Vampire Circus - 50th Anniversary Limited Edition [Blu-ray]

Product Information

same town is suffering through a terrible plague. The townsfolk believe the plague to be the count's curse, but they're distracted from talks of its follow-ups, not to mention other properties Hammer either "updated" ( The Mummy) or invented ( Maniac). Those follow-ups by themselves of course continued apace for several years, and that fact, when combined with the general perception Synapse's Blu-ray release eclipses any version put out before. The transfer comes courtesy of a solid AVC encode that brings the film's original 1.66:1 image to darkly lustrous life. Earlier editions had been cropped top and bottom, or reformatted into full-frame versions. The print here has no obtrusive edge enhancement, no overt noise reduction and retains its grain. Compression defects are kept at bay, but I did spot a modicum of aliasing during the odd moment of fast action. Nor is there much in the way of wear and tear, the picture stable – okay it does some very slight shimmying during one stretch that I noticed – and clean. sturdy. A bit of grain is retained over the image, accompanied by some unwelcome but not particularly bothersome pops and scratches on the print, Vampire Circus debuts on Blu-ray with several quality supplements -- including an insightful and well-made documentary -- as well as the

I am a massive fan of all things Hammer and was looking forward to receiving the UK produced 50th Anniversary edition of Vampire Circus even though the extras have been taken directly from the American Blu ray.Films Blu-ray releases for the Region A market. Compare, for example, the first screenshot in this review with screenshot 3 in Marty's review and it's

mentions a perceived "classic early '70s period", which may be a bit of PR hyperbole, but which may also invite approval from those who don't feelDialogue, dramatically dubbed in some cases (step forward, Count Mitterhaus), comes over well enough, although there are still times when different voices come out at you from different levels in the mix. Again, this is down to the source, and isn't anything that is going to cause any problems. The effects come in the form of a wide variety of musical stingers, lurching impacts and overly embellished things like footsteps (this was something that plagued films from the early sixties until the mid-seventies – you just listen the footsteps in a Bond film like Goldfinger or You Only Live Twice, or those you hear here in the church sequence, to see what I mean) and they all have a solid placement within the mix.

Fifteen years pass and we find the town being ravaged by a plague and in a state of quarantine. Thankfully, a traveling circus rolls into town to help provide some entertainment and ease the town’s worries. Once townspeople start turning up dead, however, the villagers suspect the circus and Count may be behind it. easy to notice the differences in both general color timing as well as brightness. I personally prefer the look of this Imprint release, which looks a bit Synapse render Vampire Circus without any bogus surround mix, opting to present the film with its original lossless mono mix, coming via the two front speakers, in DTS-HD MA. The resulting audio experience is hardly going to set your system alight with activity, but it is one that sounds faithful and dynamic and clearly offers the best sound that we can expect from the transfer. We also get a selection of stills and posters and promo material from the film in a montage set to the score, as well as the original theatrical trailer. Visiting the House of Hammer: Britain's Legendary Horror Magazine (1080p, 9:47): Author Philip Nutman looks at the role of Hammer

Side guide

Fifteen years later the village is decimated by the plague, which some blame on the dying Count's curse upon the children of the three major families that led the siege against him. Plague notwithstanding, a traveling circus arrives and the locals are grateful for the distraction. (Insofar as the plague is highly infectious, this begs the question: Why would anyone even consider attending such a public, germ-spreading and potentially deadly attraction to begin with?) As dopey as it may seem, Vampire Circus works well enough as a bizarrely entertaining fringe type of Horror motion picture. Its plot is Thus, we find that Synapse provide fans with a few things that they never thought they would see. Not only have we now got one of Hammer's most outlandish and controversial titles on Blu-ray, but we've also got an honest-to-goodness making-of for it, as well, entitled The Bloodiest Show On Earth: Making Vampire Circus. Now, granted, a lot of those involved with the film are no longer with us, or possibly disinclined to discuss their contribution but, with the extensive aid of Philip Nutman, Ted Newsom, Tim Lucas, Joe Dante and Dave Prowse, this still delivers lots of goodies in the process of telling us how Vampire Circus came into being, and how Hammer was forced to accept new blood and a new style if they wanted to survive into the seventies, and not merely rehash former glories and eventually wither away and crumble to dust like the Count, himself. Well, okay, they did still wither away and crumble do dust, but, just like the Count, himself, they would return with the great TV series, Hammer House Of Horror, and then, finally, against all the odds, be resurrected with Let Me In in 2010. Vampire Circus is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint and Via Vision Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1.