Move over The Last Voyage of the Demeter! There’s another vampire movie coming our way, and this one, whose title translates into English as “The Count” is a satirical take on a scenario we’ve all wondered about: What if the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was a grumpy, two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old vampire?
Based on the trailer, this black-and-white, tongue-in-cheek film from Chilean director Pablo Larraín features a Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) who, in addition to the 300 human rights abuses the real Pinochet was charged with in the twenty years after his coup d’état in 1973, is feeling a bit grouchy that people think of him as a thief.
Here’s the movie’s synopsis:
El Conde is a dark comedy/horror that imagines a parallel universe inspired by the recent history of Chile. The film portrays Augusto Pinochet, a symbol of world fascism, as a vampire who lives hidden in a ruined mansion in the cold southern tip of the continent. Feeding his appetite for evil to sustain his existence. After two hundred and fifty years of life, Pinochet has decided to stop drinking blood and abandon the privilege of eternal life. He can no longer bear that the world remembers him as a thief. Despite the disappointing and opportunistic nature of his family, he finds new inspiration to continue living a life of vital and counterrevolutionary passion through an unexpected relationship.
“I have spent years imagining Pinochet as a vampire, as a being that never stops circulating through history, both in our imagination and nightmares,” Larraín said in an interview with Netflix. “Vampires do not die, they do not disappear, nor do the crimes and thefts of a dictator who never faced true justice. Together with my collaborators on the film, we wanted to show the brutal impunity that Pinochet represents.”
In addition to Vadell, El Conde stars Gloria Münchmeyer, Alfredo Castro, and Paula Luchsinger.
The movie will fly its way onto Netflix on September 15, 2023.
