She’s mysterious, gothic, and has a taste for human blood. Oh, and she’ll probably steal your girl, unless Netflix kills her first. In celebration of the renaissance of sapphic vampirism we find ourselves in today with First Kill, Vampire in the Garden, Carmilla (the webseries), Carmilla (the movie based on the web series), oh and did I mention Carmilla (a 2019 British spin on the original book), let’s travel back in time and date the lesbian vampire through the ages.
1871 - Carmilla by Sheridan La Fanu
Joseph Sheridan La Fanu’s Carmilla, published in 1871, was one of the first popular vampire novels, pre-dating Bram Stoker’s Dracula by 26 years. Likely intended to be a gothic horror story about the dangers of female sexuality and lesbianism, Carmilla is often read today as a celebration of historic female, queer desire. Though expressions of marginalized sexualities were often relegated to subtext in the Victorian era, Carmilla is unique in that Laura and Carmilla’s romantic relationship is actualized on the page, as the two women express mutual attraction and care for each other. Even after discovering that Carmilla is a vampire whose bites have been the source of her worsening health, Laura still does not want her lover to die. Despite narrative framing that seeks to punish Laura by connecting her sexuality to sickness and villainize Carmilla’s lesbianism as a predatory impulse, the chemistry, agency, and romance these two women share transcends their authorial prison. Think of it as (un)death of the author -- Carmilla’s fangs sunk into the pages of her own story.
1936 - Dracula’s Daughter dir. Lambert Hillyer
Queer people as monsters is one of those tropes that’s been around forever, and I generally think of it as an unfortunate holdover from past (and present) criminalization of queerness, but Gloria Holden might actually change my mind. In Dracula’s Daughter, vampirism and lesbianism go hand in hand, as Holden’s character Marya struggles with the secrecy, shame, and repression both forms of desire saddle her with. And despite the cooky slapstick and copious amount of fog, it is undeniable that Marya wants Lilli, and not just for her blood. And it is notable that Marya’s sapphic desire is the very thing that humanizes her for the audience. Though it may not be the first vampire film, it is certainly one of the first major spin offs of Dracula, introducing the lesbian vampire trope to mainstream audiences.
1970s - The Karnstein Trilogy dir. Roy Ward Baker
With the rise of the female exploitation film, came a new renaissance for the lesbian vampire, or, more accurately, a renaissance for the straight men who fetishized them. The Karnstein Trilogy (Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, Twins of Evil) was a series of female exploitation films released by Hammer Studios in Great Britain in the 1970s. European soft-core lesbian vampire films allowed for male filmmakers to express their sadistic, masochistic, and voyeuristic fantasies about female sexuality within a supernatural framework, where the threat of women finding long-term pleasure in each other without the need for a man was always vanquished in a neat ninety minutes.
These films often feature a love triangle between a lesbian vampire, a mortal man, and a bisexual ingenue. The lesbian vampire is a seductress who engages in random, brazen violence against women. The bisexual ingenue is a sexual object controlled by whoever she is with. The mortal man is a hero who saves everyone from the threat of lesbianism. And, of course, the director is a voyeur who finds a way to center the male spectator’s gaze in every sapphic interaction.
1980s - The Hunger dir. Tony Scott
Susan Sarandon as a butch woman in a love triangle with a vampire whose main supernatural power is her sexual prowess? The Hunger may still end with the demise of Miriam, the film’s bisexual vampire, but it is the first movie on this list to feature a sex scene between two women that isn’t rooted in voyeurism, but instead in the female gaze. Oh, and David Bowie’s also in this movie, as Miriam’s other lover, so it’s truly a love triangle for the queer people in the audience. There might not be a happy ending for our two sapphic lovers, but the journey itself is well worth the watch.
1991 - The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
Lesbian vampire stories written by lesbians for lesbians? Jewelle Gomez’s book series The Gilda Stories changed the game for the sapphic vampire trope. Pulling from the Black Power, feminist, and LGBTQ movements she was raised in, Gomez creates a world where the vampires are doing the saving and where Black women and lesbians get to be the heroes. Gomez is a mother of the afrofuturism genre and The Gilda Stories are a masterpiece of speculative fiction, as Gilda travels through time in pursuit of found family. This series, with its intersectional queer storytelling, is (in my opinion) the lesbian vampire trope at its finest.
2014 - Carmilla created by Jordan Hall, Steph Ouaknine, and Jay Bennett
If you were a gay kid online in the 2010s, you probably watched the Carmilla webseries and don’t lie -- you definitely loved it. Carmilla (the webseries) is nothing like Carmilla (the novel), aside from the main couple’s names and little bit of the backstory. The first season follows college freshman Laura, as she vlogs her investigation of her missing roommate, alongside her new roommate Carmilla (who’s secretly a vampire) and her crush Danny. There’s a lesbian love triangle, multiple non-binary actors, and authentic casting that makes Carmilla fundamentally a queer story made by and for queer people!
2022 - First Kill created by V. E. Schwab
I think we can agree that the real villain of most sapphic tv shows is Netflix. First One Day at Time, then I Am Not Okay with This, then Warrior Nun, and now, of course, First Kill. This show is for anyone who likes the confusing aesthetic and plot of Riverdale, but wishes the main couple was sapphic and more inclined towards the taste of blood. Sure, it’s not a high brow work of art, but can’t a girl just watch a cheesy YA forbidden love story in peace? Lesbians deserve poorly written teenage romance stories too! But, not to worry. Netflix may have pulled the plug, but you can’t really kill the lesbian vampire. If this list proves anything, it’s that she always comes back with a vengeance.
