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The Legend Of Blood Castle
[Mya]
1973; color
Directed by Jorge Grau
Starring: Lucia Bose, Espartaco Santoni, Ewa Aulin & Ana Farra
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Legend Of Blood Castle is an another European horror flick from the '70s that attempts to strike it's own unique definition of vampirism. Based on the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian / Transylvanian "Blood Countess" of the early 17th Century, the film spins a tale that combines the tried and true aging-woman-seeking-the-secret-to-restoring-her-youth-at-any-cost plotline with good ol' bloodletting, witchcraft and superstition. (There's even some aspects of Stoker's Dracula character thrown in for good measure.) As the movie starts, Bathory and her husband, the Marquis Zeimmer (who also happens to be the reigning nobility in the region), watch from their castle window as the local townspeople find and dig up the grave of a reputed vampire. The very much dead corpse is subsequently put on trial to confirm his vampirism. The Marquis, along with other judges, medical, military and religious personnel are the jury. Once they conclude the dead man is in fact a vampire, his corpse is beheaded and the head and body are burned. (Much to the town's delight.) The Marquis is more intrigued by the notion of a vampire effectively cheating death than whether or not anyone is killed as a result, and the seeds of fascination are planted in his brain. At the same time, the Marquessa (AKA the Countess) is despondent over growing old and losing her looks. When a few drops of a servant girl's blood get splashed on her hand and the skin under it appears younger after she wipes the blood off, she begins her own obsession with regaining said lost looks and the movie really begins to take off. Aided by an aging servant, who seems to be more of a personal witch / advisor than anything else, Bathory hatches a plan to obtain the blood of virgin girls as a restorative for her skin. When the Marquis dies suddenly and village girls begin to go missing, talk of vampirism begins to rapidly spread and everyone thinks it's him. In reality, the Marquis is not only very much alive and very much not a vampire, he's a willing accomplice to his wife's plan. Unfortunately he's a bit sloppy, and almost gets caught, but he manages to at least delay the hand of fate that he doesn't realize is breathing down his neck. As Elizabeth begins to look younger by literally bathing in the blood of the local girls, she also begins to go a bit crazy and imagines the corpses of her 'donors' to be taunting her. As she's about to flee the castle the villagers demand the Marquis' tomb be opened and his body exhumed to see if he is in fact a vampire. She wants no part in it but gives the OK. That night, while the tomb is being opened, she kills the Marquis in the attic of the castle just as he's finished killing another girl. In the next scene, the dead Marquis' vampire trial, she admits to being behind everything and takes full responsibility for all five murdered girls. Because she's royalty, however, the only sentence that can be imposed is that she be walled up within a series of rooms in her castle until she dies. (Which, apparently, was the sentence imposed on the real Countess Bathory.) Anti-climactic? Yes. But director Jorge Grau (who's best known for Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue, which was his next film) really does an excellent job weaving elements of the real Bathory legend into a good piece of Euro-horror well worth watching.
—Bunny
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