‘Round this time last year I gave you lot my thoughts on Panther Ridge (which you can read here)…a demented deep dive into the world of BDSM. Well, lo and behold; Writer/Director Ryan Swantek is back with another sinister short, this time featuring a take on legendary real-life vampire Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed!
Comprised of a single sequence, Báthory: Virgin Blood shows our vicious vamp (Darryl Sposato) doing what she does best…namely liberating a comely virgin (Kaylee Giza) of her precious life’s blood, and then ensconcing herself in that sweet red sauce in order to maintain her beauty eternally.
Lit by sensuous candle light and featuring those glorious ’70’s occultism trappings such as inverted crosses and pentagrams that your’s cruelly just can’t get enough of…along with an aesthetic of beauty being derived from the grotesque; this production easily brings to mind the best qualities of the glory days of the Euro-horror genre…right down to those lesbian vampires!
The only problem inherent in Báthory: Virgin Blood is that there isn’t more of it. Swantek clearly knows his way around the monstrous material, and a full on return to the debauchery we get a small taste of here would be a welcome spectacle in the ol’ horror biz (and perhaps we will, as the short…which you can check out below…is labelled as a “trailer”)!
