Review of The Legend of Blood Castle

Here the infamous Elizabeth Bathory is aided by her husband Karl in acquiring virginal blood to help preserve her youth and beauty. Karl fakes his own death and masquerades as a vampire to fool the ignorant and superstitious villagers about who is real blood fiend is. There is an odd and uneasy alliance between Elizabeth and Karl, because Karl doesn't love Elizabeth, but rather it's his own sadistic indifference towards the mob which fuels his cruel abductions. Mean spirited and bleak, Grau's film treads the same Gothic landscape as Witchfinder General and Mark of the Devil, where the downtrodden are at the whim of the wealthy and powerful, preying on their fears and superstitions. Gothic horror fans will delight to the attention of realism and detail and perhaps it's total lack of camp, however this comes at a price as so much of it takes a serious approach that the shocking scenes happen matter of factually. It is paced rather slow, dreadfully so for modern viewers I might imagine.