OK, I've seen
Vampire Circus now and can confirm that I hadn't watched it before. (Part of me thought that I might have a long time ago)
Is it my new favorite Hammer film? No, that's crazy talk.
But I did like it a lot and found it to be a pretty unique experience. It didn't feel like any other Hammer film, which is saying something.
3 to me is still something that I consider fairly good.
I can live with this.
A stronger presence behind the camera would have allowed its stranger ideas to resonate more
I agree. One example that comes to mind is any of the mirror scenes. Without re-watching it to verify, my hunch is that every scene involving the mirrors was filmed from the exact same angle. And that angle seemed to be chosen for no other reason than to keep the camera from being visible in the mirror. There was no flair, is what I'm saying. It's funhouse mirrors, it should be wackier.
Also, some of the shape-shifting bits during the performances could have been handled better. A few times a dancer would leap into the air and then we'd cut to a bat flying and I made the logical assumption that the dancer had turned into said bat, but at the same time it wasn't exactly clear either. I'm not saying I needed a convincing metamorphosis shot, only that it could have been shot or edited to be less ambiguous. It didn't help that nobody in the audience reacted as if they'd just seen PEOPLE TURNING INTO BATS IN FRONT OF THEIR VERY EYES. (I think I've made it clear that I need absolute realism from my bat-related content.) On the other hand, if someone wants to argue that that adds to the mystery of it all I wouldn't argue with them.
I feel like it's full of energy, right from the start and then especially once the circus comes to town. Violent energy, sexual energy, and freakin' vampire shape-shifter crazy dwarf energy to boot.
It feels neither frightening or scandalous.
I'm more in line with Wooley here. We were discussing Hammer's stodginess earlier and I feel like this is definitely part of the less-stodgy 70s Hammer. Watching the child being "groomed" for the vampire in the opening scene legit got under my skin. There's all the sexy bits too of course, but most importantly, there seemed to be fewer scenes of fancy people talking in fancy houses like in most other Hammers. I'd prefer a carnival-themed film to be more interesting visually than this was, but there were still some nice moments. The set with all of the corpses chained to the walls was tackier (in a good way) than Hammer usually allows itself to be. I wish they'd done more of that.
I do feel like it was missing a heavy-hitter in front of the camera, though. Sexy vampire boy was an engaging presence, but no one else really registered with me. Having a Cushing among the villagers or an Oliver Reed among the carnies might have helped.
So yeah, not flawless but unique enough to be noteworthy for sure. And knowing what I do about Wooley's tastes, I'm not surprised that he feels like all of his boxes are being ticked here. He now has my permission to like the film as much as he pleases.
PS-- I'm giving it 4/5, which means "liked a lot". I rarely give 5s after only one viewing, so I hope this satisfies Tak and Woolz.