Vampires have long been a popular cultural icon in Western films and have more recently come back into the spotlight with the public fascination with the Twilight fiction series of books and movies. While men were the original stars, women vampires have been popular in movies and television as well since their debut in Dracula’s Daughters in 1936. In this volume the editors have compiled 16 essays that discuss women vampires in popular movies, television, book, and pop culture roles. A number of interesting topics are addressed within the essays, including the role of violence toward and by women, the reaction of these characters by feminists and antifeminists, and the role of race in the characterization of female vampires. The work includes more than 30 black-and-white photographs (mostly movie stills or movie posters) and a thorough introduction to the topic by editor Douglas Brode. This work can be recommended as a supplemental selection for academic film collections.

American Reference Books Annual

For their third collaboration as coeditors (after Sex, Politics, and Religion in Star Wars, 2012, and Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars, 2012), Brode and Deyeka deconstruct female vampires in cinema. The 16 provocative, scholarly essays explore the historical and literary origins of the female vampire and chronicle her near century-long legacy in film. Individually, the essays provide comprehensive critiques of cinematic portrayals throughout the genre–from Gloria Holden's reluctant vampire Countess Zeleska in Dracula's Daughter (1936) to postfeminist-era iterations in such offerings as Let The Right One In (2008) and Twilight (2008)–while also analyzing how prevailing social perceptions of women of the time informed and influenced the making of these films. Collectively, the contributors paint a picture of a powerful, complex supernatural archetype that simultaneously elicits sympathy and desire in the viewer and is a universal and timeless metaphor for unleashed female sexuality and empowerment. Willson, Goldsmith, and Fonseca's scene-by-scene comparison of Dracula's Daughter and its 'remake' Nadja (1994) poignantly illustrates how film draws on the reinterpretive nature of the vampire myth as cautionary tale and the transformative essence of the vampire herself as she transgresses societal and cultural norms as well as life and death. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

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