THE Circus of Horrors is back bringing its blood-thirsty and burlesque performances to two Dorset theatres in the next few weeks.

This spectacle of glorious Gothic grotesquerie plays the Tivoli Theatre in Wimborne on January 12 and will be back for a performance at Bournemouth's Pavilion Theatre in February 27.

This time round the show is set within the confines of an archaic institution near Paris.

Sideshow owner Docktor Haze has literally bought the mad house to present his new show. While Paris sleeps the inmates run riot - the lunatics have literally taken over the asylum!

It's 13 years since the Circus of Horrors first trampled the bloody boards and it has since toured relentlessly around the world achieving cult status.

Now the whole evil ensemble is back with a brand new show... that is not for the faint hearted!

It still contains all the long-time crowd favourites - the fakirs, contortionist, and death-defying circus freaks who do things with meat hooks, nails and swords that make your eyes water.

They are presided over by their undead' ringmaster the aforementoned Haze.

Indeed they describe themselves as "an amazing amalgamation of witchdoctors, voodoo acrobats, a pickled person, bendy bodies, demon dwarfs, blood curdling stunts, burlesque beauties and flying vampires."