The Vampire Killer comes across as a cultured, personable businessman – albeit with a few shady friends – trying to make his way in postwar austerity Britain.
It’s only when he pulls a gun on one of his victims – all played brilliantly by Suzanne Procter – that the audience is introduced to the true monster.
The gloomy wine cellar setting adds real-life chills to the dark story, underscored by a sparse soundtrack and Haigh’s physical closeness to his audience.
As narrator, Haigh occasionally tells lies and never truly answers the question of why he did the “killings”, although he delights in his cleverness throughout.
The gory mechanics of how he disposed of his bodies is breathlessly told by a wide-eyed forensic scientist (again played by Procter) rather than Haigh himself, with no gratuitous blood-letting onstage.
The focus instead is perhaps on the glorification of criminal behaviour – the most shocking part is arguably Haigh’s immortalisation in Madame Tussauds – especially when we hear about the after effects of his actions on his one-time fiancée Margaret.
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