Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

We luv films Hands down one of the worst films in history. as others have said, Anna friel. is very good given the mess she had to wade through. great scener, costumes and sets but an appalling script and uneunneces y comedy. the net result is a blood soaked mess.overall i cannot recommend this amateurish offering from a director who should know better.dont waste your time watching this.clean the fridge instead.

Paul Magne Haakonsen While I am familiar with the myth or legend of Countess Bathory, then I sat down to watch this 2008 movie for entertainment only, not really putting anything more into it. So whether how much or not this movie was true to the actual Countess and the events that took place in her life, I do not know, nor do I really care; a movie is a media for entertainment.The story in "Bathory" is centered around Erzsébet Báthory, notorious Countess, in the mid-1500's Hungary. Married to a formidable warlord and conqueror, Bathory is at the seat of power in Hungary, caught in the game of power and influence. But rumor and dark stories circulate about her bathing in the blood of virgins, having consorted with the devil and having a witch as her right-hand maiden.Right, well, entertainment-wise then "Bathory" was adequate, albeit nothing extraordinary. However, it was a long, long movie, running at two hours and twenty-one minutes. So keep that in mind, especially because the movie is not a non-stop action-filled ride. There are ups and downs throughout the movie, of course. I was adequately entertained, although at times I found the movie to just be too slow-paced and too long.The acting in the movie was quite good, as they had some nicely talented actors and actresses on the cast list. Anna Friel (playing Erzsébet Báthory) and Karel Roden (playing Thurzo) carried the movie quite nicely.One thing that didn't really sit well with me, was the two Catholic monks, or spies as they actually were. They were just too much of a comical relief, and were sticking out like a sore thumb from the rest of the movie. And their array of out of place gadgets were just too much.There are better movies that deal with the Erzsébet Báthory character and story. This 2008 movie at the hands of director Juraj Jakubisko scores a lukewarm, mediocre five out of ten stars from me only.

Ati I'm not going to write a traditional review about Bathory, I'll just name a few pros and contras.Pros: - Erzsébet Báthory isn't shown as a blood bathing demoness, rather as a protestant mistress of high nobility trying to survive in the 16-17th century, in the Kingdom of Hungary and someone who is loved by the peasants throughout her lands.The names are correct and the locations as well, even though they are mentioned by their Slovakian names, and not their original Hungarian names.Clothes, dresses and makeups are fairly authentic contrary to the ones seen in the other movie about Erzsébet Báthory: The Countess.Anna Friel the actress who portrays Erzsébet Báthory is charming and talented, a bit more grace would have helped though.Cons: - The movie did quite a good job portraying locations and names, but tried too much by showing battle scenes (which are quite pathetic) that do not belong to the story. It's true that Erzsébet Báthory had fought a lot against the Turks (not personally of course), but these scenes don't have anything to do with the plot. They could have made 1 grand battle scene with lots of men and with a better design. Sometimes less is more.English language is good, sure the film can get to a larger audience this way but authenticity should have required Hungarian. I mean we are talking about a Slovakian-Czech production here, Hungary is not on the other end of the world and there are more than half-million Hungarians living in Slovakia. Funny thing is, Hungarian language can be heard throughout the movie – usually when cussing or shouting – but it's pretty pointless, just like the use of Slovak. Just to remain at historical facts: nobility spoke either in Hungarian, German or Latin, peasants and servants spoke Slovakian in the upper parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. Staying at the dialogues: they were awfully simple, the scriptwriter must have been either very young or had some difficulties with English.Relating to the previous point the filmmakers completely left out Hungary of the creation of the movie, and – therefore - the movie seemingly suffers from historical inaccuracy. I may sound a bit bitter here, but you don't go on making a movie about Africa for example without actually going to Africa and without the advices of real Africans. Oh well, maybe next time.There are scenes which are simply laughable: the best one was when Hungarian soldiers are attacking and raping Turkish women (!). Yep, you heard it right: Turks are invading the Kingdom of Hungary and they bring along their women into a war zone… right.The movie is watchable but I was expecting a lot-lot more, since Erzsébet Báthory lived in the territory of modern day Slovakia (back then it was the Kingdom of Hungary). A major disappointment for me.

homespun13 I saw this movie in Czech. It was obvious that some of the dialog was dubbed. However, this was a minor issue. I am well acquainted with the story of Elizabeth Bathory, having read books and various write ups about her, including the exact testimonies given at the time by her contemporaries, 3 women and 1 man I believe. I expected a movie worthy of this true life story, and I was most definitely disappointed. While I started watching with a lot of interest, this movie was more a series of disjointed events than a cohesive story. Nothing made sense. If the viewer did not have some prior knowledge of the story, you would never figure it out from the movie. I was told that the movie presented a new view of this myth. This view being that the murders were completely invented by those who wanted to take possession of the countess's property. I did not find this in the movie myself. After about 30-45 minutes the movie became numbingly dull and I gave up completely on trying to make any sense of the nonsensical dialog and weird happenings. The movie was way too long, confusing, and there seemed to be no cohesive storyline. It was not even clear that large numbers of young girls were killed at the castle and if so, how or why. I fought to stay awake in the second half of the movie. I learned nothing about the political situation in that part of Europe at that time. All that was shown were wars, but it was unclear who was fighting whom and why. Some narrative would have gone a long way in helping the viewer understand all these issues, but obviously an historical perspective was not this movie's focus, but rather it was one of those "artsy" movies that perhaps only the makers understand. Overall, I would say this was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.