Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher, Elle) is set to star as 16th century-Hungarian serial killer Elizabeth Báthory in The Blood Countess, an upcoming vampire mystery movie from filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger.
Reporting the news earlier today, Variety also reveal that The Blood Countess‘ screenplay was penned by Ottinger and Elfriede Jelinek, the Nobel Prize in Literature winner and acclaimed author of the aforementioned The Piano Teacher. Magnify has boarded the film ahead of an EFM launch.
In The Blood Countess:
Huppert plays the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, as she awakens from her long beauty sleep and emerges from the underworld. “She and her devoted maid (Birgit Minichmayr) embark on a baroque quest through Vienna to recover the red elixir of life. The book, if found and read by the vampire’s enemies, threatens their vampire realm. Hot on their heels are a vegetarian nephew (Thomas Schubert), his psychotherapist (Lars Eidinger), two vampirologists, a police inspector, and more lively characters in this twisted and humorous vampire tale,” the synopsis reads.
Here's what Magnify had to say about their acquisition:
The Blood Countess is an immersive and delightfully eccentric vampire mystery with a vibrant cast of characters, led by the captivating Blood Countess herself […] The story unfolds as a highly visual, narrative scavenger hunt — playing with history, modernity, humor, and style. It is the perfect reintroduction of Ottinger’s work to a global audience that has grown in appetite for visually striking, bold and smart genre cinema.
Ottinger adds:
“This is the right time for the Blood Countess to wake up from her deep sleep and savor the present because te world is upside down and events are repeating themselves in an eerie way […] Vienna, with its historic buildings and timeless flair, is the perfect crime scene. With her sophistication, beauty, and calculation, the Blood Countess casts a spell over all those who serve her, flee from her, or pursue her,”
Báthory, a noblewoman from Slovakia, and her servants were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and women from 1590 to 1610, with legends and rumors quickly spreading that she bathed in and drank her victims' blood. Her story has understandably influenced many horror movies, from Daughters of Darkness to The Neon Demon.
Look out for more on The Blood Countess as we get it.
