoyed this film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
Review of Vampire Circus
