Director: Adam Sherman
Release date: 2026
Contains spoilers
Cheese… Ok, actually loads of blood (with both good and bad sfx, as I’ll explain) but a right royal portion of cheese, and this Erzsébet Báthory (in this Elizabeth) flick is great fun because of it. I have to admit I went in with low expectations but it certainly lifted me way beyond that. The cast, built in an ensemble way I felt, mostly seemed to be having a blast, especially on the vampire side.
It starts, however, with a series of intertitles explaining the Elizabeth Bathory (Mena Suvari) backstory and then we see various smartphone style screens as these vampires have taken to hunting by dating app (not a new concept, but one that certainly works). Someone hunted in such a way is Eric (Timothy V. Murphy, Broil), who has arranged to fly to where Elizabeth is and meet her in an absinth bar she has mentioned. I also need to mention the cracking version of Ain't No Grave that plays over the credit sequence at the start of the film.
When he gets to the bar he finds Joan (India Eisley, Underworld Awakening) and Helena (Sarah Dumont) working the bar (and both vampires, also). They tell him all about absinth and the green fairy and he confesses he feels he has been stood up and proceeds to get drunk… to the point he does see the green fairy, which is Elizabeth taking that shape in his perspective. She lures his very drunk ass outside and hunts him down, her now apparent bat wings occasionally looking like green fairy wings in his perspective. A point here re blood. The film uses both cgi and practical effect. The practical blood looks great and is drawn copiously into shot so that the film feels a tad splatterpunk. The cgi blood (and in this scene, neck rip) looks blooming awful.
So Cora (Dichen Lachman), who suffers bad dreams, is a former soldier and assassin who now works for a group who hunt monsters. She is sent out on recon and observes (and films), through a crack in a doorway, Elizabeth blood bathing as three supplicants happily agree to have their heads cut off with giant scissors wielded by vampiric Chuck (Mark Boone Junior, Vampire$ & 30 Days of Night). The viewer is clear that Elizabeth knows that she is there. Cora and her superior, intelligence operator Alexis (Rosa Salazar), are ensconced nearby but are using a VPN to suggest that Cora is based a couple of States away as she chats to Elizabeth by app. They are looking to strike at the vampires, though it is clear that Elizabeth is using mojo to actually seduce her.
Throw into the mix a group of corporate lawyers. Luke (Tyrese Gibson) is going through a divorce and is depressed and his buddies Randall (Stephen Dorff, Blade) and Malcolm (Lochlyn Munro, Tracers 4: Jack of Clubs, Dracula 2001, Hansel & Gretel Get Baked, Lost Girl & also Broil) want to cheer him up. He has been chatting to Joan online and they decide to all go visit (with them getting dates with Elizabeth and Helena – all three vampires having a website together). Also throw in the mix that Elizabeth is becoming worried about Joan’s behaviour; she is mixing blood with absinth (and sometimes just drinking booze straight) and interested in sex – in short becoming erratic to Elizabeth's pov.
There is some interesting lore in this. Cora is repeatedly taught to think happy thoughts as such thoughts can keep a vampire out of your head – if they get in there they can absolutely control you. Cora's issue is that, given her past, she has no happy thoughts. They fly, are superfast and strong but cast no reflection (in mirror or water). In fact the vampire women do each other’s makeup in a setup reminiscent of Vamp. When a question is raised as to why they then show on digital media/photography, the answer is that digital and AI are of the devil and so are they. Sunlight destroys, silver is effective, a stake and beheading will destroy the vampire (though not necessarily so) and ingestion of vampire blood turns.
The cast seem to be having a great time in the main, Mena Suvari and India Eisley especially are chewing up the sets and their larger than life characters are great fun – unfortunately Sarah Dumont’s Helena is pretty much side-lined as a character and so she doesn’t get the same opportunity to shine. Unfortunately Dichen Lachman plays Cora as a deeply stoic character and so comes across as less fun but that contrasts nicely with Elizabeth. The story is simple and, as mentioned at the head, cheesy with comic book and splatterpunk elements that was simply great fun. My big gripe is some of the cgi work in the sfx – the obvious green screening was fine and, to be fair, I rather liked the wing effects in the main, but cgi blood looks poor generally and sat against well done practical effects showed it up even more. 7 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
Release date: 2026
Contains spoilers
Cheese… Ok, actually loads of blood (with both good and bad sfx, as I’ll explain) but a right royal portion of cheese, and this Erzsébet Báthory (in this Elizabeth) flick is great fun because of it. I have to admit I went in with low expectations but it certainly lifted me way beyond that. The cast, built in an ensemble way I felt, mostly seemed to be having a blast, especially on the vampire side.
 |
| drinking absinth |
It starts, however, with a series of intertitles explaining the Elizabeth Bathory (Mena Suvari) backstory and then we see various smartphone style screens as these vampires have taken to hunting by dating app (not a new concept, but one that certainly works). Someone hunted in such a way is Eric (Timothy V. Murphy, Broil), who has arranged to fly to where Elizabeth is and meet her in an absinth bar she has mentioned. I also need to mention the cracking version of Ain't No Grave that plays over the credit sequence at the start of the film.
 |
| meeting the green fairy |
When he gets to the bar he finds Joan (India Eisley, Underworld Awakening) and Helena (Sarah Dumont) working the bar (and both vampires, also). They tell him all about absinth and the green fairy and he confesses he feels he has been stood up and proceeds to get drunk… to the point he does see the green fairy, which is Elizabeth taking that shape in his perspective. She lures his very drunk ass outside and hunts him down, her now apparent bat wings occasionally looking like green fairy wings in his perspective. A point here re blood. The film uses both cgi and practical effect. The practical blood looks great and is drawn copiously into shot so that the film feels a tad splatterpunk. The cgi blood (and in this scene, neck rip) looks blooming awful.
 |
| Dichen Lachman as Cora |
So Cora (Dichen Lachman), who suffers bad dreams, is a former soldier and assassin who now works for a group who hunt monsters. She is sent out on recon and observes (and films), through a crack in a doorway, Elizabeth blood bathing as three supplicants happily agree to have their heads cut off with giant scissors wielded by vampiric Chuck (Mark Boone Junior, Vampire$ & 30 Days of Night). The viewer is clear that Elizabeth knows that she is there. Cora and her superior, intelligence operator Alexis (Rosa Salazar), are ensconced nearby but are using a VPN to suggest that Cora is based a couple of States away as she chats to Elizabeth by app. They are looking to strike at the vampires, though it is clear that Elizabeth is using mojo to actually seduce her.
 |
| lawyer bros |
Throw into the mix a group of corporate lawyers. Luke (Tyrese Gibson) is going through a divorce and is depressed and his buddies Randall (Stephen Dorff, Blade) and Malcolm (Lochlyn Munro, Tracers 4: Jack of Clubs, Dracula 2001, Hansel & Gretel Get Baked, Lost Girl & also Broil) want to cheer him up. He has been chatting to Joan online and they decide to all go visit (with them getting dates with Elizabeth and Helena – all three vampires having a website together). Also throw in the mix that Elizabeth is becoming worried about Joan’s behaviour; she is mixing blood with absinth (and sometimes just drinking booze straight) and interested in sex – in short becoming erratic to Elizabeth's pov.
 |
| blood bathing |
There is some interesting lore in this. Cora is repeatedly taught to think happy thoughts as such thoughts can keep a vampire out of your head – if they get in there they can absolutely control you. Cora's issue is that, given her past, she has no happy thoughts. They fly, are superfast and strong but cast no reflection (in mirror or water). In fact the vampire women do each other’s makeup in a setup reminiscent of Vamp. When a question is raised as to why they then show on digital media/photography, the answer is that digital and AI are of the devil and so are they. Sunlight destroys, silver is effective, a stake and beheading will destroy the vampire (though not necessarily so) and ingestion of vampire blood turns.
 |
| bat winged |
The cast seem to be having a great time in the main, Mena Suvari and India Eisley especially are chewing up the sets and their larger than life characters are great fun – unfortunately Sarah Dumont’s Helena is pretty much side-lined as a character and so she doesn’t get the same opportunity to shine. Unfortunately Dichen Lachman plays Cora as a deeply stoic character and so comes across as less fun but that contrasts nicely with Elizabeth. The story is simple and, as mentioned at the head, cheesy with comic book and splatterpunk elements that was simply great fun. My big gripe is some of the cgi work in the sfx – the obvious green screening was fine and, to be fair, I rather liked the wing effects in the main, but cgi blood looks poor generally and sat against well done practical effects showed it up even more. 7 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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