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February 16, 2026
The Blood Countess review
Vienna turns into a playground of camp, cruelty and aristocratic disdain in a blackly comic take on the Báthory legend – with Huppert gloriously suited to the title role
TL;DR
- Isabelle Huppert plays Countess Elizabeth Báthory, a notorious 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman and serial killer.
- The film is a midnight-movie romp with Euro-goth and camp elements, directed by Ulrike Ottinger.
- Countess Báthory, a vampire, returns to present-day Vienna and seeks to reacquaint herself with relatives.
- The film's keynote is surreal black humor, with a script partly credited to Elfriede Jelinek.
- The movie can be seen as a satire of the Austrian ruling class, their snobbery, and vanity.
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