Innocent Blood

Amazon.com

John Landis was the perfect director for Innocent Blood, a horror-comedy hybrid that does for French vampires in Pittsburgh what Landis's An American Werewolf in London did for hungry lycanthropes in Picadilly Square. Anne Parillaud, the sexy star of La Femme Nikita, is perfectly cast as a beguiling vampire who must feed regularly on human blood, and when she spots a local Mafia kingpin (Robert Loggia), she says to herself, "I think I'll try Italian!" But once the Mafioso realizes he's now an undead vampire, he goes on a rampant crusade of bloodthirsty vengeance, biting his soldiers and consigliere (Don Rickles, no less!) to recruit an army of undead henchmen. Pretty soon Parillaud's teamed up with an undercover cop (Anthony LaPaglia) in an attempt to stop her victims from proliferating throughout the Pittsburgh underworld. (Disconnecting the central nervous system will kill a bloodsucker, and the powerful Parillaud can snap necks as efficiently as she bites them.)

Landis keeps it all moving at a raucous pace, favoring humor without sacrificing intelligent plotting and interesting characters. Parillaud evokes sympathy even when her eyes glow fiery red and she's ripping the throats out of her victims--hey, she's only trying to survive, right? And Loggia takes one of his best-ever roles and runs with it, spouting lines of Mafioso dialogue made hilarious by the fact that he's a walking, blood-soaked corpse. Morbid humor and gruesome makeup are abundant here, as well as Landis's trademark inclusion of cameos by such horror-movie icons as Dario Argento, Sam Raimi, and monster-fan extraordinaire Forrest J. Ackerman. With tenderness, toughness, a dash of kink, and plenty of laughs, this is the kind of guilty pleasure that includes "I've Got You Under My Skin" on the soundtrack, just for the sheer enjoyment of a campy double-entendre. How can you resist? --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

An over-looked gem.......2007-08-26

I liked this one from the opening sequence.Then,as it progressed,I couldn't help but smirk.John Landis brought his A game to this one!Horrific&funny all at once,so reminiscent of An American Werewolf in London!Get this one!

Crime and vampires in Pittsburgh.......2007-07-09

Marie, played by Anne Parilland, was hungry. So she decided to feast on some mobsters in Pittsburgh. They're just her type.
The problem is one of them, played by Robert Loggia, is turned into a vampire and now she has to destroy him before he can cause too many problems. With Anthony LaPaglia playing a cop, Don Rickles playing a laywer and even Sam Raimi playing a small part this has lots of star power. Funny to the point of being camp, bloodly to the point of being a tad gross, with sex, nudity and tons of humor, I don't know why more people don't rave about this film.
A almost forgotten classical vampire movie, I suggest you get it, new or used. The DVD has no extras but it's cheap so that's OK.

Innocent Blood.......2007-03-08

Purchased a DVD and Amazon indicated that because of that DVD I should also purchase Innocent Blood. The movie was old, very old, poor quality and not worth the money I paid, should have been in the dollar box. I only lasted 30 moinutes into the movie before I lost it.

Just Plain Funny.......2006-12-24

I am a science fiction fan and I like some horror movies. That's NOT why I like this film. If you want unrelenting gore and true science fiction you probably should look elsewhere. But if you like unusual genre combinations you should appreciate this one. Objecting to the mix of the mafia and vampirism means that you've just missed the point entirely. I found the mix hilarious. The movie requires that you just suspend judgement, and enjoy the unfolding of the what if proposition: What if the Godfather had been bitten by a female Dracula? The fact that the screenwriter thought to ASK that question cracks me up. What is more serious and harrowing than a mafia film? To me comedy is about the surprise element, the ability to turn generally serious matters and turn them on their head. If you can allow for that, you'll be on your way to seeing how and why this film succeeds.

Comedy?.......2006-07-19

This film fails as a comedy, it fails as a vampire film with really silly vampire effects; the vampire's eyes glow different colours depending on how she's feeling; when she's feeding madly, they're glowing red, when she's happy they're a soothing green - obviously because the director thinks the audience is so dumb as not to be able to tell without all these additional 'hints'.

When released here in Australia they had so much faith in it, that they renamed it "A French Vampire in America" in order to cash in on the fact that it was done by the same guy who did "An American Weerewolf in London" (which really does blend horror and laughs much more effectively)

But, in short this is about a French vampire in America who feeds on Italian (mafia men). She has scruples, because she only kills bad guys, then blows their head away to stop them coming back as vampires too. Dumb!

Harlem Double Feature: Blood Of Jesus (1941) / Lying Lips (1939)

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Harlem Double Feature: Blood Of Jesus (1941) / Lying Lips (1939)
Starring: Heavenly Choir , Kathryn Craviness , Eddie de Buse , Alva Fuller , and Rogenia Goldthwaite
Director: Spencer Williams
Manufacturer: Alpha Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000HXDEVC
Release Date: 2006-10-24

Product Description

All Black Cast Double Feature! A dead woman is sent back to earth by Satan only to follow the road to degradation / A deceitful young woman frames an innocent man of rape.

Average customer rating:

very good
worest movie ever
SHould be Taken off The Shelfs
Cheap 'n cheesy!
Very Little Vampirism

Lips of Blood
Starring: Jean-Loup Philippe , Annie Belle , Nathalie Perrey , Martine Grimaud , and Catherine Castel
Director: Jean Rollin
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000203YN
Release Date: 1999-11-09

Amazon.com

There's no director like Jean Rollin, the French horror fantasist who mixes the poetry of Jean Cocteau with the emotionless performances of Robert Bresson in his erotic vampire films. Lips of Blood is one of his best, an Oedipal tale of a young man haunted by visions of a forgotten childhood when he spies a poster of a coastal castle at a party. Jean-Louis Philippe, a hopelessly bland and flat performer, wanders through the deserted piazzas and fountains of his suddenly odd and alien hometown, eerily lit up in the dead of night. He's a man lost in a world where a woman in white silently materializes like a supernatural muse, gunmen appear from the inky-black night, and four naked vampire girls prowl the streets for blood and watch over him like dark angels. It's a tale of blood, sex, and haunting desire full of nudity and death and told in an austere, surreal style born of forced budgetary austerity. Rollin is slipshod with his action scenes and stiff with performers, but once he leaves the confines of the "real" world (where he's oddly uncomfortable) his style creates a trancelike mood to complement the beauty of his poetically macabre vision. The film our hero watches early in the picture is Rollin's own Shiver of the Vampires. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Considered by many to be director Jean Rollin's best work to date. Shot in just three weeks, "Lips of Blood" tells the tale of a young man plagued by visions of a castle and a ghostly woman in white, visions which eventually lead him to a cemetery of female vampires whom he releases into the city of Paris. This explicit, Oedipal fantasy is crammed full of dank dungeons, lesbian sex, coffins and seriously surreal vampires.

Customer Reviews:

very good.......2004-12-03

one of the best of it's kind. if you know rollin's work and appreciate it but haven't experienced this one then do yourself a favor and definitely give this one a look. if you don't know rollins then you should be warned that this is not just your typical horror flick. nobody does it like jean rollin and for fans this one delivers!

worest movie ever.......2004-10-27

do not buy this movie it sucked really bad made no sense at all

SHould be Taken off The Shelfs.......2004-10-27

My Boyfriend Bought me this Movie because I Love Horror Movies and Erotic Movies.. So I Watched it. And Let me Tell you.. It Is Nothing But a Piece of Crap. Dont Waste Your Money On it.

First of All it was all In French And Only English Subtitles.. I mean Who Would wanna Sit there and Read what They Are Saying.Your Suppose to relax and Just enjoy watching it. Not having to Read The Words to Try to Figure Out what There Sayin.

The StoryLines.. Were Horrible.. I mean.. A Guy trying to FInd Out His Past And These 5 Girl Vampires Come And Suck Peoples Blood.. Then The Stake through There hearts Wow what a Surprise.. And then At the end a Guy And a Girl get in the Coffin Naked as it Washes Away Into the Ocean??? And the Point of that Movie was???

Now Theres the Sex Scene.. I mean.. Both People Naked Kissing and rubbing On each Other Standing out at the Beach.. Wow... Thats it!!! Not even really Sex.. But You get to see a Peek at the Guys.. "Jewel" But Thats Really the Only Good thing That Happens In the Whole Film.. For a Girl Anyway Lol..

So Guys and Girls DOnt waste your Hard earned Money On this Movie.. Because its Nothing but Crap.

Cheap 'n cheesy!.......2004-06-16

Jean Rollin is a name instantly recognizable to hardcore horror fans, yet meaningless to nearly everyone else. This ignorance is quite unfortunate because the French director concocted some of the sleaziest, most unusual films ever made during the 1970s and 1980s, films usually imbued with a disturbing mix of hypereroticism and bloody violence. I have often tossed Rollin's name around in impolite company with seeming aplomb even though I had never seen even one of the man's films. You read enough plot synopses about someone and you start to feel as though you know every intimate detail about their work. What I did hear from others about this director oftentimes did not bode well. He is apparently well versed in schlock filmmaking, which in and of itself is not a problem with me, a true lover of bad cinema, but several of his films continue to draw raves from a selected minority of genre fans. Well, I finally sat down with a Jean Rollin film, his 1979 effort "Fascination," and was pleasantly surprised with the results. As I viewed the film with a growing sense of intrigue, I began mentally composing a list of other films from this director that I should watch in the near future. After watching the phenomenal "Living Dead Girl," I finally stumbled over one of the man's lesser efforts.

"Lips of Blood" introduces us to Frederic, an urbane French guy who looks a lot like a young Richard Wright from Pink Floyd. At a party overflowing with Eurotrash, a small poster depicting a heap of ruins out in the countryside happens to catch his attention. As he stares at the picture, he flashes back to an unusual experience he had at the age of twelve. One night he wandered to the gates of this castle whereupon he encountered an attractive French girl with a Joan of Arc haircut named Jennifer. The two shared a platonic doze but somehow fell in love. After Frederic left the castle, he never saw either the building or the girl again. He forgot all about her until the poster reminded him of that halcyon evening long ago. He immediately confronts his mother, who is also at the party, about the event. She acts strangely about what he says but denies any knowledge of it. Enraged, Frederic begins a quest to discover if what he remembers really happened or if it is all a dream. Sure enough, he begins seeing an apparition of this girl, an apparition that appears and disappears at random. Frederic tries to pry information about the location of the castle from the photographer of the picture in the poster, but to no avail. Will he ever find what he's looking for?

Yes, he does find the place much to the chagrin of his mother and others. It turns out that the whole thing deals with a bunch of nubile vampires locked away for eternity, some in Paris and another one at that castle. Frederic inadvertently lets a few of them out, at which point they begin preying on the inhabitants of Paris. These vampires are not your normal, everyday draped in black pasty-faced blood drinkers. Oh no, these female Dracula types wonder about in diaphanous gowns charming the male population with their wares prior to delivering the fanged coup de grace. Moreover, the girl Frederic remembers plays a greater role in the larger group of vampires. The conclusion to the film constitutes the cheesiest vampire hunt I have ever witnessed. Imagine a bunch of shaggy French guys walking around after female vampires as they clutch stakes. Walking! Not running, not slinking, but walking! The vampires, for their part, are the wimpiest vampires in film history. Instead of exploding into a murderous rage, or at least turning into bats, they shriek with terror when they see these guys carrying stakes and run away. Harrumph, I say! There's a surprise after these scenes that I won't spoil for you except to say it's a bit silly. But silly is this film's middle name.

"Lips of Blood" is a cheap and cheesy piece of enjoyable schlock. If you must absolutely see it no matter what the cost, prepare to be underwhelmed. Most of the film consists of these long, pointless tracking shots of urban slums or the countryside. Rollin films his characters walking or running for what feels like hours. By the way, what's up with Paris? I thought people called this place "The City of Lights." Not in "Lips of Blood," where nearly every cityscape lies clothed in darkness. Maybe the French power workers were on strike the week Rollin made his film. At least the picture quality is good enough to discern what's going on in the dark. And speaking of picture quality, "Lips of Blood" definitely has that distinct Rollin look and feel. It is the sparse atmosphere of this movie, along with the French women, that ultimately turned my frown upside down. Yep, I liked the movie well enough even though almost nothing interesting happened. Whether you like it or not will depend on your tolerance level for slower pacing, cheap set pieces, and ridiculous acting.

Redemption's DVD contains the usual racy introductory footage, a Rollin filmography, and nothing more which is surprising considering the "Fascination" and "Living Dead Girl" discs had stills and trailers. In French the film's title is "Levres de Sang," and while there is a bit of the red stuff on a few pairs of lips, there's not much else to see. Rollin fans will want the disc, but the uninitiated should probably check out "Fascination" and "Living Dead Girl" first to see if this filmmaker is their cup of tea.

Very Little Vampirism.......2003-01-23

If it's fangs and lots of blood-drinking, this is not your film. Most of the vampirism is very understated... the vampire stalks a prey and turns back to camera to feed; that sort of thing. Be warned: the cover art is not taken from the film.

Levres de Sang/Lips of Blood...
A man recalls an experience as a boy at a castle when he meets a hauntingly beautiful woman. Somehow he's only reminded of this upon seeing a postcard of the castle. He then seeks to track it down, called on by visions of her. His mother tries to stop him, but he eventually is reunited with his pale ageless love.

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

very good.......2004-12-03

worest movie ever.......2004-10-27

do not buy this movie it sucked really bad made no sense at all

SHould be Taken off The Shelfs.......2004-10-27

Cheap 'n cheesy!.......2004-06-16

Very Little Vampirism.......2003-01-23

Rollin later re-edited this film, inserted lots of hardcore porn, and re-released the X version under the title of "Suck me Vampire".

DVD:

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