User Reviews

A man finds memories about a vampiress he met as a child rekindled when he sees a beautiful poster of ruins at a party. He is inspired to seek out those ruins as he sees visions of the vampiress while others try to thwart his mission to find her, such as his mother, a supposed girl he knew from childhood, a hit-man, psychiatric doctor, etc. Yet, anytime someone tries to halt the man's search for the ruins, vampire girls kill them allowing him to continue. No matter what his mother tries to accomplish, this man desires to find this vampiress and will do whatever it takes to find her. It'll come to a head at the Sauveterre Castle where the vampiress is buried..will the man, Frederic find Jenifer? Or, will Frederic finally listen to his mother's pleas at allowing Jenifer, the vampiress responsible for his own father's death, to roam free from the tomb of her coffin?

With limited dialogue, it seems director Jean Rollin wishes to capture you with visuals. The problem I had is the visuals are so coldly(..and oddly)displayed, I had a hard time getting involved in the film. Jean-Loup Philippe bored me to tears as Frederic, the young man on his search. He barely registers as the protagonist..actually, his method of acting blends itself well within Rollin's quiet, unenergetic direction which holds silence as things occur on screen at a snail's pace. Annie Belle(The House on the Edge of the Park)is a stunning beauty as the vampiress, but she, like Philippe, often stares blankly towards the screen. The film, quite honestly, has some pretty terrible vampire-bite sequences because the vampire girls simply nookie on their victims. The film is beautiful, with some haunting location work and fluid camera-movement. That alone helps, but I had a hard time staying awake through it.

My Review of Lips of Blood (1975) SPOILERS "Scents are like memories, the person evaporates but the memory remains" Wow! What a gutsy choice by YT Horror Group moderator, Brian Bly. Lips of Blood is the first X rated film reviewed by this group. A French art-house film in English subtitles. Personally, I loved the movie. I was previously unfamiliar with the originality and unique approach which is found in 1970's European sex/horror cinema, of which director, Jean Rollin was considered the master. Jean Rollin enjoys an impressive cult status and his 'hot-vampire-chicks films' in particular are notorious. Jean Rollin was both one of the writers as well as the director of this surreal low budget horror film. Rollins also makes a cameo in Lips of Blood as the caretaker killed in the cemetery by the female vampires. As a director, Jean Rollin specializes in haunting, sensual, visually impressive movies that frequently concern memory, or memory loss, and obsessively feature beautiful naked women, usually vampires. Rollins' films have been characterized as bringing on a sense of bewilderment, unease, and sexual desire. His approach to the horror genre is said to be unique, extremely atmospheric and erotic in an elegant way. Lips of Blood" is wonderfully shot, and strangely romantic in its own way. It's both artful and exploitative and manages to pull off being both very well. This movie flowed like visual poetry. A slow burner that captured my full attention and transported me to an ethereal, dream like world filled with nubile naked vampire women. Luckily, for those like me that hate subtitles, this film is largely dialogue free. Then in the last 20 minutes the film is crammed with dialogue and explanations for all of the questions posed in the viewer's mind over the previous hour. While some may complain that the acting was wooden, this oddly adds a surreal edge to the film. The locations are stunning and lovingly shot. The camera lingering over the enticingly-lit castle, the sound effects were spectacular, the score with its eerie flute music really adds to the intended atmosphere. The shot of the shadow of a statue of a bull was rather striking imagery. Vampire girls, wearing flowing, nearly transparent wraps, slowly and seductively walking through the cemetery late at night is now one of my favorite things. The tall blonde vampire in purple is remarkably beautiful. In one scene the vampire-women are all standing on a windy rockface and one of the girls' dresses blows over her head, leaving her naked with her face obscured by an upswept dress. In the context of the howling wind and gothic imagery, it looks fantastic. Lips of Blood is filled with castles, chateaus, beaches and vampire girls. The bizarre locations, ranging from haunting shots of castle ruins to a graveyard full of crypts to various nighttime Paris locations including 1970's style apartments and offices to an abandoned nocturnal aquarium, are cool. Just the camera work and settings alone make this movie worth a watch. Okay, I know I seem to be focusing a lot of my attention on the female vampires, but they really stole the show. They were very effective as horror villains when, back lit in the distance with traces of blood on their lips, but much less scary in close up shots because of their comically over sized fangs. The two most famous female vampires were the two blond Castel twins (featured on much of the promo posters and trailers) Director, Jean Rollin, used the twin girls, Marie-Pierre and Catherine Castel in some of his other sex/horror movies in the 1970's. Rollin is known for his unique take on vampirism. In Lips of Blood, the vampires are unlike typical pop-culture versions of vampires familiar to a 1970's audience. Rollins' vampires are both sexy and dangerous, yet in some scenes their hunger is so apparent that its discomforting.Somehow the vampires are also sympathetic as they emote a sense of isolationism. These vampires are completely cut off from the rest of the world. Lips of Blood was filmed in three short weeks. Director, Jean Rollin describes this as his best written film, but not his best screenplay. The reason for this is that a week before filming commenced, one of the producers decided not to be involved, and withdrew his funding. This meant that instead of four weeks' filming allocation (already a pretty tight deadline), there was now only budget for three weeks. Also, director, Jean Rollin was known for promoting his earlier works, so, in Lips of Blood, when the male lead visits a movie theater, outside is the poster for Rollins' earlier movie, "The Nude Vampire". And inside the movie theater the movie screening is Rollins earlier movie, The Shiver of the Vampires. Another Rollin's movie, The Phantom of Liberty is plugged in a poster appearing on a subway wall in Lips of Blood. In a blatant cash grab, the year after Lips of Blood was released, in 1976, the film was reformatted with new hardcore inserts and re-released as the more exploitative movie Suce moi vampire (1976). Jean-Loup Philippe was both the writer of Lips of Blood as well as the star playing the role of Frédéric. The themes expressed in Lips of Blood are mainly about returning to what made you happy in your childhood; memories; love; longing; desire; eroticism; romance; and, bewilderment. These themes struck a chord with me, particularly this October week when I watched Lips of Blood and I left the movie charmed.

"Lips of Blood" is Rollin on auto pilot. It has all his usual calling cards: vampires wandering around in see-through night gowns, Gothic castles filmed outdoors, "dreamlike" (read: nonsensical and lazy) plotting. It has none of the striking imagery that he could pull off in movies like The Nude Vampire.

One misstep is the guy who plays the main character. He looks like a Victorian-era Ken doll, but with less charisma. I don't really know if I can blame the actor for doing such a bad job. Rollin himself may have assumed that to have a "dreamlike" movie, you need actors who act like they're asleep. Unfortunately it doesn't leave the audience much to work with. Someone should have told Rollin that you can have a "dreamlike" atmosphere and at least allow the main character to show some kind of emotion. Hell, he could have cast someone who was actually capable of showing emotion. From what we see, the main guy wasn't.

He is also creepy, but not in a scary way. More of a "I don't want to watch this guy anymore" kind of way.

You can't even begin to care about whatever's going on in this movie when you have to watch him all the time, but this is Jean Rollin, so it's not like there's much going on anyway. This movie really suffers from its low budget. You get tired of all the outdoor shots, and the apparition of the short haired vampire just becomes a bore.

Jean Rollin's typically outré, dreamy, and deliberately paced film deserves appraisal for attempting a fresh and lyrical spin on the usual bloodsucker premise, but the occasionally too draggy and meandering narrative and a bland central performance by Jean-Loup Philippe as the obsessive Frederic who's determined to figure out his dark family past prevent this movie from completely working. Fortunately, Nathalie Perrey's stand-out portrayal of Frederic's protective mother compensates for Philippe's insipidness in the lead. The beautiful Annie Belle is properly bewitching as Jennifer, the lovely and mysterious lady who haunts Frederic's memories. Comely blonde real life twin sisters Catherine and Marie-Pierre Castel are quite sexy and stunning as a couple of vampires Frederic accidentally unleashes into Paris. Moreover, Rollin makes good use of natural locations (the ruins setting in particular is very creepy), does his usual ace job of creating and sustaining a pleasingly surreal and spooky midnight-in-the-graveyard misty atmosphere, and pulls off a strangely poetic and surprising final scene that's both haunting and touching in equal measure. Jean-Francois Robin's rather plain and grainy cinematography offers a handful of strikingly eerie images. However, the opening third is much too padded and poky and the more trashy explicit elements like gratuitous distaff nudity are jarringly at odds with the overall artiness and offbeat fairytale-like quality of the picture (for example, a sequence with a lady photographer and her nude model is simply tossed in for the sake of cheap titillation and adds nothing to the story). Imperfect, but still a praiseworthy entry in the vampire horror sub-genre.

Browsing through some of the comments written by other regular reviewers (with whom I usually agree on this type of vicious cult-flicks), it's with even deeper regrets I have to say this film couldn't intrigue me for one second. Jean Rollin enjoys an impressive cult status and his 'hot-vampire-chicks films' in particular are notorious. His approach of the horror genre is said to be unique, extremely atmospheric and erotic in an elegant way. Bearing this in mind, I was very enthusiast when I purchased a copy of Lips of Blood.

It's obvious that Jean Rollin lives is his own private dreamworld and this entirely translates itself in his films. Normally, this is a good trademark for a director as it gives him/her the opportunity to create typical surroundings, styles and characterizations. 'Lips of Blood' is really empty!

It doesn't contain much style and ever less substance. For a film that constantly features naked girls, it isn't very sexy. The acting is atrocious and I didn't notice any attempt by Rolling to build up tension, a grim atmosphere or a compelling story. Here he has great settings & scenery to work with (old ruins, catacombs, coffins...) and he doesn't make proper use of it. It's all so very detached and it feels like Rollin doesn't want you to get involved. The protagonist is a seemly lifeless 30 something guy that gets obsessed by a poster of old ruins. It causes him flashbacks from his childhood but everybody acts mysterious about this….like they want to hide the past from him. The flashbacks are associated with the image of a young girl all dressed in white. When investigating all this, he unintentionally awakens an army of foxy vampires and his muse turns out to be the queen.

I'd say it's better to avoid this film (and all the other Rollin efforts) if you're not an avid cult-collector. It's exaggeratedly surreal but not exactly fascinating. There were a few aspects in particular that hugely disappointed me: ***SPOILERS***

1.All the characters are bleak! The lead character is the best example to state this but also the vampires are very unspectacular. Here are 4 of the most stunning beauties, able to raise hell, unleashed upon the world but all they do is wander around a little in the backyard. Go out and kill, ladies!!!

2.It seems to me like Rollin has a pretty ideal world-perspective. There's a sequence near the beginning where the lead guy walks in on a photographer and her nude model. The nude model immediately shows off against this man she doesn't know and a few seconds later, the photographer is nude as well! Turning around the room a little, saying, 'Now where did I leave my skirt'. That's not very stylish or sensual…that's just tasteless and – oh yes – wishful thinking!

3.Where's the music? If there's one thing you can be sure about in these European Art House titles, it's that it ALWAYS contains wonderful musical guidance. I reckon that sometimes the absence of sound increases the atmosphere and tension level of a film. Yet, this film didn't have tension or atmosphere to begin with so it could have used a score.

There were a few more elements that kept me from liking this film, but you get the idea. I sure didn't want to bash 'Lips of Blood' but I can't bring myself to tell you something positive about it neither. Hopefully, Jean Rollin films are to be categorized as being 'acquired taste'. In that case, I guess I should check out some other lesbian vampire films he made (more than enough to choose from: Fascination, Living Dead Girl, Requiem for a Vampire, Rape of the Vampire…) before I state my definitive opinion.

Jean Rollin describes this as his best written film, but not his best screenplay. The reason for this is that a week before filming commenced, one of the producers decided not to be involved, and withdrew his funding. This meant that instead of four weeks filming allocation (already a pretty tight deadline), there was now only budget for three.

So it is a surprise that this is as good as it is – and it is very good! It isn't flawless, of course. The vampires, although very effective, backlit in the distance, traces of blood on their lips, lose their effectiveness when close up due to the outsized fangs being a little too large (a common problem in Rollin's films, but not his first, 'Rape of the Vampire', in which the fangs were more subtle and effective) causing the actresses to appear to smile to reveal them.

Also, at the end, when two vampires encase themselves in a wooden coffin that goes floating off to sea, it is worth remembering that running water is deadly to such creatures, so the hope is that the coffin is sealed. And yet I regret criticising that, because – as with all films by Rollin – the whole project is written and directed as a kind of dream-like fairy-tale, not bound by the limitation of rules, even vampire lore. Indeed, the scene at the end, typically filmed on 'Rollin's beach' is one of his best known, and is poetic and effective even now, fusing perfectly 'the beauty of obscenity'.

So too, is the death scene of the Castel twins (featured on much of the accompanying merchandise). Despite being well known to fans of Rollin, Marie-Pierre and Catherine only appeared in two films together. This isn't quite as effective use of them as in the earlier 'The Nude Vampire', but they are still seductive and mesmerising and ethereal and sinister, all at once.

The central performance by (co-writer) Jean-Loup Philippe as Frederic is very strong. Indeed, 'Lips of Blood' features one of Rollin's strongest casts. Frederic's ultimate decision at the film's close is a satisfying twist and once again successfully blurs the line between 'good' and 'evil', much as 'Dracula's Fiancée' did 22 years later.

The locations are stunning and lovingly shot. The camera lingering over the enticingly-lit castle, with the (presumably dubbed) sound of whistling wind and thunder, accompanied by eerie flute music, is as atmospheric as anything from a big budget extravaganza. Kudos, also, for doing something very rare in vampire films (especially at this time) – actually using real bats. If this hugely impressive picture was done with a truncated budget, I truly wonder what could have been achieved were Rollin fully funded.

Alongside 'The Iron Cross', this was the French director's least successful picture. Agonizingly, to bring it into profit, Rollin re-edited his work, adding scenes of a pornographic nature and renaming it 'Suck me, Vampire.' Yes, truly. Needless to say, the new version was a lot more profitable.

I found this movie on Kanopy and having a love of old horror movies, I thought I would give it a go. I really wanted to like it. Now I am not saying it is a bad film, its not, but it is rather slow and does take a while to get to the point of the story, (no pun intended.) The movie is beautifully shot and does have an interesting story and it dies have an almost languid sensuality.to it, but the vampire girls don't look convincing, their fangs look downright fake which is a shame because the rest of the movie looks great. While I do realise it was made in the seventies, so sex and nudity were a huge thing, it at times comes across as a soft porn rather than a horror movie. But for all of this, their is a lot of gorgeous gothic scenes and a good story that does manage to give a creepy vibe. It won't be to everyone's taste but it is something that should be seen at least once.