Despite being a fairly inscrutable, surrealistic, very French fantastique director, Jean Rollin’s early films got steady play at American drive-ins—all under some ridiculous retitles, but that wasn’t an uncommon practice for European imports. Distributor Harry Novak ran his Rollin prints until they turned to dust, with screenings of Requiem pour un vampire (1972), under the title Caged Virgins, and Tout le monde il en a deux (1974), under the title Fly Me the French Way, still playing double and triple bills up until the mid-80s.

Another that saw play was Le Frisson des vampires (1971), under the wonderfully evocative title of Strange Things Happen at Night. But even more curious is that Rollin’s lengthy pirate serial, Les Démoniaques (1975) found a home Stateside, usually under the title Curse of the Living Dead, mainly so it could be paired with Revenge of the Living Dead (a retitle of Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things), and Fangs of the Living Dead (a retitle of Malenka), on “grisly horror” triple bills.

But one film I’ve found no evidence of having a public, theatrical screening before its appearance as part of a Jean Rollin Film Festival triple-header at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art on October 30, 2013, is Lèvres de sang (1975), starring Annie Belle.

I guess it should come as no surprise, Lips of Blood barely played in Paris, so it wasn’t going to land in Lansing, Michigan.