Review of 'El Conde'

In the 1900s royalist French soldier Claude Pinnoche (Jaime Vadell) witnesses the French revolution and the beheading of Marie Antoinette. Discovered to be a vampire he ends up in Chili where he changes his name to Augusto Pinochet, aka “El Conde” (“The Count”) and eventually becomes the country's dictator. Faking his own death (again) he retires to a remote farm where he lives with his wife Lucia (Gloria Münchmeyer), and his long-time butler, Fyodor (Alfredo Castro), who he has turned into a vampire. After Fyodor goes on a killing spree Augusto's children hire nun Carmen (Paula Luchsinger) to exorcise and kill their father, to protect their inheritance under the guise of reviewing his accounts. When Carmen reveals her true identity things go decidedly sideways and things get even bloodier…

Filmed in black and white, this film is not for the squeamish with brutal violence throughout (otherwise there would a LOT of red) which is something I had a hard time setting aside. Yes, it looks quite interesting and the characters are certainly…quirky, the sheer brutality is hard to overlook. None of the characters are particularly endearing though perhaps this is to be expected as this film is billed as a “satire” which is perhaps obvious when the main character is a former Chilean dictator and, in the final moments of the film, even Margaret Thatcher (Stella Gonet) pays a visit, revealing herself to also be a vampire (to be fair, by the end, most everyone is). The effects are pretty silly looking with the main characters “flying” consisting of them basically standing and being moved about in the air (ok, ok, the count gets the full flowing cape treatment, but still…).

It was hard to really get into this film and you do need to understand a bit about history to “appreciate” the incredibly dark humour, so much so that it is more horror than any suggestion of humour. The film is quite unpredictable with some interesting plot twists at the end…if it wasn't for all the gratuitous gore I may have appreciated it more. As it was, I barely tolerated the film, spending most of the time wondering how many minutes were left in it.

Sure, it may have a bunch of awards and nominated for an Oscar, but this film is really not for me. Style over any sort of likable character or anyone I was particularly interested sprinkled with a liberal helping of brutal, visceral violence.

Rating: “Not great, but not the worse”

Review Date: 2026-02-24

Directed by: Pablo Larraín

Studio: Fabula

Year: 2023

Length: 110 minutes

Genre: Horror

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21113540/

• Maria (2024)