In 14th Century Hungary, aristocrat Thurzo (Gábor Koncz) betrays Countess Elizabeth Bathory (Adél Kováts) who curses his lineage. In the present day, Constantine Thurzo (Christopher Lambert, HIGHLANDER) returns to Hungary upon the death of his brother (making him the last of the line). Constantine objects to his brother being buried in the local cemetery and digs him up to bury him on the grounds of the family estate but is himself attacked. Meanwhile, a trio of American students - Keith (Corey Sevier), J.J. (Charlie Hollway), and Kim (Jennifer Higham) - have made arrangements to stay at the Bathory monastery and get lost in the woods. Mysterious Elizabeth (model Irena Hoffman) appears out of nowhere and offers to direct them to the monastery. Elizabeth and Keith bond over his sympathy for the Countess (who he says would have been treated for mental illness now and suggests that her madness was the result of years of brutalization by her husband). Arriving at the monastery, they learn from the monks that tours to the castle are no longer being offered after a tour a few days prior was attacked by wolves and their own Brother Alexis was among the casualties. Elizabeth offers to lead them up to the castle herself. They crash their rented car off a cliff (a pretty good stunt set up by the credibility-straining stupid behavior of the secondary couple) but they come upon a cabin at the foot of the road to the castle where they discover Brother Alexis (András Kern), nun Sister Catherine (Anja Kruse), and two German tourists (Zolee Ganxsta and Florentine Lahme) on their way up to the castle. Elizabeth disappears, leaving a note to Keith to "search for the white light" and her medallion. The group's night trek up to the castle is set upon by wolves (another fairly well done sequence with some great snarling wolf close-ups) but a force scares the wolves off and the group make it to the castle (an impressive location although the actual Bathory castle is in ruins). When shown the necklace Elizabeth left behind, Brother Alexis tells Keith that Elizabeth is the Countess' daughter which would make her a 500 year old vampire. When Kim disappears, the group split up to search for her and hunt Elizabeth but Constantine Thurzo soon pops up as a vampire claiming the castle as his. Are Elizabeth and Thurzo working together or are they enemies?

The film starts off fairly well until a craggy Lambert (whose accented English has never been appealing) bursts in and ruins the atmosphere with the first lines of English dialogue. Then we're introduced to three stereotypical Americans driving through the mountains in a convertible and being obnoxious to the superstitious locals. Hoffman and Sevier make good principals and the co-production contributions from Germany, Hungary, UK, and Austria allow for some impressive locations, some proficient effects, and good action set-pieces but the scripting is convoluted and Lambert is just bad throughout (especially when he reappears as a vampire who deconstructs at length the vampire myth and makes faux-witty remarks like "I just want to kill you and drink your blood"). The somewhat novel though not unexpected twist (related to the characters cycling through dimensions and J.J.'s watch which has slowed down to a crawl) is such that it takes several minutes after the climax to explain and then the whole thing closes with a Hungarian rap song. The end result is uneven but has some good bits. Lambert fans may enjoy him and Hoffman doing some HIGHLANDER/MORTAL KOMBAT-esque fights.