The real-life Countess Elisabeth Bathory, whose vampire legend rose ahead of Dracula’s, got her most chic 1970s incarnation via Jeanne Dielman star Delphine Seyrig, who set the bar for a swan dive into kink, seduction, and violence. As trust-challenged couple Danielle Ouimet and John Karlen (later Tyne Daly’s husband on Cagney & Lacey) are regaled with historical tales, little do they know that the Countess speaks from experience and that they are grist for her mill.

Print courtesy of Harry Guerro