Circus of Horrors – 1960 | 92mins | Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Shot at Beaconsfield and on location with Billy Smart’s Circus on Clapham Common, Circus of Horrors is a vintage piece of cheesy horror melodrama managing to combine high entertainment value with laughably cheap production values and a hugely implausible plot. Directed by Sidney Hayers and co-starring Donald Pleasence, this little cult number is a treat for obsessive fans of bloodthirsty kitsch.

Dr. Rossiter (Anton Diffring) is a deranged plastic surgeon on the run from the police who flees to post-war France after the botched operation of a socialite patient in London. Rossiter changes his name to Dr. Schueler and acquires a run-down travelling circus after successfully performing corrective plastic surgery on the owners, Vanet (Donald Pleasence), scarred daughter. When a bear kills Vanet, Rossiter becomes the circus’ owner and sinister ringmaster, offering his services to disfigured female criminals who reimburse him by joining the troupe as performers.

Naturally, it’s not long before the female performers gratitude begins to wane but Rossiter imposes a deadly severance package on anyone foolish enough to leave. By the time the circus reaches England the police authorities are investigating the “jinxed circus” and a series of ‘accidental’ deaths to glamorous performers. The net continues to tighten around control fteak Rossiter when his partners in crime, Angela (Jane Hylton) and her brother Martin (Kenneth Griffith) desert him and a disfigured former patient recognizes him.