The Blood Countess is due for a Spring 2027 North American theatrical release.

From the writer of The Piano Teacher — Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek — and starring Isabelle Huppert, the macabre horror comedy sees lesbian avant-garde auteur Ulrike Ottinger transport real-life 16th-century alleged serial killer (and rumoured vampire) Elizabeth Báthory to modern-day Vienna.

With a mix of droll, absurdist humour and fish-out-of-water situational comedy, the film finds Erzsébet (here going by her Hungarian name) searching for a fabled book with the power to turn vampires into humans, when she’s not indulging in an attractive librarian or a Turkish belly dancer.

The offbeat genre film also stars Brigit Minichmayr as Báthory’s loyal servant, Thomas Schubert as her meek vegetarian vampire nephew, and Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst in a cameo.

Ahead of the horror comedy’s US premiere at this September’s Fantastic Fest in Austin, Strand Releasing acquired North American distribution rights and announced their planned spring theatrical release.

After lingering for nearly two decades in development hell, The Blood Countess world premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in the Special Gala to positive reviews. Phantasmag’s Alex Kaan wrote: “In a role as tailor-made for her as the lavish costumes (complete with a coffin-shaped handbag and Balenciaga-esque sunglasses), Isabelle Huppert is unmitigatedly superb as a bloodsucker with an appetite for young women.”