Therapy for a Vampire

Therapy for a Vampire (German: Therapie für einen Vampir) is a 2014 Austrian comedy horror film. It was written and directed by David Ruehm.

Plot
In 1932 Vienna, Austria, Professor Sigmund Freud begins providing psychological therapy to Count Geza Von Kösznöm, a depressed vampire who is unhappy with his 500–year marriage to Countess Elsa Von Kösznöm, a vampire longing to admire herself but is unable to view herself in a mirror. Freud offers his assistant, Viktor, to paint a portrait of the countess.

The Count observes Lucy, Viktor's girlfriend, recognizing her as a reincarnation of his first true 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. This incomplete feeding causes Lucy to start a transformation into a vampire. Ignaz, Geza's assistant, who is smitten with Lucy, kidnaps and performs a blood transfusion on her, stopping the transformation process. Meaning 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.

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

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports a 63% approval rating based on 30 reviews and a rating average of 6.2 out of 10.

The film won the Audience Award for Best Foreign Feature at the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival. At the 2016 Austrian Film Awards, Karl Fischer received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Monika Buttinger for costumes, and Sam Dopona for makeup.