Blood Countess (2015) (3 Stars)

This is the fifth film I've watched this month about the life of Countess Elizabeth Bathory. It's quite amazing. All five of the films claim to tell the true story, as it really happened, but every story is different. It's as if there were five different women who just happened to have the same name.

When the film was first released it was called "Lady of Csejte", but the name was changed to "Blood Countess" for the DVD release. I have mixed feelings about it. The original name was bad and needed to be changed, for the simple reason that nobody would know how to pronounce Csejte. The new name is a bad choice because it's been used before. The film title "Countess Bathory" still hasn't been used.

This film is very laid back, as far as the violence goes. None of the murders committed by Countess Bathory are shown on screen, even though she speaks about them and writes about them in her diary. When the film begins in 1610 we hear that 600 children have gone missing. Note the word "children". In the other films the victims are young women. In this film the victims are younger and not only female. One other significant difference to the other films is that Countess Bathory commits the murders herself, torturing them and letting them die slowly while their blood is drained. She's shown with a well equipped torture kit, even though she doesn't get a chance to use it in the film.

However, the biggest difference in the film is the emphasis of the story. It's not about the Countess herself, it's about the orphans Aletta and Mischa. Their ages aren't stated in the film, but the actress who played Aletta was 12, and Mischa looked a few years younger. They're arrested for stealing and sentenced to death, but they're given a royal pardon and taken to live in the Countess's orphanage. The so-called orphanage is just a place for child labour. Mischa has to do menial labour with the other boys, such as chopping wood and digging. Aletta is more fortunate and is made a personal servant in the household, responsible for pouring wine.

Mischa wants to escape, but Aletta wants to stay to look for their older sister Katja. Here's where the ages get mixed up. Aletta say that Katja is three years older than her, but the actress who plays her is 26. She's not even a young looking 26, she clearly looks like she's in her mid 20's. Katja too was in the orphanage. There are hints that she assisted Countess Bathory in killing children, but this isn't made clear.

Overall this is an interesting film, but not particularly exciting. It's not a horror film. It's a mystery film, as the two children try to find out what's happening in the castle. For us as viewers it's not very satisfying, because we know what's happening, even if we never see it. In fact, we knew what was happening in the castle years before the film was made.

There's one big problem with the film that I almost forgot to mention. Svetlana Khodchenkova, the actress who plays Countess Bathory, speaks very bad English. Her accent is so strong that I had to stop and rewind more than once to figure out what she was talking about. They could have found a better actress for the role.

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