I have never watched any lesbian vampire films before, and it is surprising that the lesbian vampire films were so popular in the early 1970s. In Bonnie Zimmerman’s Daughters of Darkness: Lesbia Vampires, he mentioned that the popularity of the lesbian vampire films at that time may be related to the historical developments: feminism and public awareness of lesbianism. However, in 1980s’ male-dominated society, men did not enjoy “watching themselves the victims”, they enjoyed watching “woman subdued and violated by men, not other women”. In Daughters of Darkness, the young husband Stefan is exactly that kind of man, I remember that he says to the countess, “She is mine and I am a man.” He really made me uncomfortable, such as his violent mood-swings, obsession with the dead girls and blood, arrogant attitude to his wife Valerie. After he accidentally killed the countess’s protege Ilona, I felt that he would have a bad ending soon, and the result was the same as I expected, he died very miserably. Except for the disgusting husband, I liked Daughters of Darkness in many ways, especially “it suggests that women have good reasons for turning away from sadistic men to other women and even justifies.” The ending is much more complete, and unlike the other vampire films we have watched before, the vampire countess in Daughters of Darkness is the last winner, she killed the hero and got his wife’s body.
I also noticed that in Daughters of Darkness, it used a large amount of bright red as the transition, which is a very rare trick compare to black transition. Obviously, red plays an important role in this film. It can be showed from many other aspects, such as the red clothes of Stefan, the red cover of the dead body, the red nails and red scarf of the countess, etc. I think those red props work well in the film, but the red transition seems a little bit stiff due to the technical issues. And the fake red blood, just added more humor instead of horror.

暗夜之女Les lèvres rouges(1971)

又名:黑暗 / Daughter of Darkness

上映日期:1971-05-28片长:100分钟

主演:Delphine Seyrig/John Karlen/Danielle Ouimet/Andrea Rau/Paul Esser

导演:哈里·库默 Harry Kümel编剧:Harry Kümel/Jean Ferry/Pierre Drouot