[people shouting indistinctly]
[thunder rumbling]
[somber music playing]
[blade swishes, clunks]
[Abbot] This so-called Revolution,
it's not a struggle for the rights of man.
It's an abomination, an affront to the natural order,
to common decency,
above all,
to God and his church.
My own holy order, the Knights of Saint John,
founded to protect pilgrims in the wars for the Holy Land,
has been commanded to submit to the blasphemous, Godless state.
We would rather die.
[blade clunks]
[Abbot] But whatever atrocities they commit
in the names of their sacrilegious future,
the days of this abomination will soon be over.
A deliverer is at hand.
[ominous music playing]
A new Joan of Arc,
a mighty warrior queen to lead us to salvation.
She will raise a holy army of the righteous
to crush the blasphemers.
[music continues to play]
In the name of God.
[men] In the name of God.
[huffs]
[tense music playing]
[soldier] Name your business in the Commune of Paris.
[woman] This is Paris, is it?
What a dump.
I'm a representative of the Insurrectionary Commune of Paris.
State your business.
[woman] I'm a representative too, of the Messiah.
Religious orders need to register with the National Convention.
[chuckles]
Not that Messiah.
The real one.
- [grunts] - [soldier groans]
[dramatic music playing]
[grunting]
[soldier groaning weakly]
[eerie string music rising]
[music fades]
[dramatic opening theme music plays]
[music fades]
- [insects chirping] - [birds singing]
[footsteps approaching]
I don't know if I should bury it.
Come on. I need help with breakfast.
[clatters]
[Maria] I've heard about the revolution in Saint-Domingue, of course,
but the Paris papers only reach here sometimes,
and then about six months late.
So I know the slaves rose up, burned all the sugar plantations,
and killed all the bastard slave owners.
Not quite all. One escaped.
Many white colonists were vampires.
The island was teeming with all kinds of evil.
And it's not over yet, our revolution.
We're still fighting.
[exhales] I'll call a meeting.
It will be so inspiring.
Representatives from another revolution.
- You were slaves then, were you? - Annette was.
I was an opera singer.
Oh my God.
This bread.
We've been living off ship rations for weeks.
If I never eat another strip of dried meat for as long as I live...
[chuckling] Yeah, and fuck knows what kind of meat it even is.
You've spent time on a ship?
I sailed here from Boston when I was a boy.
- Worst few weeks of my life. - [chuckles]
I didn't think it was humanly possible to vomit so often.
Nor did I.
Annette found my suffering hilarious.
[chuckling] Everything's an opera, even puking over the side of a ship.
[laughing]
Tell me what you know about this Vampire Messiah.
In Saint-Domingue, there's a mambo, a priestess, my teacher.
She's a powerful sorcerer and seer.
It was she who told me to find you.
[Richter] And she knows about this Messiah?
She said, "Something is changing out here in the Old World."
For centuries, vampires have lived coiled around the old houses of Europe,
like vines.
Close allies of the dukes and barons, the principalities,
even the royal courts themselves.
That's amazing.
But many vampires resented their reliance on human kings and princes.
This Messiah promises to make them unquestioned masters of the world.
Won't that be fun.
They'll leave the kings and princes in place,
but with vampires pulling the strings,
which means, first, they need to crush the Revolution.
[Maria] Oh, what a surprise.
The evil Messiah is on the side of the old regime.
The priestess told me you could do magic.
- [whip cracks] - [blade whirring]
I could when I was a kid.
[Annette] What happened?
I don't know.
Never mind. We'll make do.
The Messiah was a monster before she was a vampire.
She?
Even as a human, she tortured and murdered young girls and boys.
[Tera] What's her name? The Vampire Messiah, do you know her name?
- Erzsebet Bathory. - [gasps]
[Annette] Countess Erzsebet Bathory.
Mum, what's wrong?
[whispering] Oh, no.
- [inhales sharply] - Mum?
[crying softly]
[ominous music playing]
- [music continues] - [bell tolling in distance]
[woman sobbing softly]
[gasps]
[whimpering]
[woman breathing heavily]
- [gasps] - [drinking]
[woman whimpers softly]
[gasps]
[whimpers softly]
[woman sobbing softly]
Oh, yes.
She'll do nicely.
The Messiah will be pleased.
[music fades]
- [insects chirping] - [birds singing]
[footsteps approaching]
I never really told you why I fled from Russia.
You... said you had no choice.
That's true.
But I never really told you who I had to leave behind.
I thought... I hoped...
that it was locked away in the past and far away in the East...
and you were safe from it.
But of course you're not safe.
I was born 4,000 miles to the east, in Russia,
by the banks of a great river.
[solemn music playing]
[Tera] People were poor, cruelly treated.
So, my family, a clan of Speakers,
settled there for a while to help ease their suffering.
And for a while, we were free.
But, of course, our freedom couldn't be tolerated.
[horse neighs]
[Tera] So the soldiers came.
[soldiers yelling]
- [blade slashes] - [horse neighs]
[people screaming]
[guns firing]
[Tera] And not only soldiers. There were vampires too.
[tense, dramatic music playing]
[Tera] None worse than Erzsebet Bathory
and her attack dog, Drolta Tzuentes.
[Annette] So, you fled.
[Tera inhales]
Not yet.
[exhales] They captured my sister.
I didn't know you had a sister.
I tried to save her.
[eerie, dramatic music playing]
[woman sobbing]
[Tera] Erzsebet Bathory doesn't simply kill her victims.
[gasps]
[eerie music continues]
[women sobbing]
[Tera] She tortures them for as long as she can keep them alive.
Rejoices in the most terrible agony she can inflict.
[music rising dramatically]
- [eerie music peaks] - [snarling]
[gasps]
[heavy door opens]
[eerie, suspenseful music playing]
[Tera] I fled...
[snarling]
[Tera exhales] ...leaving her and everyone I knew and loved.
[music swells]
[glasses smash]
[Tera] West, and further west, to places I didn't even know existed.
[music fades]
[Tera] Until I finally found refuge here.
I should have told you before.
There are things that I don't talk about either.
[ominous music playing]
She will bring horror beyond nightmares.
Suffering and pain beyond endurance.
She won't want simply to crush the Revolution,
she will want to drain it slowly of blood,
before she grinds its bones to dust.
But we will defeat her.
- [sand rasping] - [magic humming]
[magic thrums]
Yeah, don't you worry.
We're going to fucking kill her.
- [crow cawing] - [birds chirping]
Do you feel close to these creatures?
They come when I call.
They do what I command.
Mm, well, ask. I don't really command them.
But, yes, it feels like, for a little while, they're part of me.
So, part of you has died.
Like part of you died with your sister.
I'll sing for them both.
[birds chirping]
[in high voice] ♪ When I am laid ♪
♪ Am laid in earth ♪
♪ May my wrongs create ♪
♪ No trouble ♪
♪ In thy breast ♪
[mournful string music playing]
♪ Remember me ♪
♪ But... ♪
[vocalizing mournfully]
♪ Forget my fate ♪
♪ Remember me ♪
♪ But... ♪
[vocalizing mournfully]
♪ Forget ♪
- [music fading] - ♪ My fate ♪
This Marquis, you believe vampires are gathering at his château?
Yes.
It makes sense. It's where vampires would go.
We should investigate and burn it to the ground if we have to.
It's getting late.
You should wait.
For another attack?
We needed to rest, but now we're wasting time.
We'll stay out of sight. Just get a sense of numbers.
Then I'll come with you.
[melancholy music playing]
You need to rest, and we need to stay hidden.
Frankly, four is already too many.
I promise...
We'll be careful.
We'll be safe.
[music fades]
[leaves rustling]
[Maria] Thousands of years ago, before any church or anything,
the people who built stone circles communed with what they called
the Otherworld.
Sounds like the spirit world, where Annette's ancestors live.
Generation upon generation of ancestors,
back to Ogun, an orisha, a god.
The god of iron and war.
She's descended from a god?
That's on my father's side.
[Edouard chuckles]
On her mother's, it's Orunmila,
an orisha of wisdom and divination.
Apparently.
Anyway, it gives her power over metal and rock.
We're all descended from gods.
We just have to learn how to draw on their power.
Well, I'm quite happy with my whip and my knives, thank you.
Generation upon generation of my ancestors have killed vampires with just this whip.
Actually, quite a lot of them could do magic,
including my mother, but it's never been essential.
Where's your mother?
[Richter] She died.
Some vampires do magic too.
[ominous music playing]
[thunder rumbling]
[brooding music playing]
- [reciting incantation in Creole] - [mysterious music playing]
- [magic humming] - [thunder rumbling]
[exciting classical string music playing]
[thunder rumbling]
[playing exciting classical music]
It's like Versailles emptied, and its dregs washed up here.
That's him.
That's the Marquis.
Poor devils.
He's giving them the corpses.
- Why? - To make more.
The Marquis has some kind of deal with the Forgemaster.
Follow those night creatures, we find their maker.
[gasps]
It's Jacques.
I saw him only yesterday.
Oh my God.
[Edouard] It's the vampire who enslaved her and murdered her mother,
the Comte de Vaublanc.
He looks like he's found God.
Papa Legba, open the gate.
[Edouard] Annette, not now.
Annette.
[exhales]
[screeches]
[door opens, closes]
[eerie music playing]
[gasps]
[thunder rumbles]
- [hisses] - [snarling]
[bird shrieks]
[grunting]
[whip cracking]
[bird shrieking]
[Maria and Edouard grunting]
[grunts]
[squelches]
[grunts]
[panting]
[grunts]
[Richter yells]
[whip cracking]
We need to get out of here!
[monster snarling]
- [panting] - [magic humming]
[Maria grunts]
- Go. - [roars]
[bird shrieks]
[vampire snarls]
Maria! We need to go!
- Now! - [blade squelches]
[suspenseful music continues]
[grunting]
[grunts]
- [grunts] - [power crackles]
Annette! We need a bridge!
[Annette pants]
[thunder rumbling]
[panting]
[strains]
[panting]
[Edouard] Annette!
[groaning]
[groaning weakly]
Richter!
[Annette grunts uncertainly, pants]
[whimpers, gasps]
[snarls]
[music fading]
- [thunder crashing] - [panting]
[panting]
[shuddering]
[moans weakly]
[inhales sharply]
[wailing]
[thunder crashing]
[sobbing]
- [somber music playing] - [continues sobbing]
[music continues]
[ghostly voice rasping]
[music continues]
[chains rattle]
[clanks]
[squelching]
[eerie organ music playing]
[power humming faster]
[humming fades]
[air hissing]
[music fading]
Well, well...
Glory be to God.
[eerie music playing]