THE BLOOD COUNTESS
[DIE BLUTGRÄFIN]
Isabelle Huppert is the infamous serial killer and vampire Countess Elizabeth Báthory in cult filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger’s eye-popping camp masterpiece. Risen from the underworld in modern-day Vienna, the countess must stop an ancient text from being discovered or risk the complete annihilation of her entire bloodsucking kind. She will need to rely on her dearly devoted servant Hermine (Birgit Minichmayr) and her bumbling nephew, the vegetarian Rudi Bubi Baron von Strudl (Thomas Schubert), in a race across the Baroque landmarks of this monumental city. But with Rudi’s doubtful psychotherapist (the always game Lars Eidinger), a police inspector and two vampirologists on their trail, Countess Báthory will have to pull out all her tricks of seduction and murder to avoid her demise. Huppert is a deadpan delight in jaw-dropping costumes of all shades of red, while the marvelously daffy script comes courtesy of Ottinger and Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelenek, who wrote the source material for Huppert’s iconic THE PIANO TEACHER. –Josh Gardner
DIR/SCR Ulrike Ottinger; SCR Elfriede Jelinek; PROD Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, Bady Minck, Bettina Brokemper. Austria/Luxembourg/Germany, 2026, color, 119 min. In German and French with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Run Time: 119 Minutes
Opening Date: Saturday, December 12, 2026
Genre: Horror comedy
