After a public execution, the good people of a small Transylvanian community think they have finally rid themselves of the murderous Count Regula, known to his victims as Dr Sadism ......they were wrong! Even being drawn and qautered does not cripple this sdaist. Thirty-five years later, he comes back to seek revenge on the daugter of his intended 13th victim and the son of his prosecutor in order to attain immortal ife. Borrowing loosely from Poe's The Pit & The Pendulum, director Harald Reinl does a masterful job of pacing and fills the screen with surreal and spine tingling images. Reinl's real life wife Karin Dor plays the luscious Baroness Lillian von Brabant, the last female member of one of the families. Only her blood can give the Count what he needs for his life elixir.