Every time I look into these older interpretations of vampires, I am incredibly amazed by the sheer volume of history that lies in Eastern Europe and the Carpathians. When looking at historical figures like Vlad Tepes, it is important to discern the myth from the person. And no one does this apply to more than Báthory Erzsébet, who in English is Elizabeth Bathory. I have been fascinated by her myth for some time now, because she forms the basis of a particular type of vampire in the modern canon. Rather than a bloodsucker like her Wallachian or Styrian constituents, Bathory allegedly tortured and murdered young girls in her court, then proceeded to bathe in their blood. Historically, this is most likely all rumours, and the life of Countess Bathory is filled with political intrigue as well as absolute here say1. And while her story itself is absolutely fascinating, I am more focused on the legacy of her myth and how it created a new type of vampire; which I call Bathory in my research to denote where the tropes came from.
I want to highlight this archetype in my research because in terms of vampires on film, it is a fairly new one. To my knowledge, the first use of this archetype in film is Hammer Studios 1971 production called Countess Dracula. Compared to Dracula or even Carmilla vampires, they had seen their entrance on the silver screen well before in the 1920s & 30s. So why was this “Countess Dracula” only being introduced in the 1970s?
My initial thoughts are that in the 1970s, vampires and people were changing in fundamental ways. As always, the modern vampire is exceptionally paradoxical in that it both expresses conservative and progressive ideals within a single character. And being a production from the 1970s, it is no wonder that we see the Sexual Revolution occurring at the same time we see critique of the vapid and vain woman which was the strawman for second-wave feminism at the time. The Bathory is symbolic in that the vampire typically kills young women and subsequently bathes in their blood to maintain her eternal beauty. I believe that this is why Hammer -who as a studio was in it’s twilight years at this point in time- green lit a project about a new type of vampire. Only a year earlier did the Carmilla film The Vampire Lovers (1970) show off the talents of actress Ingrid Pitt as a worthy vampire, and further show that Hammer could step away from Christopher Lee as their fanged villain. But this is where I need to acknowledge the title of the first Bathory film: Countess Dracula. Whether it was a cynical way to use their previous Dracula films for marketing, or that British and American audiences didn’t know about the Blood Countess from Hungary, the facts remain that Bathory started under the Shadow of her Wallachian counterpart.
Thereafter, Bathory vampires were used either as historical inquiries into the real countess’ life, or were sexy feminine alternatives to the brutal and sultry Draculas. But without that Romantic tradition or literary backing like the science fiction vampires, Bathory vampires are much harder to come by. Which is why I hope to find more about them, and polish up these ideas that were expressed here.
- Bledsaw, Rachael Leigh, “No Blood in the Water: the Legal and Gender Conspiracies against Countess
Elizabeth Bathory in Historical Context” (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 135.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/135 ↩︎
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