The Legend of Blood Castle

It's difficult not to imagine the story of Elizabeth Bathory not being highly sensationalised. I suppose a lot has been written about it over the years, and I admit that most of what I know about it comes from movies like this, and, well, a bunch of metal songs. Still, I'm not convinced that many of the literary accounts of the Blood Countess are any less lurid. Write me if you know of any interesting ones.

Now, this film turns out to be sort of different from how I imagined it would be. Despite what I said above, it's not really lurid at all, and even may be considered "tame" by certain standards. nevertheless, if taken for what it is: a kind of grim gothic melodrama, this is a rather effective piece, full of atmosphere and cathartic moments. What surprised me a bit here is how Bathory is not portrayed so much as a monster here, and even can be seen as a victim of desperate circumstances. The portrayal is, dare I say it, rather sympathetic.

True, the story plays out about as predictably as one might expect, and there are some silly touches (the vampire trial scenes). I enjoyed this for what it was, though, and I even have to say I preferred this to the much-more-campy Countess Dracula from Hammer. in the British film, Bathory comes off as something of an evil cow (no sleight intended against Ingrid Pitt here though of course), and it's hard to really feel like anything happens to her by the end that isn't well dserved. maybe that was the intention, but I must say Jorge Grau's different approach brings an attractive sort of ambivalence to the legend. Plus, the atmosphere here is really strong, and I really like the musical score. The American accents in the english dub feel a little strange, but that's mostly because we are all so accustomed to historical period pieces done with mannered English diction, no matter where these things are meant to take place. So, in the end, this is a pretty good film; maybe not the most memorable thing you'll ever see but an oddly pleasing way to wile away an hour and change sometime after midnight. Fans of gothic melodrama should particularly take notice. With this and the awesome Let Sleeping Corpses Lie under his belt, it's really a shame that Jorge Grau did not do more horror/macabre films.

Blood Ceremony is another film based around the Elizabeth Bathory legend. Unfortunately, despite the fact that this legend makes for a great story and is one of the backbones of the horror genre's overall influence, there hasn't really been a good film about it; and Jorge Grau hasn't changed that with this film. I really hoped that this would be good and I wanted to like it as Blood Ceremony has a lot going for it in terms of atmosphere and set design, but the story really isn't strong enough to hold the audience's attention despite the fact that it features vampirism and a countess bathing in blood. As you would expect, the countess discovering that bathing in human blood makes up the backbone of this story, but there's also a vampire theme running throughout. This is brought directly into the story when the countess' husband plays into the villagers' fears of vampires by faking his own death in order to give himself cover to bring young women to wife, so she can preserve her beauty...

The film is directed by Jorge Grau, who is of course most famous for his Video Nasty zombie flick masterpiece 'Let Sleeping Corpses Lie'. The two films have a great atmosphere in common and it's clear that this is important to the director. As you would expect given the plot line, the film features a fair amount of blood, which is good to see. The film's main contender is probably the Ingrid Pitt lead Hammer Horror film 'Countess Dracula', and comparisons are always likely to be made between the two. To be honest, while it was not Hammer's finest hour; I have to say that I preferred Countess Dracula, as it was overall the more interesting of the two films. Lucia Bosé is good in the lead role, though she doesn't really have the screen presence of Ingrid Pitt, which is another reason why I feel the Hammer film is the better of the two. Blood Ceremony is not really a bad film; the atmosphere is great and the film always looks nice; but for my money the plot didn't really work well and I found myself getting bored a couple of times too often. Could have been better!

This is a painful, cold, unpleasant but ultimately fascinating entry from the Spanish horror boon that is probably the definitive Elizabeth Bathory treatment, making Hammer's "Countess Dracula" look silly and trite in comparison; that film is a period costume romance compared to BLOOD CASTLE. This is a serious movie that lacks a single light hearted moment, and is a great example of the unbearably suffocating sort of period horror suggested by Michael Reeves' CONQUEROR WORM, which uses the conventions of period horror -- castles, nightgowned beauties, foggy wastes -- to con the viewer into thinking that they are going to get the push-up bras and lesbian nuzzling that these movies usually involve.

What you get is actually anti-erotic, much like Reeves' film, unless the idea of watching people suffer is something that gives you a rise. I like this movies' lack of sensationalism, giving us a straightforward almost scientific explanation for the vampirism in question, and providing a sort of tragic Spanish soap opera element to give us the motivations for the murders. The film is indeed slow, but fans of this kind of stuff will be drinking it in, with Jorge Grau's astute eye for period detail, lighting and atmosphere easily putting this on the same plane with films like "Count Dracula's Great Love", "Count Dracula" and the Rollin efforts as amongst the most distinctive films from the Eurohorror boon. No other movie looks quite like LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE (or FEMALE BUTCHER, as it is known in it's uncut form), and few have such an unrelenting, claustrophobic air of dread and sheer decrepidness as LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE, which completes the CONQUEROR WORM comparison chart by culminating in a series of Inquisitional torture scenes that far surpass the vampire murders in terms of brutality and horror.

So perhaps that is Grau's ultimate comment: yes, the Bathory legend speaks of just awful, depraved atrocities, but nothing is quite as atrocious & barbaric as Man's own inhumanity to their fellow Man, and especially with the hypocrisy of the Church feeding the fires of hate. HIGHLY recommended, but not for those with short attention spans or the squeamish alike.

And word to the third: The cover shown here is NOT the same movie (that's BLOOD CASTLE, not LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE) and beware of a recent North American DVD pressing by a company called MYA: They used a nudity free print with a fullscreen transfer. I've got versions of this film in three languages from twice as many countries: You want the Finnish subtitled English language print called BLOODY CEREMONY. Trust me.

7/10

I can't deny feeling just a tad bit underwhelmed after finishing my long-anticipated viewing of Jorge Grau's "The Legend of Blood Castle". Here I was all prepared and excited to acquaint with one of the most fabulous European Gothic horror movies of all time, directed by the Spanish genius who made "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" and orbiting around one of the most horrific and notorious historical figures who ever lived. In the second half of the 16th Century, the Hungarian Countess Erzsébet Bathory discovered - or at least she believed - that bathing in the blood of young female virgins helped to retain a youthful appearance. She slaughtered hundreds of girls, which gained her the questionable honor of being the most prolific female serial killer of all times. Nearly 400 years later, this record still stands. There are a handful of really good horror films about her, notably Hammer's "Countess Dracula" and Harry Kümel's tantalizing "Daughters of Darkness", but still I was fairly confident that THIS would be ultimate cinematic version of the most macabre woman in history. "The Legend of Blood Castle" is reputedly the most accurate and relevant re-telling of the Bathory tale, elaborating more on her persona, her surrounding and her obsession for physical beauty.

Now, "The Legend of Blood Castle" might very well be the most faithful version of the tale, but it's also a very confusing film that can't always manage to hold the viewers' attention. Most of the plot descriptions, including the one of the back of the DVD box, solely talk about how the countess bathes in the blood of her maidens and how her husband - marquise Karl Ziemmer - fakes his own death in order to go out at night, pretending to be a vampire and bringing back pretty young victims for his wife. However, this storyline only unfolds after 50 (fifty!) minutes into the movie! Before this, the movie endlessly focuses on the amorous escapades of the marquis and the extended trial against a father/husband accused of being a vampire. This particular trial is actually quite interesting to behold, because the accused is already executed but nevertheless attends his own trial, from inside a glass coffin with a wooden stake through his heart! These fifty not-so- relevant minutes are occasionally very atmospheric and creepy, but overall confounding. Once the Countess has taken her first "bloodbath", however, the film is truly nothing short of amazing! The last half hour is pure Gothic greatness, with eerie murders, thick-red blood effects and a climax that will continue to haunt your thoughts long after the film has finished.

Perhaps one of the main reasons why the film, or at least the first full hour, comes across as rather underwhelming is due to the totally neutral and uncommitted English dubbing. The voices don't fit the characters and they all sound dreadfully monotonous. Some of the footage in the extended version is in Spanish with English subtitles, and those parts are noticeably a lot more spirited. Too bad the DVD didn't feature the option to watch the entire film in its original language, with subtitles. Jorge Grau nevertheless does his absolute best to clog up his film with a garden variety of Gothic trademarks, and they're most effective, I must say. The film opens with an atmospheric pagan ritual, the marquise's castle is full of hidden attics, peepholes and torture devices and - last but not least - throughout approximately 75% of the film you can hear two church bells eerily chiming. It's not a regular chime, mind you. First there's the "ding" and only like five whole seconds later follows the "dong". For some inexplicable reason, this is a masterfully unsettling sound effect and it honestly gives an extra dimension of fright to ALL the sequences where it's used. And there are plentiful! Personally I wasn't really impressed with Lucia Bosé's portrayal of Countess Erzsébet Bathory. Maybe this has to do with the fact she has to compete against other - much yummier - actresses like Ingrid Pitt and Delphine Seyrig, but more likely it's because she has very little charisma. Espartaco Santoni, on the other hand, nearly bursts with charisma and his performance as the sleazy marquise is tremendous. "The Legend of Blood Castle" is a good film, but I was really hoping I could call it a masterpiece of Euro-exploitation. Too bad, but still warmly recommended.

It's weird that this flick is still unavailable on DVD. Through my years in the genre I was able to get me an English spoken version and full uncut. The parts taken out and now available on this version were taken from a Norwegian VHS copy. It wasn't bloody scenes that were taken out but nudity parts. It really is a masterpiece, there isn't that much blood in it and it isn't scary at all but it is the atmosphere that makes this flick. Some people will be offended by the fact that there is real animal cruelty in it and some child abuse in the form of cutting the child with a piece of glass. It's all about vampirism and the real story of Elisabeth Bathory. All actors are really believable and the editing and lighting for an Italian movie is really nice. The sound of the churchbells all around the movie makes it also a bit frightening. This movie proofs that blood isn't always necessary to make a real good horror movie, try to catch the restored full uncut version at ZDD, a real good shop.