Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

crystallogic It's difficult not to imagine the story of Elizabeth Bathory not being highly sensationalised. I suppose a lot has been written about it over the years, and I admit that most of what I know about it comes from movies like this, and, well, a bunch of metal songs. Still, I'm not convinced that many of the literary accounts of the Blood Countess are any less lurid. Write me if you know of any interesting ones.Now, this film turns out to be sort of different from how I imagined it would be. Despite what I said above, it's not really lurid at all, and even may be considered "tame" by certain standards. nevertheless, if taken for what it is: a kind of grim gothic melodrama, this is a rather effective piece, full of atmosphere and cathartic moments. What surprised me a bit here is how Bathory is not portrayed so much as a monster here, and even can be seen as a victim of desperate circumstances. The portrayal is, dare I say it, rather sympathetic.True, the story plays out about as predictably as one might expect, and there are some silly touches (the vampire trial scenes). I enjoyed this for what it was, though, and I even have to say I preferred this to the much-more-campy Countess Dracula from Hammer. in the British film, Bathory comes off as something of an evil cow (no sleight intended against Ingrid Pitt here though of course), and it's hard to really feel like anything happens to her by the end that isn't well dserved. maybe that was the intention, but I must say Jorge Grau's different approach brings an attractive sort of ambivalence to the legend. Plus, the atmosphere here is really strong, and I really like the musical score. The American accents in the english dub feel a little strange, but that's mostly because we are all so accustomed to historical period pieces done with mannered English diction, no matter where these things are meant to take place. So, in the end, this is a pretty good film; maybe not the most memorable thing you'll ever see but an oddly pleasing way to wile away an hour and change sometime after midnight. Fans of gothic melodrama should particularly take notice. With this and the awesome Let Sleeping Corpses Lie under his belt, it's really a shame that Jorge Grau did not do more horror/macabre films.

echanove Catalonian director Jorge Grau made in Spain in the 60s films as nice as "Una historia de amor", or as interesting as "El Espontáneo". In the 70s he also reached commercial success with the not negligible "La Trastienda". Always with a very personal style, most of the times very elegant too, as it can be seen at the end of his career in movies so underrated as "El Extranjero de la Calle Cruz del Sur" or "Tiempos Mejores".In the seventies he also made in joint production with other countries some horror films, like the funny and disturbing "No profanes el sueño de los muertos" or this cult and historical approach to the vampires myth. Both films are probably which he is probably best known internationally. The trouble with "Ceremonia Sangrienta" is that in my opinion it lacks of the gracefulness in the stage of other of his films, it hasn't those polish camera movements, and it is plenty of zoom movements and closeups.May be someone can say that help the story creating a creepy atmosphere but it is not only a formal matter. In my opinion there are also in the script some aspects not enough developed, like the relation between the marquis and his wife. In that sense, the character of Lucía Bose is far more plenty of information for the spectator than Espartano Santoni's which is not completely clear about his feelings and willings.Anyway, the film has creepy moments and probably is a " must see" for horror (and blood) lovers, specially if you like some kind of 'soft gore' with a certain doses of morbid sex. One odd thing is that you don't know if the marquis is a vampire or not. And the ambiguous final has some impact too.

The_Void Blood Ceremony is another film based around the Elizabeth Bathory legend. Unfortunately, despite the fact that this legend makes for a great story and is one of the backbones of the horror genre's overall influence, there hasn't really been a good film about it; and Jorge Grau hasn't changed that with this film. I really hoped that this would be good and I wanted to like it as Blood Ceremony has a lot going for it in terms of atmosphere and set design, but the story really isn't strong enough to hold the audience's attention despite the fact that it features vampirism and a countess bathing in blood. As you would expect, the countess discovering that bathing in human blood makes up the backbone of this story, but there's also a vampire theme running throughout. This is brought directly into the story when the countess' husband plays into the villagers' fears of vampires by faking his own death in order to give himself cover to bring young women to wife, so she can preserve her beauty...The film is directed by Jorge Grau, who is of course most famous for his Video Nasty zombie flick masterpiece 'Let Sleeping Corpses Lie'. The two films have a great atmosphere in common and it's clear that this is important to the director. As you would expect given the plot line, the film features a fair amount of blood, which is good to see. The film's main contender is probably the Ingrid Pitt lead Hammer Horror film 'Countess Dracula', and comparisons are always likely to be made between the two. To be honest, while it was not Hammer's finest hour; I have to say that I preferred Countess Dracula, as it was overall the more interesting of the two films. Lucia Bosé is good in the lead role, though she doesn't really have the screen presence of Ingrid Pitt, which is another reason why I feel the Hammer film is the better of the two. Blood Ceremony is not really a bad film; the atmosphere is great and the film always looks nice; but for my money the plot didn't really work well and I found myself getting bored a couple of times too often. Could have been better!

lobianco Great example of Spanish Exploitation Horror flicks that deserve another look at. There are many unkown Spanish horror films that are far better than UK or US films from the same lower budget genre. - This one stars some Italian actresses including Ewa Aulin (candy) and the lesser know but extremely impressive Lucia Bose. - Blood dripping goth horror here. Aulin plays a willing disciple to the newly spawned vampire. Although I have only seen the American video release at 84mins.