- Director
- Harry Kümel
- Year
- 1971
- Runtime
- 100 min
Also released as
- Les lèvres rouges
- Le Rouge aux lèvres
- Hijas de la oscuridad
- Vörös ajkak
- Solo für einen Vampir
- Kırmızı dudaklar
- Criaturas de la noche
- 闇の乙女
- The Promise of Red Lips
- Blood on the Lips
- The Redness of the Lips
- 赤い唇
Daughters of Darkness
Daughters of Darkness is a 1971 gothic horror film directed by Harry Kümel, from France, Germany, Belgium and the USA.
Elizabeth Báthory in an empty Ostend hotel out of season, and it is the most elegant vampire film ever made.
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A newlywed couple arrive at a vast art deco hotel on the Belgian coast where they are the only guests. A countess and her companion check in. The concierge remembers her from forty years ago.
Harry Kümel shoots it as fashion photography: red and silver, sequins, empty corridors, and a beach in winter, and Delphine Seyrig plays Báthory with the diction of a Resnais film, which is what she had just come from.
The film is about a violent marriage and the countess is a rescue as much as a predator, which is the reading that has made it a lasting queer text.
There is very little blood.
It is the best-looking film in the vampire section and it is closer to Marienbad than to Hammer.
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Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Australia
Canada
Germany
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
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- Next in Gothic: The House That Dripped Blood (1971) →
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