MARIO GAUCI This is one of those films I said I would watch immediately upon acquiring (in view of its reputation) but only got to check out at a much later stage. Incidentally, I had agonized about whether to purchase the MYA DVD or not because it only featured the clothed Spanish print; eventually, I settled on a fuzzy-looking edition (with at least one noticeable audio drop-out) of the more explicit "International Version" accompanied by unremovable Finnish subtitles! Curiously enough, the copy I watched ran for 86 minutes…though other sources claim its full-length as being 102! This is the fourth film I have watched revolving around the legend of Hungarian aristocrat Erzebet Bathory after Hammer's COUNTESS Dracula (1971; in which she was portrayed by the late Ingrid Pitt), Harry Kumel's modern-day rendition DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971; with Delphine Seyrig) and the third episode of Walerian Borowczyk's IMMORAL TALES (1974; with Paloma Picasso, Pablo's daughter!). I was let down by the Hammer version and, while I admire Borowczyk, the above-mentioned film was not one of his strongest; Kumel's is easily the best of the lot, though it is deemed too arty by some.To get back to Grau, I was very much impressed with BLOOD CEREMONY: it presents a reasonably authentic period and location sense (complemented by Carlo Savina's evocative score) but, more importantly, the plot holds the attention amid the expected violent/nude highlights. Interestingly, Lucia Bose''s Bathory here is not the historical one but rather a descendant of hers who, noticing her looks fading away, is persuaded by her devoted female servant to follow in her ancestor's footsteps; though the original Bathory was said to have killed hundreds of virgin girls and bathed in their blood to sustain her youth, we only get a handful of murders here (though they undeniably exude a kind of gruesome beauty) and, in a couple of cases, one seriously doubts their all-important virtuousness! The film puts forward a number of interesting embellishments to the familiar tale: there is a vampire plague before the protagonist even begins her depredations – though this is eventually revealed as a sham by the skeptical local doctor Silvano Tranquilli; still another 'undead' appears in the form of Bathory's own aristocratic companion – played by Espartaco Santoni (as in Grau's own previous effort, VIOLENT BLOOD BATH [1973], he cuts quite a dashing figure here) – whom she 'wills' into procuring her prey!; an unusual development, and possibly a first in the vampire subgenre, has Bose' being haunted by the decaying corpses of her victims; later still, after she catches Santoni being unfaithful with village beauty Ewa Aulin (this was a fine swan-song for the CANDY [1968] starlet, even if her own role was somewhat underwritten), she kills him and, while his corpse is being tried for his vampiric activities(amusingly presided over by a judge named Helsing!), she calmly confesses all and has no qualms about implicating her elderly accomplice as well!! Their subsequent punishment is quite harsh: the latter has her tongue sliced out, while both are walled up alive inside Bathory's mansion; by the way, the film features some gratuitous animal cruelty to boot (such as falcons chewing on live doves and truant children setting a bat bound to a tree on fire!).Surprisingly, Bose' flourished in this field during the decade – including another collaboration with Aulin, the underrated Giallo THE DOUBLE (1971); she is ideally cast here, though not quite as memorable as Seyrig had been (on a personal note, both actresses had worked for my favorite film-maker, Luis Bunuel, as did character actress Lola Gaos, here playing a sort of witch who advises Aulin on matters of love). The film is extremely well-made for a "Euro-Cult" product (though, again, it does not scale the classy heights of DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS)...and I am not sure it is not actually superior to Grau's more renowned take on another much-abused monster, the zombie, in THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE (1974)! Incidentally, that same year also saw the release of two other excellent Spanish horrors, namely Claudio Guerin Hill's A BELL FROM HELL (completed by Juan Antonio Bardem after the latter's mysterious death) and Bardem's own THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER. As for Grau himself, I still have to catch up with his SUMMER NIGHT (1962), an award-winning drama with a good cast (including yet another Bunuel alumnus in Francisco Rabal!)...

Coventry I can't deny feeling just a tad bit underwhelmed after finishing my long-anticipated viewing of Jorge Grau's "The Legend of Blood Castle". Here I was all prepared and excited to acquaint with one of the most fabulous European Gothic horror movies of all time, directed by the Spanish genius who made "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" and orbiting around one of the most horrific and notorious historical figures who ever lived. In the second half of the 16th Century, the Hungarian Countess Erzsébet Bathory discovered – or at least she believed – that bathing in the blood of young female virgins helped to retain a youthful appearance. She slaughtered hundreds of girls, which gained her the questionable honor of being the most prolific female serial killer of all times. Nearly 400 years later, this record still stands. There are a handful of really good horror films about her, notably Hammer's "Countess Dracula" and Harry Kümel's tantalizing "Daughters of Darkness", but still I was fairly confident that THIS would be ultimate cinematic version of the most macabre woman in history. "The Legend of Blood Castle" is reputedly the most accurate and relevant re-telling of the Bathory tale, elaborating more on her persona, her surrounding and her obsession for physical beauty. Now, "The Legend of Blood Castle" might very well be the most faithful version of the tale, but it's also a very confusing film that can't always manage to hold the viewers' attention. Most of the plot descriptions, including the one of the back of the DVD box, solely talk about how the countess bathes in the blood of her maidens and how her husband – marquise Karl Ziemmer – fakes his own death in order to go out at night, pretending to be a vampire and bringing back pretty young victims for his wife. However, this storyline only unfolds after 50 (fifty!) minutes into the movie! Before this, the movie endlessly focuses on the amorous escapades of the marquis and the extended trial against a father/husband accused of being a vampire. This particular trial is actually quite interesting to behold, because the accused is already executed but nevertheless attends his own trial, from inside a glass coffin with a wooden stake through his heart! These fifty not-so- relevant minutes are occasionally very atmospheric and creepy, but overall confounding. Once the Countess has taken her first "bloodbath", however, the film is truly nothing short of amazing! The last half hour is pure Gothic greatness, with eerie murders, thick-red blood effects and a climax that will continue to haunt your thoughts long after the film has finished. Perhaps one of the main reasons why the film, or at least the first full hour, comes across as rather underwhelming is due to the totally neutral and uncommitted English dubbing. The voices don't fit the characters and they all sound dreadfully monotonous. Some of the footage in the extended version is in Spanish with English subtitles, and those parts are noticeably a lot more spirited. Too bad the DVD didn't feature the option to watch the entire film in its original language, with subtitles. Jorge Grau nevertheless does his absolute best to clog up his film with a garden variety of Gothic trademarks, and they're most effective, I must say. The film opens with an atmospheric pagan ritual, the marquise's castle is full of hidden attics, peepholes and torture devices and – last but not least – throughout approximately 75% of the film you can hear two church bells eerily chiming. It's not a regular chime, mind you. First there's the "ding" and only like five whole seconds later follows the "dong". For some inexplicable reason, this is a masterfully unsettling sound effect and it honestly gives an extra dimension of fright to ALL the sequences where it's used. And there are plentiful! Personally I wasn't really impressed with Lucia Bosé's portrayal of Countess Erzsébet Bathory. Maybe this has to do with the fact she has to compete against other – much yummier – actresses like Ingrid Pitt and Delphine Seyrig, but more likely it's because she has very little charisma. Espartaco Santoni, on the other hand, nearly bursts with charisma and his performance as the sleazy marquise is tremendous. "The Legend of Blood Castle" is a good film, but I was really hoping I could call it a masterpiece of Euro-exploitation. Too bad, but still warmly recommended.

HumanoidOfFlesh The aging Countess Erzebet Bathory discovers that the blood of a young maid can temporarily restore her youth and magnificent beauty.She becomes a female predator and is compelled to kill again and again to maintain her attractiveness and prevent the secret getting out.I must say that I enjoyed Jorge Grau's "Ceremonia Sangrienta" more than Peter Sasdy's "Countess Dracula".This chilling Spanish horror film is much more grimmer and disturbing.The violence and gore is kept to minimum,but the atmosphere of dread and unease is well-developed.The acting is splendid and the climax is especially memorable.The Spanish DVD of "Ceremonia Sangrienta" runs 85 minutes and is heavily cut,however the picture quality is pretty remarkable.

lazarillo Jorge Grau's "Blood Ceremony" is probably the best and most faithful adaptation of the story of Elizabeth Barthory, the real life Hungarian countess who bathed in the blood of virgins to keep herself young. (The "Barthory" section in Walerian Borozyx's "Immortal Tales" may be technically better, but Grau is more interested in actually re-telling than the legend here than in seeing how many naked, barely-legal French girls he can squeeze into the frame).Grau does make some interesting alterations to the legend. The countess is helped by her husband who fakes his own death and pretends to be a vampire to fool the superstitious villagers about the source of the exsanguinations. Barthory (Lucia Bose) is also a surprisingly sympathetic character who is only driven to her crimes by mortal despair and the beguilings of her old crone maid. Grau also doesn't make the same mistake as Hammer's "Countess Dracula" where Ingrid Pitt bathes in virgin blood and is instantly transformed from a withered, old hag into. . . well, Ingrid Pitt. It's left much more ambiguous here whether the treatment actually works--it only seems to transform Bose from an attractive older women to a perhaps slightly younger-looking older woman. This is much more effective and chilling than the Hammer histrionics.The highlight of any of these films is, of course, when the character actually takes a literal bloodbath. This scene perhaps isn't as "hot" here as Ingrid Pitt's in "Countess Dracula" or Rosalba Neri's in the non-sensical "Devil's Wedding Night", but it's much more effective cinemagraphically following a stream of blood from an unlucky virgin whose throat has just been slit through a drain in the floor to a shower where Bose is waiting naked below.Besides Bose, the cast also includes Swedish nymphet Ewa Aulin as the gold-digging daughter of the local innkeeper who shares her sexual favors with the count. It's not clear for awhile whether he's going to run off with her or make her another sacrifice to his wife's bloodthirsty vanity. Aulin is a little miscast here and personally I prefer her undubbed (and unclothed), but I guess her natural Swedish accent wouldn't have really worked in Medieval Hungary. The more unknown Spanish actors who play the rest of the villagers are good too. They turn out to be very vindictive and they take a terrible revenge on Barthory at the end (no doubt partially inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's "The Black Cat") that almost makes you feel sorry for her. This is a very good movie and one worthy of a resurrection on DVD.