Recently I saw an old horror film from 1971 on YouTube with the marvelous Ingrid Pitt in the lead role. In 1970, Ingrid had made Vampire Lovers, based on the novel Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, in which she seduces pretty young girls and also men as the undead Styrian Countess Mircalla Karnstein and biting them in the neck. Her fellow players were Peter Cushing and Kate O’Mara, with whom she plays out an incredibly erotic seduction scene, consisting almost only of glances, leaving things mostly unrevealed and nevertheless revealing all.
In the 1971 film Countess Dracula, Ingrid plays the historical Countess Erzsébet Nádasdy (nee Báthory in 1560), who fell in love with a young officer at the mature age of 50, or thereabouts. She found out by chance that a young girl’s blood that got splattered on her rejuvenated her facial skin, so she soon started taking baths in the blood of murdered girls. She is indeed rejuvenated and introducing herself to him as her own daughter Ilona, who is held captive by her, and making him fall in love with her.
Just before the wedding, her bridegroom discovers the black magic she is involved in. In spite of his shocked state, he still loves her. When the wedding takes place, Erzsébet suddenly turns into an aged woman in front of the altar. Her crimes become apparent to all when she tries to kill her own, escaped, daughter Ilona in a fit of insanity to rejuvenate herself with her blood. Erzsébet kills the officer with a dagger when he tries to protect Ilona, although the dagger was meant for her daughter. Ilona is played by the young Lesley-Anne Down, Southern Dandy Orry Maine’s great love in North and South. Erzsébet and her accomplices are sentenced for their crimes and executed.
The historical countess Erzsébet Nádasdy was also sentenced to death together with her accomplices without actually having been interrogated by a court herself. However, only her accomplices were executed, she was pardoned and immured in a small room, where she died as an old woman in 1614. At the time, the House of Habsburg were involved in a power struggle with the Báthorys to gain power in Hungary and today, several factors suggest that the crimes Erzsébet was charged with may have been a political intrigue on the part of the House of Habsburg, leading to Báthory being prosecuted.
The story about using blood as a means of rejuvenation is as old as humanity itself. Today we know that fresh blood contains tissue hormones and growth factors, which really can rejuvenate the skin when these tissue hormones are introduced into the skin with microneedles. For this purpose, PRP (platelet-rich plasma), is obtained, having impressive rejuvenation effects. PRP works particularly well when it is combined with autologous stem cells from fat tissue or bioidentical hormones (Hormonal Regeneration®).
Just as in the story about Erzsébet, the treatment has to be repeated regularly to achieve long-lasting results. However, we do not need to use the blood of virgins. Your own blood is good enough. Fortunately, your face will not suddenly age after the effect has worn off, like in the film, where, between two chimes of the bell, a beautiful young woman at the altar is suddenly transformed into an old lady. That would really be too grotesque!
DDr. Heinrich, MD