It is not because of her cruel upbringing but after the disappearance of her much younger lover that Báthory is shown on a slow spiral into madness. She meets the son of Count György Thurzó, István, at a ball after the death of her husband and, despite being 20 years his senior, quickly enters a whirlwind romance with him. István is an unknowing pawn in his father’s plan to topple Báthory, however, and is forbidden from seeing her again by Thurzó. Thinking that her lover had left her due to her age, Erzsébet slowly becomes obsessed with her skin to the point of delusion and one day, after snapping and striking her handmaid with a brush, is splattered in her blood. She swears she sees a difference in her appearance after washing her face and becomes fixated on the purity of young virgin blood, having her staff keep the peasant girl in the castle to repeatedly slice open and drain of her blood as Báthory sees
It is not because of her cruel upbringing but after the disappearance of her much younger lover that Báthory is shown on a slow spiral into madness. She meets the son of Count György Thurzó, István, at a ball after the death of her husband and, despite being 20 years his senior, quickly enters a whirlwind romance with him. István is an unknowing pawn in his father’s plan to topple Báthory, however, and is forbidden from seeing her again by Thurzó. Thinking that her lover had left her due to her age, Erzsébet slowly becomes obsessed with her skin to the point of delusion and one day, after snapping and striking her handmaid with a brush, is splattered in her blood. She swears she sees a difference in her appearance after washing her face and becomes fixated on the purity of young virgin blood, having her staff keep the peasant girl in the castle to repeatedly slice open and drain of her blood as Báthory sees