Circus of Horrors

Circus of Horrors is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. It starred Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain and Donald Pleasance. It was the third in what film critic David Pirie called Anglo-Amalgamated's "Sadian trilogy", focusing on sadism, cruelty and violence (with sexual undertones) rather than, say, the supernatural horror of the Hammer films in the same... more

Circus of Horrors is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. It starred Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain and Donald Pleasance. It was the third in what film critic David Pirie called Anglo-Amalgamated's "Sadian trilogy", focusing on sadism, cruelty and violence (with sexual undertones) rather than, say, the supernatural horror of the Hammer films in the same era. The previous films in the trilogy were Horrors of the Black Museum and Peeping Tom, both in 1959. In 1940s England, Dr Rossiter (Diffring) is a plastic surgeon wanted by the police after an operation goes hideously wrong. However, believing himself to have brilliant abilities as a surgeon, he and his assistants (Griffith and Hylton) evade capture and escape to the Continent. There Rossiter changes his name to Schüler, and befriends a circus owner (Pleasance) whose deformed daughter (Carol Challoner, growing up to become Yvonne Monlaur)... less