Gloria Holden as as Countess Marya Zaleska in Dracula's Daughter (1936)
Ingrid Pitt as Mircalla Karnstein (aka Carmilla) in The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Catherine Deneuve as Miriam Blaylock in The Hunger (1983)
Although the pale-skinned, (usually) dark-haired figure of the sapphic vampire - or, if you prefer, vampiric lesbian - first emerged in its modern form in a short novel written by an Irishman in 1872, it established itself as a popular and pervy cinematic trope in the twentieth-century ...
Vampyr (dir. Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1932)
Danish director Carl Theodore Dreyer was the first to (loosely) adapt Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla for the big screen in his 1932 film Vampyr. Regrettably, however, he chose to ignore the lesbian aspects of the work, although he did succeed in making a controversial film full of disorienting visual effects (one that was hated by most critics and audiences at the time, but which is now considered far more positively).
Dracula's Daughter (dir. Lambert Hillyer, 1936)
It was Dracula's Daughter that gave moviegoers the first hints of lesbianism in a vampire film - despite the Hays Code! In one particularly memorable scene, the title character, played by the English-born actress Gloria Holden, preys upon an attractive innocent she has invited to her home under the pretence of wanting to use her as a model for a painting. As the young girl starts to strip, the Countess moves in for the kill. Universal even played up this aspect of the film in some of their original advertising, using the tag line: Save the women of London from Dracula's Daughter!
Blood and Roses (dir. Roger Vadim, 1960)
Roger Vadim's take on the story of Carmilla, entitled Et mourir de plaisir (1960) - released in the English-speaking world as Blood and Roses - shifts the action to modern Italy and plunges us into the midnight zone beyond the grasp of reason. Starring the lovely Danish actress Annette Strøyberg, the film cheerfully explores (and exploits) the erotic aspects of Le Fanu's novella (although most of the queer sexual content was cut for its US release). It perhaps should've been subtitled Et Dieu… créa la lesbienne.
The Vampire Lovers (dir. Roy Ward Baker, 1970)
Perhaps my favourite film of this genre is The Vampire Lovers (1970), a typically camp and raunchy Hammer Films production, starring Ingrid Pitt in the lead role (an actress whose very name evokes pleasurable memories amongst those of a certain generation) and Madeline Smith as her nubile lover-cum-victim (the fact that Peter Cushing and George Cole are also in the cast is hardly here-or-there). It was the first (and arguably best) in a series of lesbian vampire flicks from the Hammer studios known as the Karnstein Trilogy.
The Hunger (dir. Tony Scott, 1983)
A cult favourite amongst goths as well as lesbians, The Hunger is an erotic horror starring Catherine Deneuve as the incredibly ancient (but still sexy, stylish and sophisticated) vampire, Miriam Blaylock, and Susan Sarandon as Dr. Sarah Roberts, a gerontologist who falls under her spell, even though she's slightly repulsed at the thought of drinking blood in order to gain immortality. Obviously wanting to love the film, but not quite able to do so, Camille Paglia regards The Hunger as a failed masterpiece that mistakenly focuses on violence rather than sex, thus making it a little crude and pedestrian in places.*
Whether these films help or hinder the rights of non-fictional (and non-vampiric) women - particularly those outside of the heterosexual mainstream - is debatable; they tend to suggest, for example, that lesbianism is the result of a corruptive and malign influence and it's pretty clear that they were not made primarily for the enjoyment of gay women, but, rather, for a straight male audience excited by the thought of girl-on-girl action and a bit of bloodshed.
However, it's also clear that there are many women - gay, straight, queer and trans - who identify with mysterious and powerful undead figures such as Dracula's daughter and find something strangely liberating in the aesthetics of evil.
* See: Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae, (Yale University Press, 1990), p. 268.
For a trailer to Dracula's Daughter (1936), click here.
For a trailer to Blood and Roses (1960), click here.
For a trailer to The Vampire Lovers (1970), click here.
For a trailer to The Hunger (1983), click here.
For part one of this post on vampiric lesbianism, with reference to Sheridan Le Fanu's novella Carmilla (1872), click here.
