Stream It Or Skip It: ‘El Conde’ on Netflix, An Examination Of Pinochet’s Final Days But Make It A Vampire Movie

Fifty years ago, a brutal military dictatorship under the command of Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile. And what better way to commemorate such a sordid moment in the country’s history with … a movie that reimagines the dictator as a vampire?! El Conde (now streaming on Netflix) might not be the Pinochet movie you’d expect, but it’s the one we deserve.

EL CONDE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: It’s approaching the end of the road for an ailing Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell). It’s the dictator you know and hate living in exile, but his decision to seemingly slip away into the night is different in El Conde. This Pinochet is a vampire who’s been lurking in the political shadows since the French Revolution and showing up to eat the hearts of his victims to stay alive for centuries. But he’s decided to try and wean himself off the blood and thus relinquish his claim on immortality, which leads a whole coterie of metaphorical bloodsucking relatives to descend upon his rural estate for personal benefit. Like most political evils, however, it’s wishful thinking to presume Pinochet will just disappear quietly.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Though you might think something like Abraham Lincoln: Zombie Hunter is the closest comp, it’s vibrating on a frequency closer to something like Jim Jarmusch’s hipster vampire flick Only Lovers Left Alive.

Performance Worth Watching: Stella Gonet’s steely British narrator, who later makes a surprise appearance in the film, is a stealthy highlight of the film. (But to give too much information about why she’s so great would spoil one of the big turns of El Conde’s third act.)

Memorable Dialogue: “This is what the count achieved,” observes the film’s narrator, “beyond the killing, his life’s work was to turn us into heroes of greed.”

Sex and Skin: Well, there is a sex scene … but it’s totally clothed (and is really just the pretext for a vampire bite). Likewise, there is a penis … but you’ll be more focused on the fact that this person has just had his heart ripped out of his chest.

Our Take: If you’ve followed the filmography of Chilean director Pablo Larraín from before his persecuted women double bill of Spencer and Jackie, you’ll know that the long shadow of Pinochet’s rule is his favorite subject. El Conde takes it in a much less literal and more evocative direction to thrilling effect. Perhaps the metaphor stretches itself a bit too thin at times, sure. But it’s nonetheless a provocative and powerful suggestion to reframe Chile’s battle with authoritarianism as tied to humanity’s larger struggle against an evil force that never seems to stay dead. The sheer gusto to combine dark political comedy with the eerie horror-adjacent vibes of Ed Lachman’s crisp B&W photography makes this a searing, singular satire.

Our Call: STREAM IT! El Conde is weird and wild in all the right ways. After the Trump era ushered in far too much on-the-nose political posturing in cinema, it’s nice to see something that dares to take a more imaginative and illustrative approach to handling larger-than-life figures. This combination of genre storytelling and incisive analysis is worth sinking your fangs into.

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.