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This is a dark and smart Spanish horror, better budgeted than the average Hammer, and featuring a different take on Sheridan le Fanu’s stories of Carmilla, based on Erzebeth Báthory, an actual Sixteenth Century Hungarian baroness who, allegedly, bathed in the blood of female virgins in order to preserve her youth. The Guinness Book of Records has Báthory as the most prolific female murderer, although both the number of her victims and the cause of their deaths is disputed. With le Fanu’s help though The Blood Countess or Countess Dracula as she was also known, inspired everything from a section in Walerian Borowczyk’s Immoral Tales (1974) (screening as part of the BFI’s Scala season this January) to The Vampire Lovers and all points in between and beyond to Q Anon and current lunatic conspiracies. We're all just peasants it seems, at the beck and call of our betters.
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| Lucia Bose |
Lucia Bose – who I first saw in Antonioni’s early films, Chronicle of a Love (1950) and The Lady With the Camelias (1953) – is still very beautiful here and plays Erzebeth Bathory living on the cusp of middle age with her faithless husband, Karl (Espartaco Santoni apparently deep in character as he tried to pursue his female co-stars…) who is more interested in the sports of hunting prey and women. Their story becomes entangled with the restorative powers of human blood and the vampire hunting of the local population, something as earthed in human suspicions of the witch hunts in Britain and America at this point in history.
The film begins with the locals in search of a buried vampire, there’s an angry mob following a naked lad on a horse which, as you all should know, is a sure-fire way of locating a vampire. So it proves as a vampire is unearthed in the churchyard and, after a stake is driven through his heart, the body is taken back to the town for a bizarre prosecution. Karl, as one of the local men of substance, is one of the magistrates involved and is amused by the process just as much as he is sceptical.
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| Not Matt Berry but Espartaco Santoni |
Directed and written by Jorge Grau, the film is a little deliberate in pacing but is remarkably vivid with strong performances and gothic trimmings, it’s restrained in the physical horror preferring to suggest the horror and to build atmosphere. Yes, there is a fair amount of blood and of naked young maidens slain and bleeding out for the Baroness’ to bathe but this is not overused… and would unbalance the film if it was.
After all, what could be more uncanny than the trial of a dead vampire in which the dead man’s wife and daughter have to recount their ordeal in front of the court – including one man named Helsing at least in the English subtitles I saw. This is a society in fear o the unexplained and Baron Karl, enjoys debating the issue with fellow magistrates as they tuck into red steaks – animals living off the blood of other animals.
Karl discovers one of the great house’s serving girls smearing her breasts and those of her friend in the blood of a pigeon in the belief that it will benefit their firmness, he considers raping her friend but lets them go. Do as they wilt is pretty much his guiding principle and he’s a man only just held back by society’s rules.
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| Ewa Aulin |
The same servant girl accidentally pricks herself and a few drops of her blood fall onto the Baroness’ hand who discovers that the skin is immediately refreshed and younger looking. With the encouragement of her superstitious maid Nodriza (Ana Farra), who tells her of an earlier Erzebeth – the dialogue and plot are possible a little too extensive – and the possibility that a virgin’s blood will bring her youthful vigour back. After testing the theory on a young girl – scratching her hand on broken glass – the cruel couple hatch a more dastardly plan.
They use ancient potions to fake the Baron’s death, he apparently drops dead of heart failure playing at the piano forte, only to resurrect him after his entombment in the family vault. He is now free to seduce and murder innocent young girls who are slaughtered in the castle’s loft over an elaborate hole which allows their blood to drip down to a grail from which the increasingly youthful Baroness drinks. It's not the instant transformation as in Countess Dracula (1971) when Ingrid Pitt arises covered in blood and nothing else, but more subtle than this as light make up on Bose hints at the marginal benefit and the huge death toll that will be required to make it work. Karl is tested though as he – finally – finds his heart and falls for the daughter of a local innkeeper, Marina played by the lovely Ewa Aulin.
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| The verdict is in... |
Will love conquer Karl, how long can the Baroness keep her supply of virgin blood a secret and just what is the penalty for dead vampires being found guilty of vampirism? You’ll have to watch the film to find out!
Dusty verdict: This is an interesting film despite my quibbles about the pacing and dialogue. There are excellent performances from Lucia Bose and Espartaco Santoni especially and your sympathy is drawn for the Baroness, alone and ageing with her brute of a husband usually away enjoying the pleasures of the flesh. The fact that Santoni bears a slight resemblance to Matt Berry doesn’t distract from the tone although if there’s a remake, he’s a shoe-in!
There are various cuts of the film and I watched what I think is the fullest length version entitled Blood Ceremony... which is the international cut. The Spanish cut has more clothing!
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