review for Circus of Horrors on AllMovie

Circus Of Horrors is an exploitation fan's delight because it delivers on the promise of its title. George Baxt's script may be a bit logic-impaired in its plotting but that isn't a problem because it embraces the ridiculousness of its plot and goes all-out in its pursuit of cheap, lurid thrills. Director Sidney Hayers wisely keeps his pacing sharp and emphasizes the color of the film's setting to offset the often-horrific events of the story. More importantly, he makes excellent use of a game cast: Anton Diffring dominates the proceedings with his icy-cool turn as the film's mad doctor anti-hero but there are some scene-stealing performances from Donald Pleasance as the booze-loving original owner of the circus and Erika Remberg as the testiest of surgically-enhanced starlets. In short, no one will ever mistake Circus Of Horrors for high art but it delivers all the pulpy theatrics a b-movie fan could ever want from a horror flick -- and it does so with style.