Posts Tagged ‘vampire’

The Blood Countess (2026) Berlinale

Dir: Ulrike Ottinger | Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Birgit Minichmayr, Thomas Schubert, Lars Eidinger
119’ | Germany/Austria/Luxembourg | Comedy/Horror

Ulrike Ottinger turns Erzsébet Báthory’s blood-soaked legend into a flamboyant cabaret, with Isabelle Huppert presiding over the chaos as an aristocrat too imperious to be frightened by either history or horror.

Huppert’s cool hauteur and unnerving stillness make Báthory less a gothic monster than the commanding hostess of an eccentric fantasy, one that treats vampirism as an excuse for theatrical excess, comic anarchy and amused disdain.

After emerging from a long sleep in contemporary Vienna with her vampiric servant Hermine, Báthory sets off in pursuit of an elusive book linked to the survival of the vampire race. The film soon abandons conventional narrative logic, allowing vampires, academics, policemen, therapists and other eccentrics to drift through a Vienna suspended between the present and a theatrical nineteenth century.

Ottinger’s greatest pleasure is visual. Extravagant costumes, interiors and artificial landscapes give the film the feel of an eccentric stage production, while recognisable parts of Vienna are repeatedly transformed by its deliberately artificial aesthetic. The result is less a conventional horror film than a flamboyant cabaret: theatrical, mischievous and slightly out of control with Huppert reigning supreme as the deranged and slightly decadent doyenne of the piece.

That looseness is both the film’s strength and its limitation. Ottinger piles invention upon invention, and the episodic story can feel more like a sequence of elaborate tableaux than a developing narrative. The broad jokes and deliberately ridiculous characters occasionally make the film seem longer than its anarchic spirit can sustain. Yet its lack of conventional discipline is central to its appeal.

Huppert gives the chaos a commanding centre. She plays Báthory not as a woman troubled by her appetites but as someone who regards the world with amused aristocratic disdain, inhabiting every absurd situation with complete confidence. Birgit Minichmayr provides an energetic foil as Hermine, and their relationship adds warmth and momentum to the film’s strange carnival.

The Blood Countess will not appeal to those hoping for a serious historical treatment or tightly constructed vampire story. Its pleasures are more eccentric: a deliberately excessive fantasy in which Ottinger explores performance, vanity and outsider identity. Huppert’s imperious presence holds the film together, making her performance reason enough to stay for the whole show.

BERLINALE FILM FESTIVAL 2026

Crucible of the Vampire (2018) **

Dir: Iain Ross-McNamee | Cast: Neil Morrissey, Charles O’Neil, Katie Goldfinch, Angela Carter | 96′ | UK Horror, Vampire.

Crucible of the Vampire is a rather pale attempt to re-create the traditional fare made by Hammer in the 1960s and early 1970s. The plot is familiar (but required three writers, Ross-McNee, Darren Lake and John Wolskel, who penned Blonde, Busty & Keane) – a naive, young blond (Goldfinch) goes to a 17th century Manor House in rural Shropshire. This time the blond’s clever too, some kind of minor archeologist sent there by her boss to examine the remains of a broken 17th century pot whose owner, a putative sorcerer we witness being accused of all sorts of Devilry, and strung up, in the opening scene. Isabelle (Katie Goldfinch) is apparently oblivious to the goings on in the house where she is made to drink a potion on her first night with the resident couple and their coquettish daughter, who appears to be lesbian, and later has no trouble seducing Isabelle, who has so far resisted the advances of her boyfriend, wanting to remain ‘pure’ until marriage. Clearly, it was just his technique that was lacking, rather than her resolve. More dark revelations unfold with Neil Morrissey’s friendly local farmer offering his manly protection to our heroine, who is seemingly unaware of the dangers surrounding her, until it’s too late. A nice try, and quite watchable. Iain Ross-McNamee certainly succeeds to a degree. But where’s the tinkly organ music, and some of the acting is predictably as twee as the premise. But that’s the whole point, I guess. MT

OUT ON  1 FEBRUARY 2019

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