‘The ice cold terror of death’
Daughters of Darkness is a 1971 Belgian-French-German vampire horror film about a newlywed couple who encounter a mysterious, strikingly beautiful countess and her aide. In France, the film’s title is Les Lèvres rouges, and in Belgium, Le Rouge aux lèvres, both literally translated as “The Red Lips”.
The Belgian-French-German co-production was directed by Harry Kümel (Malpertuis) from a screenplay co-written with Pierre Drouot.
When interviewed by Mark Gatiss for the BBC documentary Horror Europa Kümel said that he deliberately styled Delphine Seyrig’s character after Marlene Dietrich and Andrea Rau’s after Louise Brooks to deepen the filmic resonance of his own movie. Because the vampire character of Elizabeth Bathory is also a demagogue, Kumel dressed her in the Third Reich colours of black, white and red.
Commenting on both the film’s mordant sense of humour and the director’s painterly eye in the composition of several scenes, Gatiss drew forth the comment from Kümel that he considers the film very Belgian, especially due to the influence of Surrealism and Expressionism.
The movie stars Delphine Seyrig, Danielle Ouimet, John Karlen (Impulse; Dark Shadows TV series and films), Andrea Rau, Paul Esser, Georges Jamin, Joris Collet and Fons Rademakers.
Plot:
A recently married young couple, Stefan (John Karlen) and Valerie (Danielle Ouimet), are on their honeymoon. They check into a grand hotel on the Ostend seafront in Belgium, intending to catch the cross-channel ferry to England, though Stefan seems oddly unenthused at the prospect of introducing his new bride to his mother. It is off-season, so the couple is initially alone in the hotel.
The sun goes down and a mysterious Hungarian countess, Elizabeth Báthory (Delphine Seyrig), arrives in a vintage Bristol car driven by her “secretary” Ilona (Andrea Rau). The middle-aged concierge at the hotel swears that he saw the Countess at the same hotel when he was a little boy. The pair may have a connection to three separate gruesome murders of young girls that occurred in Bruges the previous week. On a day trip, Stefan and Valerie witness the aftermath of a fourth.
At the Ostend hotel, the countess quickly becomes obsessed with the newlyweds, and the resulting interaction of the four people leads to sadism and murder…
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Reviews:
“One could say the film is light on vampire action, and the blood drinkers are fangless, but this is most certainly beside the point, as it is way more about the enjoyably languid mood, erotic images, and suggestive vampiric iconography. Elisabeth’s relations to Ilona and Valerie are so warm and tender but virulent at the same time. The kills are what one could call unlikely and fabricated, but I do think this was the intention.” At the Mansion of Madness
“Director Harry Kümel put a lot of effort in evoking a certain tone to the film, there’s a quiet, sensual, yet dangerous aura to Daughters of Darkness. The film is beautiful to the eyes, but the characters can suddenly turn twisted and dangerous and drain you of all your blood.” The Film Connoisseur
“The screen oozes deathless style, and enough cod dialogue to stop the whole thing degenerating into Great Art. Gorgeous, absolutely bloody gorgeous.” Anne Billson, Time Out Film Guide
“The true wild card in Kümel’s film lies in the character of Stefan, the secretive husband prone to fits of violent rage. His rather prurient interest in sexual sadism becomes apparent when he recounts the legend of the bloodthirsty Countess Báthory, writhing with erotic pleasure as he describes the tortures inflicted upon her victims.” Lady Lazarus
“There’s an emphasis more on the drama between the characters versus your typical horror cinematics, but that’s what draws fans of the movie. It feels like an erotic soap opera, mixed in with vampire lore. It’s slower-paced than most genre films, but it works due to screen grabbing performances from our leads. They believe their stories so we get drawn in.” Nightmarish Conjurings
“Red, white, and black are prominent throughout the film, symbolic of blood, life, and death, respectively. And the music. Outstanding. The film opens with an amazing theme that sounds like something out of a Euro-crime film but with an undeniably sinister horror vibe. The score is consistently great from beginning to end, building tension when necessary and adding a nightmarish mood to the overall product.” The Death Rattle
“This is an intense, trippy European art-house film taking “bloody Countess” Bathory as its cue, light on substance but heavy on style. Some viewers dismiss it as pretentious, but it’s clearly not taking itself too seriously. Strange and atmospheric, filled with lush colors and teasing imagery, and with a sort of mod Gothic New Wave soundtrack, Daughters of Darkness feels ten years ahead of its time.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers
“With art direction by Françoise Hardy, the picture combines eerie poetry with elements of camp parody, skillfully avoiding a collapse into either option and produces an unsettingingly intelligent film that sadly wasn’t well-received by any of the audiences for art cinema, horror or camp movies.” The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror
“Without question, this is the most erotic lesbian vampire movie ever made … The level of sexual uncertainty among the quartet rises steadily and largely without the expected conventions. The film is beautifully written and acted on a curiously conversational level.” Mike Mayo, The Horror Show Guide
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“The vampires are shown to be the evils of high society, the excesses of Western aristocracy turned into blood rituals. Countess Bathory isn’t depicted as deviant because she’s a lesbian but rather because she manipulates and corrupts the youth of the world for her own use. Ilona isn’t her friend but her slave, and Valerie isn’t a love interest but a prize to be won. It’s a strange, troubling, and thought-provoking movie.” Nerdist
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