Countess Dracula

Countess Dracula is a very dark fairy tale with an atmosphere like The Brothers Grimm, which occasionally slips into romance like a soap opera, from which it is always rescued in time by some murder, some exposed breast or at least some intrigue. Nothing more, nothing less. Just another B-movie from the Hammer studio, which is duly proud of its origins. (09/05/2016)

Peter Sasdy was a rather mediocre director in the case of the feature films he made for Hammer. Countess Dracula, based on the story of Elizabeth Báthory, has the beautiful Ingrid Pitt in the lead role, as well as a rather bountiful screenplay with some dramatic links between the characters. However, the directorial grasp of the film is very weak, as it evokes television entertainment more than a big-screen historical drama. That becomes obvious in the illogical behaviour of the supporting characters in the first half of the film and in the action’s lack of naturalness. In the second half, when the plot unfolds between multiple characters, this careless approach is a shame. And don’t look forward to any horror, as there are only a few such scenes lasting a few seconds each. A weak three stars. (27/10/2020)

"Countess Dracula" is a movie that you mainly want to see as a curiosity, that such movies were also being made and that they carried the reference of the vampire count. Although, let's face it, this is a movie that should rather be called "Countess Bathory" because it has much more in common with this fact/legend. It just doesn't have the right level of horror and actually doesn't have any interesting direction of the plot. (30/12/2015)