The Blood Countess

Exquisitely draped in tightly cinched, scarlet couture, with trusty pet bat in tow, the Blood Countess (Huppert) re-emerges in modern Vienna after decades of lying dormant. Searching for an ancient text that could cause her demise, she unleashes a bloodthirsty reign of terror on the majestic streets of the city, where she’s both revered and reviled. A long-awaited passion project from avant-garde German auteur Ulrike Ottinger and Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek, The Blood Countess is a sultry, slyly irreverent treat for devotees of out-there high camp and big artistic swings. It’s a bold, gloriously staged revival of the legend of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, brilliantly embodied by a fierce and fabulous Huppert.