"Soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth": A History of Sapphic Vampires

Descripción

Despite what her marketing team will tell you, Carmilla was not the sole inspiration for Dracula — but she does get the honor of being the first lesbian vampire and, along with a few mythological goddesses, has inspired a whole lineage of sapphic vampires over the last 150 years. In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah explore the extensive history of the sapphic vampire, from the uses and abuses of vampirism as a metaphor for lesbianism, to how queer audiences reclaimed exploitation films through camp, and why it always comes back to the vagina dentata and their fave girl Lilith. Come vamps, join us around the campfire. Major Spoilers: * Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1872 * Dracula’s Daughter, directed by Lambert Hillyer, 1936 * Blood and Roses, directed by Roger Vadim, 1960 * Crypt of the Vampire, directed by Camillo Mastrocinque, 1964 * The Vampire Lovers, directed by Roy Ward Baker, 1970 * Daughters of Darkness, directed by Harry Kümel, 1971 * Vampyros Lesbos, directed by Jesús Franco, 1971 * The Hunger, directed by Tony Scott, 1983 * Nadja, directed by Michael Almereyda, 1994 * Jennifer’s Body, directed by Karyn Kusama, 2009 * Carmilla, directed by Emily Harris, 2019 * An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson, 2024 * Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, 2024 * Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, 2025 Other media mentioned in this episode: Fiction * “The Mysterious Stranger” by Karl von Wachsmann, 1844 * Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897 * Hotel Transylvania by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, 1978 * The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez, 1991 * Fledgling by Octavia Butler, 2005 * A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, 2021 * Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste, 2022 * Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab, 2025 Film * The Brides of Dracula, directed by Terence Fisher, 1960 * The Velvet Vampire, directed by Stephanie Rothman, 1971 * Blood for Dracula, directed by Paul Morrissey, 1974 * Alucarda, directed by Juan López Moctezuma, 1977 * Carmilla, directed by Janusz Kondratiuk, 1980 * The Mark of Lilith, directed by Bruna Fionda, Zach Mack-Nataf, and Polly Gladwin, 1986 * Vampire’s Kiss, directed by Robert Bierman, 1988 * Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennell, 2023 * Nosferatu, directed by Robert Eggers, 2024 TV * Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997-2003 * First Kill, 2022 Additional Reading * Christopher Craft, “’Kiss Me with those Red Lips’: Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” Representations no. 8 (1984) * Dracula’s Daughters: The Female Vampire on Film, edited by Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka, 2013 * Medieval Bodies: Life and Death in the Middle Ages by Jack Hartnell, 2018 Liked this episode? You’ll also like… * Dracula's Older Gayer Cousins [https://vampirecampfirepod.substack.com/p/draculas-older-gayer-cousins] * Are All Vampires a Leetle Gäy? [https://vampirecampfirepod.substack.com/p/are-all-vampires-a-leetle-gay] * I Vant to Suck Your... Energy [https://vampirecampfirepod.substack.com/p/i-vant-to-suck-your-energy] Want more vampire content in all your feeds? Check out our Pinterest [https://pinterest.com/vampirecampfirepod] @vampirecampfirepod to capture the aesthetic of this episode [https://www.pinterest.com/vampirecampfirepod/a-history-of-sapphic-vampires/]. Follow us @vampirecampfirepod on Instagram [https://instagram.com/vampirecampfirepod] and TikTok [https://tiktok.com/vampirecampfirepod] for podcast updates & vampire memes. Find us on Letterboxd [https://letterboxd.com/vampirecampfire/] and Goodreads [https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/192806109-vampire-campfire] for a peek at what we’re consuming next. Consider becoming a paid member of our Substack to get bonus episodes — the first one is available now! This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Rebecca Glazer & Hannah Spiegelman Note: We’re an affiliate of Bookshop.org [http://Bookshop.org] and earn a small commission if you purchase through our links — allowing you to support indie bookstores and an indie podcast at the same time! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vampirecampfirepod.substack.com/subscribe [https://vampirecampfirepod.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Crushing the Creation Myth: Explaining Vampires through Science

We’re headed back to Atlantis [https://vampirecampfirepod.substack.com/p/from-egypt-to-atlantis-how-vampires] this week to continue asking: if vampires are figments of the Gothic imagination, why do so many authors insist on examining them under a microscope? If our nightmares haunt us with fears of the unknown, what exactly do we gain from the paragraphs on paragraphs of exposition that tell us exactly how those monsters came to be? In other words, have sci-fi vampires been defanged (and are they just compensating with their big, nasty teeth)? In this episode, Hannah and Rebecca dive deep into the history of the mad scientist as brought to us by Mary Shelley and Universal Pictures, unpack the link between 20th-century B-films and the atomic bomb, and consider whether vampire-as-plague works better as a metaphor than a plot device. Hannah is traumatized by weird-ass ant brain fungus, Rebecca is scarred by having to discuss I Am Legend yet again, and they both demand to know what the hell a “nano” actually is. Come vamps, join us around the campfire. Major Spoilers: * The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9780199536221] by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886 * Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, directed by Charles Barton, 1948 * Ultraviolet, directed by Kurt Wimmer, 2006 Other media mentioned in this episode: Fiction * Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9780141439471] by Mary Shelley, 1818 * The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Tolstoy, 1839 * Carmilla [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9781941360385] by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1872 * Dracula [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9780141439846] by Bram Stoker, 1897 * I Am Legend [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9780765357151] by Richard Matheson, 1954 * Anno Dracula [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9780857680839] by Kim Newman, 1992 * Argeneau [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9780061750625] by Lynsay Sands, 2003-2025 (series) * The Passage [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9780345504975] by Justin Cronin, 2010 * V Wars: A Chronicle of the Vampire Wars [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9781470829315] edited by Jonathan Maberry, 2014 * Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis [https://bookshop.org/a/123999/9780804173148] by Anne Rice, 2016 Film * Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, directed by F.W. Murnau, 1922 * Dracula, directed by Tod Browning, 1931 * Frankenstein, directed by James Whale, 1931 * The Wolf Man, directed by George Waggner, 1941 * House of Frankenstein, directed by Erle C. Kenton, 1944 * House of Dracula, directed by Erle C. Kenton, 1945 * The Vampire, directed by Paul Landres, 1957 * Nosferatu the Vampire, directed by Werner Herzog, 1979 * Nadja, directed by Michael Almereyda, 1994 * From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez, 1996 * Blade, directed by Stephen Norrington, 1998 * Shadow of the Vampire, directed by E. Eilas Merhge, 2000 * Dracula 2000, directed by Patrick Lussier, 2000 * Blade II, directed by Guillermo del Toro, 2002 * I Am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence, 2007 * Daybreakers, directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig, 2009 * Morbius, directed Daniel Espinosa, 2022 * Nosferatu, directed by Robert Eggers, 2024 * Van Helsing, directed by Stephen Sommers, 2004 TV * The Vampire Diaries, 2009-2017 * The Strain, 2014-2017 * V Wars, 2019 * Midnight Mass, 2021 * Wednesday, 2022-2025 Additional Reading * Catherine Pugh, “The Deathbird of Disease: Count Orlok and the Monstrous Virus,” in Nosferatu in the 21st Century, 2022 Liked this episode? You’ll also like… The Hottest Newest Oldest Vampires: Nosferatu, Sinners, and AMC’s Interview with the Vampire [https://open.substack.com/pub/vampirecampfirepod/p/the-hottest-newest-oldest-vampires?r=5lznr0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web] How Many Vampires Does it Take to End the World? [https://open.substack.com/pub/vampirecampfirepod/p/how-many-vampires-does-it-take-to?r=5lznr0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web] From Egypt to Atlantis: How Vampires Explain Their Origins [https://open.substack.com/pub/vampirecampfirepod/p/from-egypt-to-atlantis-how-vampires?r=5lznr0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web] The Campfire: The Argeneaus [https://open.substack.com/pub/vampirecampfirepod/p/the-campfire-the-argeneaus?r=5lznr0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web] The Campfire: Morbius [https://open.substack.com/pub/vampirecampfirepod/p/the-campfire-morbius?r=5lznr0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web] Want more vampire content in all your feeds? Follow us @vampirecampfirepod on Instagram [https://instagram.com/vampirecampfirepod] and TikTok [https://tiktok.com/vampirecampfirepod] for podcast updates & vampire memes. Find us on Letterboxd [https://letterboxd.com/vampirecampfire/] and Goodreads [https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/192806109-vampire-campfire] for a peek at what we’re consuming next. Consider becoming a paid member of our Substack to get bonus episodes — the first one is available now! This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Rebecca Glazer & Hannah Spiegelman Note: We’re an affiliate of Bookshop.org [http://Bookshop.org] and earn a small commission if you purchase through our links — allowing you to support indie bookstores and an indie podcast at the same time! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vampirecampfirepod.substack.com/subscribe [https://vampirecampfirepod.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

2 de jun de 20261 h 18 min

"Soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth": A History of Sapphic Vampires

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