EDITOR’S NOTE: The Blood Rose was first on Chiller Theater on Saturday, September 25, 1976 at 11:30 p.m. It also aired on October 1, 1977.

Directed and co-written by Claude Mulot (who sadly died at the age of 44), this is the story of Frederick Lansac (Philippe Lemaire). He’s a botanist, portrait artist and the owner of a beauty salon. After meeting Anne (Anny Duperey) at a dress ball and they are soon married. Somehow, some way, Anne gets her face shoved into a bonfire by the jealous Moira (Elizabeth Teissier) at one of Lansac’s painting shows, which is the wildest way to make a ripoff of Eyes Without a Face that doesn’t have Peter Cushing’s girlfriend have a studio light hit her in the face.

Lansac learns that one of his employees Dr. Rohmer (Howard Vernon), is a doctor who can only practice on criminals after an incident. Before you can say The Awful Dr. Orloff, they’re killing women to graft parts of their bodies to Anne’s face, who has gone into madness and also is having fantasies of her nurse Agnès (Michèle Perello) in scenes cut from the American version of this movie.

When a movie is sold as “The First Sex-Horror Film Ever Made!” it’s astounding that it aired on regular TV like Pittsburgh’s Chiller Theater. This isn’t afraid to get way weird, like Igor (Roberto) and Olaf (Johnny Cacao), two dwarf servants who dress in animal skins, randomly show up.