A Filmmaker's Review: "Circus of Horrors" (1960)

One of the great horror films of the British Horror Revival makes an appearance on my screen somewhat bi-regularly as a comfort film of mine. For the life of me, I cannot remember where I first saw it or when, but I have watched it multiple times by now and it is nothing new for me to bestow so many praises on this film, apart from some parts of its script which seem a little forced. The sheer violence of this film is absolutely brilliant in contrast to the storyline because it all happens so smoothly. None of it seems out of place and even though we are expecting it, it is still able to provide the shock value that the British Horror Films of the 1960s were so keen to show upon the screen.

There is a certain macabre about it when we see the people die, you keep wondering why the audience keeps appearing to see these performances. Then you really start to question why you yourself are watching the film. It's not really a morbid curiosity and more a wondering as to why this happens the way it does. It's almost like a Shakespeare play. We must endure random tragedies that seem unimportant but add up to the consummation of power as the story goes on.

When we come into the themes, we definitely have this strange theme of power and progression and how they can both be incorrectly interpreted against each other by a madman. We get to see inside these strange lives and how they are morphed by one person in the centre of it all. As we grow more and more involved with the various odd characters who have had things done to them, we start to see how the tragedy actually unfolds through this almost cult-like worship of the main character.

The best thing about this film I think is the storyline. It is not really that different for British Horror, but it is different concerning the way in which we have to see these almost random women become strangely involved with this circus under a few certain guises. As these guises unravel, well of course we are left with the heavy hand of deception, lies and contradictions which seem to mimic a police case on a crime in a noir film.

The next best thing I could see in this film is the way in which the main character tries to get people to keep their mouth shut. It seems both impractical and slightly comical at the same time. However, in the storyline, it seems to work through the amount of trust the people of the circus seem to put in the main character. When we start to gain tension towards a certain death, we can almost feel all of this trust that they have in the main character rush through the screen gaining speed as it goes. The tension in comparison to the climactic point is incredible and it is all in the trust and the way in which multiple characters keep their mouths shut.

In conclusion, I can honestly state that this is one of the better films of British Horror Revival and it is also plotted well. The way in which the plot unfolds includes many characters and the way in which the characters meet their deaths has honestly a strange, almost supernatural quality to it when people start referring to it as the jinxed circus. But, in the way in which it is scripted, it does not really meet the same standard. However, the way in which the storyline bursts at the seams to reveal something deeper, darker and something even more increasingly unsettling, definitely leads us on to other British Horror films such as my personal favourite “The Wicker Man”. This quality of British Horror is not really unmatched, but this one seems to be one of the only ones that was not only popular here, but also with the 90s cult film revival, became more popular in the USA as well. All in all, the film is a masterpiece of plot and style, converging its storyline perfectly upon one, slightly devious and highly machiavellian character.