The Countess (4½ Stars)

This review won't go into much detail, so please click here to read my first review of "The Countess".

Yesterday my son discovered while searching online that Elizabeth Bathory is considered to have been the world's most prolific serial killer, with approximately 650 victims. I wonder what he was searching for?

Even though the reputable Guinness Book of Records agrees with this statement, it's difficult to know the exact truth. Some claim that it was only 450 murders, while others suggest that she didn't kill anyone at all and it was all lies fabricated by her political enemies. Different films made over the last 50 years have told different stories, depending on the way the director wanted to interpret Elizabeth Bathory's life.

The director of "The Countess" is Julie Delpy, who also plays the title role. Her intention is to present Elizabeth Bathory from a feminist point of view. She was a woman who was misused from the beginning of her life. At her birth it was decided who she should marry. After her husband's death it was expected that she should marry another nobleman to look after her kingdom, but she refused, insisting on ruling by herself. Her weakness was that she couldn't bear to grow older. She wanted to be eternally young and beautiful.

"The Countess" shows Elizabeth committing murder, but it also shows how her enemies united forces against her; her male enemies. She was a wealthy woman, and they wanted her land. At the end the question is asked, in a monologue by her former lover Istvan Thurzo, whether his father faked all the evidence against her. As we know, history is written by the victors. Elizabeth Bathory was the one who lost.

I intend to watch the other films in my DVD collection about Elizabeth Bathory this month. That should partially make up for my decision not to watch horror films all month as I've done in October in previous years.

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