Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

If you like hammer horror you will love this twin offering of Countess Dracula / The Vampire Lovers. This is not the blood and gore of modern day horror films but rather a decent plot, good atmosphere and quite good looking female vampires. It is what Hammer does best.

[This review is part of my 31 days of Halloween series.]

Oh my god, COUNTESS DRACULA is fantastic & never plays on the tube. It is another splendid example from the House of Hammer at its best.

The script is based on the notorious tales of the equally notorious 15th century Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1614), known to history as The Blood Countess. The Countess was widowed at a relatively early age and the lady had a lot of time on her hands & a lot of kinky ideas in her head. It seems that becoming single again brought her latent sadism to the fore. Not only this, but the Countess found the perfect form for her madness: She became convinced that bathing in the blood of young virgins would act as an anti-ageing tonic. Since her word was law in the area under her control, she basically had the run of the place (in fairness to the lady, it is said that she was an excellent administrator.) She started torturing girls in her own household first, then branched out to the nearby town, eventually going even further a field. Girls would be lured to the castle with promises of work & training in etiquette. The Countess devised her own implements & methods to torture the poor souls in order to extract their blood for her personal line of cosmetics.

It is said that over 600 women were murdered before the Countess went too far when she started to kidnap girls from the aristocracy. The Countess was condemned & walled up alone in a small, windowless room in her castle until she died. Remember, this isn't just a superstitious story--it's recorded fact.

The movie is rather tame in comparison to the reality.

But it's a great horror film, held together by actress Ingrid Pitt in a wonderful performance that comes pretty close to being high camp.

I know this sounds crazy, but the movie would be ok for kids over 14. This is one of those rare instances where reality is far more sordid than its cinematic reproduction.

The Vampire Lovers is more sexually focused.

COUNTESS DRACULA alone gets a lurid 5 Stars.

Transylvania
Vampires - Los Muertos
Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood
The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula