Female Dracula

Is the movie worth watching? A 2008 version of BATHORY starring Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) has been quietly released.

I haven't been able to get my hands on it yet but it's a bit of a welcome change after the non-stop swinging door of robot, alien and bromance films that have engulfed us. I always wanted to see a film version of the scandalous lives of the Borgias, but this will have to do.

More on the most Notorious "Blood Countess"

Born in 1560 Hungary, Erzebet" Báthory is the prolific female serial killer and commonly remembered as the "Blood Countess" for her fabled penchant of bathing in virgin blood. Born to a privileged position, the renowned Báthory family was rumored to have a taste for dabbling in various hedonistic "dark arts" for leisure. With access to many scholars, the young beauty was taught Latin, German, Greek, with an extended interest in science and astronomy. By age twelve she was betrothed to Ferencz Nadasdy, a likely political union between aristocratic circles.

After twenty-nine years of marriage and five children (only three surviving) her husband died, reportedly due to injury in battle, leaving her to her own devices. Between 1602 and 1604, rumors of Bathory's increasingly alarming habits reached the ears of Lutheran ministerIstván Magyari. His public complaints of the atrocities done by the Countess and the escalating accounts of missing women would force King Matthias to look into the matter. Assigned to investigate the reported heinous crimes of torture and the malicious killings of local girls and young women, Juraj Thurzo the Palatine of Hungary was initially reluctant to publicly proceed with a trial. On December 30th 1610 Bathory and four of her servant accomplices were arrested. The final tally can never be certain however, but some sources estimate that there were over six hundred victims. In the end she was convicted for eighty counts and would spend her last days imprisoned in Cachtice Castle until her death three to four years later.