Lips of Blood

Lips of Blood is a French erotic horror film written and directed by Jean Rollin and released in France on May 18th, 1975. The plot centers around a young man named Frédéric, who finds a photograph of an ancient castle, which unlocks twenty years of repressed memories. Frédéric's investigation of the photo draws him into a web of intrigue involving a coven of buxom, female vampires.

Plot
A group of nondescript people walk about Sauveterre Castle in Paris, France. They are carrying with them several bodies wrapped in white linens. Plodding downward into the crypts beneath Sauveterre, they confine the bodies to large wooden coffins and set up a crucifix to bar the entranceway.

Sometime later, a man named Frédéric is attending a party with his mother. There's only one thing that enraptures his attention more so than his needy mother, and that is a photo containing the ruins of Sauveterre Castle. The host of the party bought it as a poster and is showing it off. Frédéric is completely drawn to this photo and he cannot figure out why.

Frédéric's consciousness drifts away, and he reflects upon events from twenty years ago. In the memory, a twelve year old Frédéric is lost and wandering the hills surrounding the castle. He calls out to his mom and dad, but gets no reply. Finally, he seeks shelter at the castle gates. A sixteen year old girl named Jennifer greets him and lets him sleep in the hallway. Frédéric is completely smitten with the robust teen and declares his undying love for her. The following morning he leaves the castle. This is the last time he has ever seen this girl. Now the adult Frédéric swallows back a glass of port and wonders why he cannot recall the details pertaining to that castle. Apparently Frédéric lost a great deal of his memory when he was a young child right around the time that his father died. He asks the host of the party for the name of the castle, but the man doesn't know. The host gives him the address of the photographer however, and sends him along his way.

Frédéric goes over to the studio of the chick that first took the photograph of the elusive Sauveterre. The photographer is in the midst of shooting a nude model. Frédéric enters the room and the model begins rubbing up on him. The photographer sends her away and begins chatting with Frédéric. Frédéric asks her about the photo and she says that she was paid a lot of money not to reveal any details concerning the image. However, the woman has taken a shine to Frédéric as well and she strips down and begins pressing herself against him. The woman whispers to him and tells him that she will reveal her sources if he meets her at the aquarium at midnight.

With time to kill, Frédéric takes in a movie. While watching the film, he sees the image of the young girl (Jennifer) from his flashback vision. Amazingly, she looks no different than she did when he was twelve years old. Frédéric takes off after her and follows her into the streets of Paris. She leads him about until he finally discovers the tunnels that lead to the underground crypts beneath Sauveterre Castle. In his enthusiasm, Frédéric kicks over the cross, which stood as a protective ward against the undead. In addition, he also uncovers all of the coffins in the room. The coffins are filled with screeching vampire bats. Frédéric runs out of the cavern.

The bats turn into four scantily clad buxom blonde vampire women. Wearing nothing but a see-through smock, they leave the castle and stalk out into the night. Their first victim is a jolly looking little man standing near a bridge. He tries to escape but they descend on him and quickly drink his blood.

Meanwhile, Frédéric runs across the bridge until he meets a middle-aged woman. The woman explains to him that she is actually Jennifer all grown up and that she is responsible for his visions. Frédéric doesn't really believe her, but he allows her to take him back to her apartment. She takes him back to a small apartment. Frédéric tells her that he doesn't believe her to be the woman from his visions. The woman locks him in the room and runs downstairs. She barely gets out the door however, when the four vampire women leap upon her. They then go upstairs and release Frédéric from the locked room.

By this point it is time for Frédéric to go down to the aquarium to meet the photographer. He rummages about through the dark for a bit until he spies a strange mustached man wandering down the halls. He runs outside and finds the dead body of the photographer lying on some rocks near a fountain.

Frightened, Frédéric races away and hops on the subway back into town. One of the passengers on the subway happens to be the mustached man from the aquarium. For no particular reason, the mustached man pulls out a gun and tries to shoot Frédéric, but Frédéric is fast and strong and with two quick karate blows to the chest, Frédéric defeats the mustached assassin.

He finally races home where he tells his mom about everything that has happened. He can't get the thought of Jennifer out of his mind as he has been seeing her all over Paris. His mother thinks that he is losing his mind and calls for the men in the white coats. They arrive shortly thereafter and put Frédéric into a straightjacket bound an asylum.

At the sanitarium, the doctor tells Frédéric that he is going to try electro-shock therapy on him. The doctor orders his nurses to prep Frédéric for treatment, but the nurses turn out to be two of the vampire women in disguise. The vampires feed on the doctor and free Frédéric from his straightjacket.

Frédéric is loose on the streets and he begins seeing Jennifer again. Jennifer doesn't say anything, but she beckons him to follow her to the ruins of the castle. He obediently follows her all the way to Sauveterre. He goes back down into the crypt where he is surprisingly greeted by his mother.

Apparently, his mother knows everything that is going on. She shows him the coffin of Jennifer and explains to him that she is a vampire. She further explains that Jennifer is the one responsible for his father's death more than twenty years ago. She is also the one that turned the four blonde, naked women into vampires as well. However, she didn't have the heart to completely destroy these women so her friends and she merely trapped them in the crypt and placed crosses around the room. She tells Frédéric that he must wait for Jennifer to arise again and cut off her head.

While his mother is explaining all of this, her cronies are on the outside of the castle hunting down the other vamps. They corner them and plunge stakes into their hearts. They then set them atop a bonfire in the courtyard. Moments later, Frédéric emerges with what looks to be a head in his hands. He hurls the head onto the fire and as far as everyone else is concerned, the nightmare appears to be over.

The truth of the matter however, is that Frédéric was not about to destroy the object of his affections. The head he brought out to the bonfire actually belonged to a mannequin found in the crypt. Returning to the dungeon, he releases Jennifer from her coffin. Jennifer explains that while she slept, she read a book about astral projection and was able to project her image to Frédéric so that he could come and free her (It wasn't actually Jennifer's real body that he was seeing all these times).

The two fall madly in love and roll around the beach naked. Jennifer decides to turn Frédéric into a vampire. They throw themselves into a coffin on the beach and wait for the tide to take them out to sea.

Notes & Trivia

 * The original French title to this film is Lèvres de sang.


 * A x-rated version of this film titled Suce-moi vampire (Suck me Vampire) with more explicit sex scenes exists. In this version, Frédéric is named Pierre.