Dracula's Daughters

The Female Vampire on Film

Douglas Brode, Leah Deyneka

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780810892965
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Almost as long as cinema has existed, vampires have appeared on screen. Symbolizing an unholy union between sex and death, the vampire—male or female—has represented the libido, a "repressed force" that consumed its victims. Early iconic representations of male vampires were seen in Nosferatu (1922) and Dracula (1931), but not until Dracula's Daughter in 1936 did a female "sex vampire" assume the lead. Other female vampires followed, perhaps most provocatively in the Hammer films of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. Later incarnations, in such films as Near Dark (1987) and From Dusk till Dawn (1996), offered modern takes on this now iconic figure.

In Dracula's Daughters: The Female Vampire on Film, Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka have assembled a varied collection of essays that explore this cinematic type that simultaneously frightens and seduces viewers. These essays address a number of issues raised by the female vampire film, such as violence perpetrated on and by women; reactions to the genre from feminists, antifeminists, and postfeminists; the implications of female vampire films for audiences both gay and straight; and how films reflected the period during which they were created. Other topics include female vampire films in relationship to vampire fiction, particularly by women such as Anne Rice; the relationship of the vampire myth to sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS; issues of race and misogyny; and the unique phenomenon of teen vampires in young adult books and films such as Twilight.

Featuring more than thirty photos spanning several decades, this collection offers a compelling assessment of an archetypal figure—an enduring representation of dark desires—that continues to captivate audiences. This book will appeal not only to scholars and students but also to any lover of transgressive cinema.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: “Lamia and Lilith LIVE!” (or at Least Are Undead)
• Chapter 1: The Lesbian Vampire Film
• Chapter 2: Sans Fangs
• Chapter 3: Alienation, Essentialism, and Existentialism through Technique
• Chapter 4: A Beautiful Life of Evil and Hate
• Chapter 5: Blood and Roses (1960)
• Chapter 6: Soft Focus, Sharp Knives
• Chapter 7: Heritage of Hammer
• Chapter 8: “Your Tale Merely Confirms That Women Are Mad and Vain”
• Chapter 9: The Dangers of Innocence
• Chapter 10: The Women of Dracula Films
• Chapter 11: Narratives of Race and Gender
• Chapter 12: Daughters of Darkness
• Chapter 13: The Sick Rose
• Chapter 14: “You Said Forever”
• Chapter 15: Liberating the Vampire, but Not the Woman
• Chapter 16: Dracula’s Postfeminist Daughters in the Twenty-First Century
• About the Editors
• About the Contributors