Lesbian vampire
Encyclopedia
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
in 20th century exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
that has its roots in Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's novella Carmilla
Carmilla
Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. First published in 1872, it tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla...
(1872) about the predatory love of a female vampire (the title character) for a young woman (the narrator):
- Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, 'You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever'. (Carmilla, Chapter 4).
This was a way to hint at or titillate with the taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
idea of lesbianism in a fantasy context outside the heavily censored realm of social realism (Weiss 1993). Also, the conventions of the vampire genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
— specifically, the mind control exhibited in many such films — allow for a kind of forced seduction of presumably straight women or girls by lesbian vampires.
Films
Dracula's DaughterDracula's Daughter
Dracula's Daughter is a 1936 American vampire horror film produced by Universal Studios, a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula. Directed by Lambert Hillyer from a screenplay by Garrett Fort, the film stars Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill and, as the only cast member to return from the...
(1936) gave the first hints of lesbian attraction in a vampire film
Vampire films
Vampire films have been a staple since the silent days, so much so that the depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in films throughout the years. The most popular cinematic adaptation of vampire fiction has been from Bram Stoker's Dracula, with over 170...
, in the scene in which the title character, portrayed by Gloria Holden
Gloria Holden
-Early life:Gloria Holden came to America as a child. She attended school in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and later studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.-Theater:...
, preys upon an attractive girl she has invited to her house to pose for her. Universal highlighted Countess Zaleska's attraction to women in some of its original advertising for the film, using the tag line "Save the women of London from Dracula's Daughter!"
Le Fanu's Carmilla was adapted by Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim was a French screenwriter, director, and producer as well as a journalist, author and actor, who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.-Early life:...
as Blood and Roses
Blood and Roses
Blood and Roses is a 1960 vampire film directed by Roger Vadim based upon the novella Carmilla by Irish writer Joseph Sheridan le Fanu...
in 1960. More explicit lesbian content was provided in Hammer
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
Studios production of the Karnstein Trilogy
The Karnstein Trilogy
The Karnstein Trilogy of vampire films were produced by Hammer Films, and were notable at the time for being somewhat daring in explicitly depicting lesbian themes. All three films were scripted by Tudor Gates. They are related by vampires of the noble Karnstein family, and their seat Castle...
of films loosely adapted from Carmilla. The Vampire Lovers
The Vampire Lovers
The Vampire Lovers is a 1970 British Hammer Horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Peter Cushing, Ingrid Pitt, Madeline Smith, Kate O'Mara, and Jon Finch. It is based on the J. Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla and is part of the so-called Karnstein Trilogy of films. The other films in...
(1970) was the first, starring Ingrid Pitt
Ingrid Pitt
Ingrid Pitt was an actress best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s.-Background:Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in Warsaw, Poland to a German father of Russian descent and a Polish Jewish mother. During World War II she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp...
and Madeline Smith
Madeline Smith
Madeline Smith is an English actress and comedienne. She was a model in the 1960s, and appeared in many comedy films Madeline Smith (born 2 August 1949 in Hartfield, Sussex) is an English actress and comedienne. She was a model in the 1960s, and appeared in many comedy films Madeline Smith (born 2...
. It was a relatively straightforward re-telling of LeFanu's novella, but with more overt violence and sexuality. Lust for a Vampire
Lust for a Vampire
Lust For a Vampire is a 1971 British Hammer Horror film directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Yutte Stensgaard, Michael Johnston and Barbara Jefford. It is the second film in the so-called Karnstein Trilogy loosely based on the J. Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla...
(1971) followed, with Yutte Stensgaard as the same character played by Pitt, returning to prey upon students at an all-girl's school. This version had her falling in love with a male teacher at the school. Twins of Evil
Twins of Evil
Twins of Evil is a 1971 horror film by Hammer Film Productions starring Peter Cushing, with Damien Thomas and the real-life twins and former Playboy Playmates Mary and Madeleine Collinson....
(1972) had the least "lesbian" content, with one female vampire biting a female victim on the breast. It starred real life twins
TWINS
Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers are a pair of NASA instruments aboard two United States National Reconnaissance Office satellites in Molniya orbits. TWINS was designed to provide stereo images of the Earth's ring current. The first instrument, TWINS-1, was launched aboard USA-184...
and Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
playmates Madeleine
Madeleine Collinson
Madeleine Collinson is a model and actress. She was chosen as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in October, 1970 , together with her twin sister Mary Collinson...
and Mary Collinson
Mary Collinson
Mary Collinson is a model and actress . She was chosen as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in October 1970, together with her twin sister Madeleine Collinson...
. Partially due to censorship restraints from the BBFC (Hearn and Barnes 1998), Hammer's trilogy actually had fewer lesbian elements as it proceeded.
A more specialized form of vampire lesbianism involves incestuous attraction, either implied or consummated. The 2007 film Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy includes a scene involving identical-twin teenage vampire girls who express their attraction to each other as part of an attempt to lure Mil Mascaras into a three-way encounter that is actually a trap.
The genre was also spoofed in the "Lesbian Vampire Lovers of Lust" episode of Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible
Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible
Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible is a British television series, created by Graham Duff, co-written by and starring Steve Coogan. Originally aired on BBC2 in 2001, the programme was designed as an anthology series, in the style of Tales from the Crypt, and lampooned many aspects of the horror...
, a comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
television series. Recent British vampire film Razor Blade Smile
Razor Blade Smile
Razor Blade Smile is an independent British vampire film directed by Jake West and stars Eileen Daly, Christopher Adamson and Heidi James.-Plot:...
(1998), which presents itself partly as a series of homages to and clichés from other vampire films, includes an erotic lesbian vampire scene, as well as similar heterosexual episodes. In 2001 film Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter is a 2001 cult film from Odessa Filmworks which deals with Jesus' modern-day struggle to protect the lesbians of Ottawa, Canada, from vampires with the help of Mexican wrestler El Santo .This film earned an...
, Jesus Christ fights vampires to protect lesbians from becoming a vampire. Another spoof of the genre, entitled Lesbian Vampire Killers
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Lesbian Vampire Killers is a 2009 British comedy horror film written by Stewart Williams and Paul Hupfield, produced by Steve Clark-Hall and directed by Phil Claydon.- Plot :...
, was released in 2009.
Erzsébet Báthory
Elizabeth Báthory
Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although in modern times she has been labelled the most prolific serial killer in history, the number of murders has been debated...
, the historical true-life prototype of the modern lesbian vampire, appears as a character in several films—although not always with the lesbian element—including Daughters of Darkness
Daughters of Darkness
Daughters of Darkness is a 1971 Belgian horror film , directed by Harry Kümel...
(1971) by Belgian director Harry Kumel, Hammer Films' Countess Dracula
Countess Dracula
Countess Dracula is a 1971 Hammer horror film based on the legends surrounding the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Báthory. It is in many ways atypical of Hammer's canon, attempting to broaden Hammer's output from Dracula and Frankenstein sequels....
(1971), Immoral Tales
Immoral Tales
Immoral Tales is the title of a number of works:* A 1994 non-fiction book Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984 by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs* Immoral Tales , a 1974 film by Walerian Borowczyk...
(1974) directed by Walerian Borowczyk
Walerian Borowczyk
Walerian Borowczyk was a Polish film director. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988. His career as a film director was mainly in France.-Biography:...
, The Bloody Countess (Ceremonia sangrienta) (1973) directed by Jorge Grau
Jorge Grau
Jorge Grau is a Spanish director, scriptwriter, playwright and painter. In 1974 he directed Let Sleeping Corpses Lie aka The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue.-External links:...
, and Eternal (2005).
See also
- The Celluloid ClosetThe Celluloid ClosetThe Celluloid Closet is a 1996 American documentary film directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is based on the 1981 book of the same name written by Vito Russo, and on previous lecture and film clip presentations given in person by Russo 1972–82.Russo researched the...
- LGBT themes in horror fiction
- Homosexuality in speculative fiction
- Elizabeth Báthory in popular cultureElizabeth Báthory in popular cultureThe influence of Elizabeth Báthory in popular culture has been notable from the 18th century to the present day. Since her death, various myths and legends surrounding her story have preserved her as a prominent figure in folklore, literature, music, film, games and toys.-In folklore and...
- The island of Lesbos (from where the word "Lesbian" comes) had local traditions about the nature of Greek vampires: they were thought to have long canine teeth much like wolves.
- Tracey WiggintonTracey WiggintonTracey Wigginton is an Australian murderer who achieved notoriety for killing a man in 1989, supposedly in order to drink his blood.-Murder:...
, an Australian murderer nicknamed "The Lesbian Vampire Killer" - Lesley FirestoneFirestone-Harvey Firestone family:*Harvey Samuel Firestone , founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company*Harvey Samuel Firestone, Jr., son of Firestone founder*Elizabeth Parke Firestone, daughter-in-law of Harvey Firestone and mother of Martha Firestone...
, the subject of "American Vampire in London"