''Therapy for a Vampire'' (German: ''Therapie für einen Vampir'') is a 2014 Austrian

comedy horror Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary genre, literary, television genre, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three ty ...

film. It was written and directed by David Ruehm.

Plot

In 1932 Vienna, Austria, Professor

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

begins providing psychological therapy to Count Geza Von Kösznöm, a depressed

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

who is unhappy with his centuries long marriage. Von Kösznöm's wife, Countess Elsa Von Kösznöm, is also a vampire and longs to admire herself but is unable to view herself in a mirror or have a portrait of herself painted. Freud offers his assistant, Viktor, to attempt to paint her portrait. The Count observes Lucy, Viktor's girlfriend, recognizing her as a reincarnation of his first love Nadilla, a woman executed centuries ago. Geza attempts to seduce Lucy only to be interrupted by his wife. The next evening Elsa visits and hires Viktor to paint her portrait. Geza once again tries to cast a spell upon Lucy in order to bring back Nadilla but is discovered by Elsa, who bites Lucy but is chased away before she can kill her (anyone fed off of by a vampire transforms into one themselves unless their heart is removed from their body). Lucy starts transforming into a vampire. Ignaz, Geza's assistant, who is smitten with Lucy, kidnaps and performs a

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...

on her, allegedly stopping the transformation process. While trying to attack Geza, Else impales herself with a wooden stake and turns into dust. Geza breaks a fang attempting to bite Lucy through a Byzantine neck-piece. He flies off as a bat as Lucy falls to the ground, caught by Viktor. In the end it is revealed that the blood transfusions only temporarily restored her humanity as she is still a vampire. Freud has also develops minor vampiric abilities due to Lucy accidentally biting him earlier in the film while she was still going through the transformation into a vampire.

Cast

Release

The film premiered at the 2014 Zurich Film Festival. It had an Austrian theatrical release on 19 December 2014.

Reception

The film won the Audience Award for Best Foreign Feature at the 2015

Fantasia International Film Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

. At the 2016 Austrian Film Awards, Karl Fischer received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Monika Buttinger for costumes, and Sam Dopona for makeup.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title , 3400980 2014 comedy horror films Austrian comedy horror films Swiss comedy horror films Swiss German-language films Films set in 1932 Films set in Vienna Vampire comedy films 2010s German-language films