- Director
- Harry Kümel
- Year
- 1971
- Country
- France, Germany, BE, USA
- 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
Elizabeth Báthory in an empty Ostend hotel out of season, and it is the most elegant vampire film ever made.
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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