Vampire Circus (1972)
Many eagle-eyed Doctor Who fans will notice Lalla Ward (Romana II) stars in this one, and what a strange roller coaster ride this one is!
Though no Bela Lugosi or Robert Patterson (thank god) is in this one, it does have a shape-changing vampire, a circus and a paranoid country which has a town under quarantine, due to a "plague." Not a curse, not by (obviously) vampires, but a plague. Spoiler alert: not dealing with the sharpest of the bunch in this place.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.. the whole thing starts off with a woman cheating on her husband (one assumes) with a vampire (hey, why not?), just as things are getting interesting, the husband and villagers bust in (don'cha hate that, and how exactly do they always know where in these castles where they're at? Seriously.), and sis-ka-bob him without fail.
But this vampire ain't going down, before he perishes, he claims the villagers shall pay with the lives of their children (like where have we heard this one before, eh?). So rather than burn the vampire, or have him conveniently turn to dust, they entomb him in a cave with the stake still in his heart (yeah, like THAT'S going to make him stay put.. Hey, like I said, not the sharpest knives in the drawer.)
Years later, the village is quarantined due to a 'plague' that's killing off children surrounding the area (or something to that effect, the film's not to clear on this motive). And yet, a mysterious circus manages to get through and does all sort of trippy things to the villagers while killing off the young adults and kids.
Of course, it isn't until after some desperate attempts to get outside help, and the fact the villagers' descendants are getting slaughtered (one hilarious moment is when one vampire transforms into a panther and crashes a party.) that they figure out the circus owner and the performers are vampires and they're attempting to revive their 'master.' (The cheating vampire from the first part of the film, natch).
Not wanting to spoil the rest of the film, but what appears to be a somber movie, turns out to be prime riffing fodder for Mike, Kevin & Bill. I definitely hope RiffTrax selects this movie to riff on VOD or Live.
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Fangarius commented
Oh, update let me add the three reasons:
1) Vampire rules apparently aren't too consistent. Seriously, as I aforementioned, when the main vampire is skewered by a stake, he doesn't turn to dust, though he 'dies', and yet, anything made into a cross can freak them out..
2) The fact most don't get the vampires are in the circus until AFTER most of their kids are killed. Not to mention the neighboring villages think they are infected with some kind of virus, so they shoot anyone leaving the village.
3) The Wait. WHUT?! Ending. Though I won't spoil it, if you watch it you'll understand.
Full Movie from YouTube (hopefully):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrFfMXf3xYI