Beyond the Lesbian Vampire: Reclaiming the Violent Lesbian in Contemporary Queer Horror

Beyond the Lesbian Vampire is a groundbreaking dive into the pervasive cinematic archetype of the violent lesbian, examining this historically problematic figure within cultural and cinematic imagination - from witch to vampire to murderer - and identifying her resurgence in seven popular and critically acclaimed films of the late 2010s. Each case study depicts unpunished multidimensional lesbian characters trending toward more justifiable narrative reasons for violence; additionally, they reference past iterations of this archetype's 'innate' desire for violence, particularly so for the lesbian vampire. The combination of excessive citation alongside narrative shift gestures towards a reclamation of the lesbian vampire within queer horror, as the author weaves textual analysis and scholarly debate around lesbianism's queerness and homonormativity to reveal the cultural salience of the violent lesbian, and of the queer fears and pleasures she evokes. Beyond the Lesbian Vampire is a vital contribution to lesbian studies, horror studies, queer studies and feminist studies.