Culture of Vampirism : Vol. 1: The First Vampires Were Females

Lady Vampires

Lady vampires are a major part of the fictional world of vampirism. Just as with their male counterparts, female vampires play a substantial role in their own way of seduction and capturing their victims. However, with the lady vampires, the most common way to attract their victims is by using their sexuality. In fiction, unattractive lady vampires do not exist.

Actresses that portray lady vampires are almost always voluptuous and sexually appealing. Starting with the first female vampire recorded in fiction, which was the vampire Carmilla from the novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu that was published in 1872. In fact, this story of the vampire predates Dracula by Bran Stoker by 25 years.

In the story the star of the show is a lady vampire who is only attracted to female victims. Her passion was so strong for other women -- her prey -- that it comes across to many readers as a lesbian act. Carmilla would kiss on her female victims' breast, shower them with praise, and tell them constantly how much she loved them and needed them. Since the story was first published, thus making Carmilla as the first of the lady vampires, dozens of motion pictures have been produced using Carmilla and her faux lesbianism as the focus.

The film adaptation of Carmilla starred the voluptuous and buxom blonde Ingrid Pitt as the vampire. Her female lover aka victim, Emma, was portrayed by the dark haired beauty Madeline Smith. Released in 1970 as The Vampire Lovers, the movie was a fairly accurate adaptation of the novella. It was the first of three films, The Vampire Lovers, along with Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil, in what is known as the Karnstein Trilogy for the namesake character of Carmilla Karnstein otherwise known as Countess Mircalla Karnstein.

The trilogy was produced by Hammer Film Productions, which was the leader in vampire film productions during the 1970s. In terms of lady vampires, Ingrid Pitt was the quintessential female vixen, which was established in cult status for her role in the films. Madeline Smith also achieved star status for her role, especially as she appears on screen partially in the nude in The Vampire Lovers. Playing on the lesbian theme to attract audiences, these films were considered revolutionary for their time as they were some of the first movies released to the general public that showed blatant sexuality and lesbian acts.

Two decades later in 1990, lady vampires reemerged as an adaptation of Carmilla for the horror anthology Nightmare Classics that aired as a television series. In this series, which was transplanted to the US albeit in the Deep South during the post-Civil War, the Golden Globe award-winning actress Meg Tilly is the vampire Carmilla, while Ione Skye played the seduced victim.

Another of the more modern movies portraying lady vampires is the film Underworld. Produced in 2003, the movie stars Kate Beckinsale as Selene, who is a Death Dealer. Her main focus is to revenge her family's death that occurred at the hands of the Lycans, who are vampires. As the sole survivor, the Lycans turned her into a vampire rather than allowing her to be bled dry. The dark and action-packed film series includes Underworld: Evolution, a prequel titled Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, and Underworld: Awakening that was released in 2012.

In the movies, Selene sports a skin tight black cat suit and typical vampire clothing of a long black trench coat and boots. The other lady vampires to be included in the film series are Amelia, the sole Vampire Elder, who is portrayed by Zita Görög; the social climbing vampire Erika who is played by Sophia Myles; and Rhona Mitra who portrays Sonja the oldest daughter to Viktor the leader of the Lycans.

Now with the surge of popularity of paranormal romances involving romances, lovely lady vampires and good looking male vampires have saturated the big screen. One of the most well-known modern vampire stories is the Twilight Saga. Starting from a four book series, including Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, the books have all been adapted to film.

The lady vampires in the films do not include the star Bella Swan who is a human. They are instead from a coven of vampires known as the Volturi, the royals of the vampire world. Lady vampires who belong to the Volturi include Sulpicia, Athenodora, and Didyme who are all included in the leadership roles. Other females are Jane who has a twin brother Alex; Chelsea who has the ability to control emotions; and Renata who can cause mental confusion.

Other series that involve lady vampires includes The Vampire Diaries, which are also based on a book series. The lead character, Elena Gilbert, is a human, but she has a vampire past as she is the descendent of Katherine Pierce. It is Elena's uncanny resemblance to Katherine that leads to brothers Stefan and Damon Salvatore's attraction to her. The males are vampires, and they knew Katherine from a past life. While they do not feed on Elena, they do discover that her blood is the missing link needed to make hybrid human-vampires.

True Blood, a television series airing on HBO, is another vampire romance show. While the star of the show, Sookie Stackhouse, is not a vampire, there are plenty of other lady vampires. Perhaps the most stunning lady vampire is the vampire queen of Louisiana, which is where the story is set. Sophie-Anne Leclerq, who is portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood, is later killed by an army shooting wooden bullets.

There are many things about vampires that are attractive. Some people are attracted to the idea of immortality, the belief that there is some way that death can be defeated. Other people find the physical act of having someone suck on their neck as a sensual act followed by allowing someone else to take control over them. However, one of the main reasons that lady vampires are attractive in particular is because of movies.