“The Circus” is directed by Michael Gornick and penned by the master himself, George A. Romero. A cynical, muckraking journalist named Bragg (Kevin O’Connor) happens upon a ramshackle traveling freak show after a car wreck. He’s looking for his next big headline, and he thinks he’s found it in Dr. Nis (William Hickey), the eccentric proprietor of this nomadic carnival. Nis is only too happy to pull back the curtain, treating Bragg to a private tour of his performers, a collection of creatures that seem a little too real to be simple sideshow illusions.

Let’s talk about the creature design, because it’s the real star here. Forget suave, cape-swishing Lugosi. This vampire—brought to life with some gnarly, creature-feature practical effects—is all Nosferatu nightmare fuel. It’s animalistic, twitchy and genuinely unsettling, especially when it decides to make a snack out of a lamb right in front of our disgusted protagonist.

Then there’s the cast. Watching William Hickey and Kevin O’Connor go toe-to-toe is like watching a masterclass in genre acting. Hickey, in particular, carries a gravitas that grounds the ridiculous premise. The chemistry between the two is palpable; they are two sides of the same coin, each driven by their own rigid moral code, even if that puts them on a collision course.

The atmosphere here is thick with decay—that smell of sawdust, old canvas, and bad decisions. It’s a perfect example of what Romero could do when he was given a constrained set and a handful of talented character actors. It’s violent, it’s short and it’s devoid of a traditional villain  , which gives the whole affair a weirdly noble, melancholic edge that sticks with you long after the credits roll.

It’s not just a vampire episode; it’s a love letter to the dying art of the traveling freak show, wrapped in the dark, cynical bow of an 80s anthology classic.