The Blood Countess – Elizabeth Báthory

Have you ever wonder who holds the Guinness World Record as the female murderer with most victims? To this day the number of victims is unknown but is estimated that it was at least 650 young girls.

Countess Erzébet Báthory of Ecsed was born on a wealth Hungarian family with access to high education and had a high position in society. At the age of 15 she married Count Ferenc Nádasdy, who came from a wealthy family as well. As a wedding gift Ferenc gave to Elizabeth the castle that would be her new home, the Castle of Csejte in the present-day Slovakia. Three years after their marriage the Count went to war as the chief commander of the Hungarians. While the war was happening Elizabeth assumed the responsibility of the realm and stayed on the castle with her loyal servants and future victims.

Her biggest fear was losing her youth and she had the strong belief that she wouldn’t loose it if she toke baths on blood of young girls. Everything started after the death of her husband when she slapped a servant that accidentally pulled her hair while brushing it. She hit her so hard that blood came out of her nose and landed on Elizabeth’s hand and she saw how the blood “made her skin look younger”. After that thousands of girls between 8 and 16 years old were brutally killed in order to use their blood. Soon the people started to suspect of the high rate of deaths on the castle.

At the time the law didn’t allow to noble members of society being processed as criminals. Elizabeth was impaled on her own property, alone, and only leaving a small hole for food. Four years later the bloody countess died, her body was buried on the family crypt in Esced, Hungary. Today her body localization is unknown and every document about her were sealed for centuries.

Her life on the big screen – Stay Alive (2006)

Hollywood Pictures, a label of The Walt Disney Studios, produced the slasher film Stay Alive on 2006. The film starts with Loomis Crowley, Rex, and Sarah being killed the same way their characters were on the video game Stay Alive. Loomis’ friend Hutch receives the game along with other things of his friend. Hutch and his friends decide to play the game, that is only available for testing, because it was the last thing that Loomis ever played.

The game is based on the life of the Countess Elizabeth Báthory and is set on her mansion the Gerouge Plantation. It’s also feature a cementery, a mausaleum, and the tower were Elizabeth was impaled. After two members of the group died the same way they did on the game the remaining players start to realize that Elizabeth came back from the death because of a prayer featured on the game.

With the hope of saving themselves from the death on hands of Elizabeth, who is manipulating the game so she can kill them faster, Hutch and his friends will try to find the body of Elizabeth and return her soul to it and kill her once and for all.

The film received bad reviews but I would give it a second chance. It’s available on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video with a subscription on Showtime. Just a warning, try not to say the prayer out loud, her soul could be still around us.