Daughters of Darkness – 1971
aka Levres Rouges, Les
Director
Harry Kümel

Writers
Pierre Drouot
Harry Kümel

Cast
Delphine Seyrig
John Karlen
Danielle Ouimet

Harry Kümel’s second feature film was the stylish and supremely elegant horror film, Le Rouge aux levres. In it Delphine Seyrig plays  a classy vampire, the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, whose companion is the young Danielle Ouimet. The film was too little seen in England for it’s bizarre horror and perverse sexuality should have made it a wider commercial success.

Review by Wayne Malin

Boring vampire art film

A sadistic husband (John Karlen) and his wife (Danielle Ouimet) are staying at a seemingly deserted European resort. There they meet mysterious and sexy Countess Bathory (Delphine Seyrig) and her companion. It turns out she’s a vampire and wants the wife to join her…

I caught this years ago at an art cinema in Cambridge MA. I heard it was a cult film and a horror film. At first the audience was quiet and respectful but (when it became clear that nothing was happening) they got restless. There was some laughter when Seyrig seems to be seducing Karlen and people just roared when a detective pops in for no earthly reason. By the end the audience was basically laughing at it and making fun of it. I can see why! The movie moves slowly, has many inexplicable occurrences (even for a horror movie) and is just basically deadly dull. The movie thinks very highly of itself and seems to think dullness = art. There’s nothing worse than a film that thinks its better than its audience–the contempt comes through loud and clear.

The acting ALMOST saves this. Karlen is terrible and Ouimet isn’t much better. It’s really hard to care about two such lousy people. Seyrig gives a great performance–she single-handedly saves this film from being a total disaster. She’s sexy, smart and dangerous–she pulls it all off. It does have kind of a nice ending but, by then, I was so totally bored I didn’t care.

This does have its defenders but I can’t see why. Sure cure for insomnia here. I give it a 3 for Seyrig alone.