Director: Sidney Hayers
Script: George Baxt
Cast: Anton Diffring, Erika Remberg, Yvonne Monlaur, Donald Pleasance, Kenneth Griffith, Conrad Philip, Colette Wilden
Running time: 92 minutes
Year: 1960
Certificate: 15
On the run from the authorities, after a botched plastic surgery operation, Dr Rossiter (Diffring) and his two assistants (Remberg & Griffith) go on the lamb and end up in rural France. After a chance encounter with a facially scarred little girl, Rossiter performs surgery on the girl in exchange for a stake in the circus her father, Vanet (Pleasance), runs. The doctor changes his name to Dr Scholer and, after a convenient accident involving a bear kills off Vanet, Scholer takes over the circus filling it with ex-cons he helps gain loyalty from through his ground-breaking plastic surgery techniques that he uses to fix up their faces..
Scholer has a habit of falling for his leading ladies, but when they want to break things off and leave his circus he makes sure they have an unfortunate âaccidentâ so they canât ever grass him up. But as the bodies pile up and the âgood doctorâ has one affair too many (heâs kind of in an on-off relationship with his nurse whoâs madly in love with him) she and her brother decide âenough is enoughâ, particularly when an investigative journalist (actually a cop) starts snooping around looking for answers in the so-called âjinx circusâ.
Circus of Horrors is a picture Iâd read about a lot over the past few decades in various horror magazines and books so I was keen to check out the second film in Anglo Amalgamated Film Distributionâs so-called Sadean trilogy that started a year earlier with Horrors of the Black Museum (featuring Michael Gough) and culminating with Michael Powellâs Peeping Tom.
Although itâs rather dated it still retains a certain creepiness and bizarreness to it that makes it compelling viewing. Set and filmed within an actual circus (Billy Smartâs in actual fact) the audience gets to see quite a few still impressive high wire stunts and crazy animal tricks that youâll never see in todayâs more enlightened times.
Circus of Horrors has a great cast who are all good in it, especially Diffring, who really sells his characterâs sociopathic tendencies, but simultaneously enables an audience to see his skewed point of view too. Donald Pleasance has one of the funniest death scenes ever when heâs mauled by a stuffed bear and Griffith is excellent as the put-upon assistant who ends up doing plenty of the mad doctorâs dirty work for him.
Itâs a very colourful film and is well shot, with a decent score by Franz Reizenstori and Muir Mathieson, topped off with a chart-topping song âLook for a Starâ written by the writer of Petula Clarkâs hit single âDowntownâ and the theme to âCrossroadsâ.
Playing out like the bastard love child of an episode of The Avengers and a Dario Argento giallo, Circus of Horrors has a unique charm all of its own that makes it recommended viewing for lovers of kitsch and cult films.
While far removed from being perfect, with its writ large clichĂ©s and stereotypes and its cheesy effects (check out the man in a gorilla suit who hates Diffringâs character), Circus of Horrors still manages to be well worth a watch especially if youâre a fan of creepy circus movies, replete with lots of attractive leggy women and filmâs with a sadistic twist.
Studiocanal is distributing Circus of Horrors on Blu-ray. There are some decent extras to enjoy on the disc too including:
Interview with Kim Newman (20 mins) â The ever reliable journalist and author discusses the film in detail, describing it as a nice piece of Grand Guignol, albeit one with misogynistic and sadean undertones;
An appreciation by Stuart Maconie (26.23 mins) â The broadcaster and author demonstrates his comprehensive knowledge of the film, being the super-fan he is, and claims that Circus of Horrors invented the modern British horror film.
Behind the scenes â Still gallery (11 photos);
Original trailer (2.31 mins) â Cool retro trailer
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