Kiss of the Vampire

The time and place is The Kingdom of Hungary (now present Slovakia) in 1604. Count Ferenc Nadasdy, the nobleman and master of Cachtice Castle and 17 villages in the valley of the Carpathian Mountains, has died in battle against the Ottoman Turks. His widow the beautiful Countess Elizabeth Bathory has inherited his fortune and his estate. Mourning the loss of her husband, in her isolation, and emotional vulnerable state, Elizabeth falls in love with a mysterious stranger who lives in the area but whom nobody knows, Istvan Boczor. He is in actuality a vampire who has a wife that is also a vampire living his castle whom he keeps hidden from sight. Consummating their love through sex, Istvan bites Elizabeth and turns her into a vampire. They are secretly married in the forest. Elizabeth takes the vows seriously but Istvan does not. He then reveals that he is already married and he plans to leave for England with his wife. Elizabeth is deserted and heartbroken. In her solitude in Cachtice Castle, she begins to lose her sanity. In her vampire madness, she attacks young peasant girls who have just been married. She abducts them with the help of her servants and forces them to be slaves in her castle, to keep them away from their true loves/husbands. She tortures them and keeps them locked up in dungeons. Elizabeth begins to bite the necks of aristocratic young women who have just gotten married and drains them of their blood. She bathes in their blood in order to preserve her own youth and beauty. When Magda, a recently engaged noblewoman, goes missing, Zoltan her fiance who is a vampire hunter, sets out to find her. He is convinced that the reports of missing women in the land is due to a vampire presence. He visits Cachtice Castle and stays as a guest of Elizabeth Bathory who is already set on seducing him. Suspecting her of being the vampire, Zoltan allows himself to be seduced by her and has sex with her. He becomes briefly ill after his night of sex with her and cannot leave his room for a number of days. He then finds out through asking the servants questions about the strange noises and screams he hears at night in the castle. The servants tell him that they are under the thrall and power of Countess Elizabeth who is a vampire. Zoltan urges the servants to go to the authorities in the city and testify that their mistress is attacking women and keeping them as prisoners in her castle. Some of the servants run away and do this. Others stay to continue to do the Countess' bidding. The Countess discovers that Zoltan is trying to harm her with crucifixes and Bibles and she locks him up in the same cell with his fiancee Magda. After some time has passed, city officials arrest the Countess and put her on trial. She is sentenced to being a prisoner in her own castle until she dies. The servants are let go and the women Magda had captured are released. Zoltan and Magda finally get married. The Countess Elizabeth Bathory ages rapidly and cannot sate her thirst for blood as she is not allowed to leave the empty castle. Only one guard is allowed to enter the castle and provide her with food and water. Then one day, while she sleeps, Zoltan returns to impale her with a stake which he drives through her heart, instantly killing her. The land is finally freed from the vampire Countess.