LONDON: The 33-year-old Pushing Daises actress strips naked to laze in a bath of virgin's blood for her part in the film Bathory.

The former Brookside star plays the world's worst female serial killer Elizabeth Bathory.

Legend had it Countess Bathory would bathe in the blood of virgins in order to preserve her youth.

The Hungarian noblewoman was imprisoned in a bricked up set of room after being placed under house arrest following several deaths.

Although never officially tried she was implicated in the murder and torture of 80 girls and young women but some accused her of more than 600 killings.

Countess Bathory died four years after her imprisonment.

Her crimes became the subject of folk law and she had been dubbed Countess Dracula.

Anna nabbed the part of Countess Bathory after The Faculty star Famke Janssen dropped out.

She fell in love with the script and sent the director, Juraj Jakubisko, a letter convincing him to cast her.

The film was released in the Czech Republic and Slovakia last year but it's not yet been generally released in the UK.