Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

chaos-rampant Not every filmmaker can work from emptiness, it's one of the toughest lines to toe the thread between sleep and lucid dreaming. It's all the difference in the world.Tarkovsky accomplished several times, Resnais in Marienbad, Herzog in Heart of Glass. Lately Lynch and perhaps Weeresethakul. Not to set the bar of comparisons inordinately high of course, but precisely because Rollin does not at all compare, say, with Hammer, even though they've worked from similarly disreputable material, or Bava who looked to simply paint with light, whereas Rollin aims to dream; so exactly because he's a little farther out from what he's often grouped together with, I feel that even when he fails he fails where most horror filmmakers haven't dared to.Rollin has repeatedly tried and been only moderately successful, when he structures with a single-pointed concentration around a sense of place, but the effort alone places him higher than most horror filmmakers in my estimation. He dares to play dumb enough so that we can perhaps dream for a while; so his plots fail to make sense when we'd like them to, where the storytelling coherence we have devised to chronicle our world would demand it, but it's a strategy of deliberate abstraction. He breaks logic so that we may flow on subconscious winds. From our end as viewers, we need to stay lucid enough to make it work.The story here is about the quest for a subconscious image from childhood; it involves a seaside castle and a young woman, a repressed memory about these. For most of the film we wander towards it, starting with a scene inside a movie theater where our protagonist gets up and follows the woman through a door. The door is by the stage, giving the impression that he disappears inside the screen. But that is the thing about emptiness, why Rollin cannot seem to sustain what he sets out to do. It is not a matter of stillness or immobility, but concentrated mind. It is a vital process. It needs to flow from a center.So far only Fascination has really worked for me, where he weaved a story about nonsense that we could safely discard around a sense of place we couldn't. The result was a captivating aura, itself a simple thing but hard to accomplish. This is equally dreamy but scattershot. Just the same, Rollin means what he does. Look at the ending here and tell me the man is just not truly, hopelessly romantic in his morbid way. He means well, you should watch him in spite of everything that works against him.

aliasanythingyouwant Lips of Blood has a languid quality that could've registered as decadence had it been made with any wit whatsoever, but instead of wit the movie offers us this vapid literal-mindedness. The movie is played with such soft-core-porn straightness that it's impossible not to snicker at it. Director Jean Rollin is sometimes described as a fantasist, but his fantasies are strictly pedestrian. Who but a teenage Goth-nit-wit could find anything to savor in this somnambulistic tale of a pale guy with bad hair being menaced by some half-naked chicks with dime-store vampire fangs? The movie requires more than suspension-of-disbelief, it requires suspension-of-intellect.It's striking how amateurish and bereft of energy this movie is. Cult directors like Rollin are usually at least capable of some halfway decent staging, but there aren't even any images that stick with you, any trashy-iconographic moments. The problem is that Rollin himself doesn't seem all that charged up about his fantasies. Directors who deal in this kind of fetishistic material are usually at least somewhat interested in the subject-matter, but judging by this film Rollin could care less about vampires. The scenes all seem to plod on for hours with nothing happening, the cutting so flaccid that it's like we're being encouraged subliminally to nod off. Not a bad idea considering the display of cinematic indifference being carried out before us.

Coventry Browsing through some of the comments written by other regular reviewers (with whom I usually agree on this type of vicious cult-flicks), it's with even deeper regrets I have to say this film couldn't intrigue me for one second. Jean Rollin enjoys an impressive cult status and his 'hot-vampire-chicks films' in particular are notorious. His approach of the horror genre is said to be unique, extremely atmospheric and erotic in an elegant way. Bearing this in mind, I was very enthusiast when I purchased a copy of Lips of Blood. It's obvious that Jean Rollin lives is his own private dreamworld and this entirely translates itself in his films. Normally, this is a good trademark for a director as it gives him/her the opportunity to create typical surroundings, styles and characterizations. 'Lips of Blood' is really empty!It doesn't contain much style and ever less substance. For a film that constantly features naked girls, it isn't very sexy. The acting is atrocious and I didn't notice any attempt by Rolling to build up tension, a grim atmosphere or a compelling story. Here he has great settings & scenery to work with (old ruins, catacombs, coffins...) and he doesn't make proper use of it. It's all so very detached and it feels like Rollin doesn't want you to get involved. The protagonist is a seemly lifeless 30 something guy that gets obsessed by a poster of old ruins. It causes him flashbacks from his childhood but everybody acts mysterious about this….like they want to hide the past from him. The flashbacks are associated with the image of a young girl all dressed in white. When investigating all this, he unintentionally awakens an army of foxy vampires and his muse turns out to be the queen.I'd say it's better to avoid this film (and all the other Rollin efforts) if you're not an avid cult-collector. It's exaggeratedly surreal but not exactly fascinating. There were a few aspects in particular that hugely disappointed me: ***SPOILERS***1.All the characters are bleak! The lead character is the best example to state this but also the vampires are very unspectacular. Here are 4 of the most stunning beauties, able to raise hell, unleashed upon the world but all they do is wander around a little in the backyard. Go out and kill, ladies!!! 2.It seems to me like Rollin has a pretty ideal world-perspective. There's a sequence near the beginning where the lead guy walks in on a photographer and her nude model. The nude model immediately shows off against this man she doesn't know and a few seconds later, the photographer is nude as well! Turning around the room a little, saying, 'Now where did I leave my skirt'. That's not very stylish or sensual…that's just tasteless and – oh yes – wishful thinking! 3.Where's the music? If there's one thing you can be sure about in these European Art House titles, it's that it ALWAYS contains wonderful musical guidance. I reckon that sometimes the absence of sound increases the atmosphere and tension level of a film. Yet, this film didn't have tension or atmosphere to begin with so it could have used a score.There were a few more elements that kept me from liking this film, but you get the idea. I sure didn't want to bash 'Lips of Blood' but I can't bring myself to tell you something positive about it neither. Hopefully, Jean Rollin films are to be categorized as being 'acquired taste'. In that case, I guess I should check out some other lesbian vampire films he made (more than enough to choose from: Fascination, Living Dead Girl, Requiem for a Vampire, Rape of the Vampire…) before I state my definitive opinion.

HumanoidOfFlesh "Lips of Blood" is actually one of my favourite films made by Jean Rollin.The film was shot in just three weeks and basically it's a love story filled with lesbian vampires and a lot of female nudity.The film is relatively slow-paced,but offers plenty of wonderful Gothic atmosphere and a tiny bit of gore.The four lesbian vampires are incredibly hot.The story may be boring for some,but I still think that this film is better than most of the crap being put out today.Unfortunately "Lips of Blood" failed to generate much interest at the box office,so Rollin moved toward hard core pornography.Anyway,if you like Jean Rollin's erotic vampire movies give this one a look.Recommended!