In 1872, Irish author Sheridan LaFanou published his novella, Carmilla.

Carmilla told the story of a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire.

It was incredibly ahead of its time, not only did it predate Bram Stoker's Dracula by

26 years, making it one of the first notable vampire texts, but its titular character

is also the prototypical lesbian vampire.

A hundred years later, in cinema, the lesbian vampire became almost as prolific an archetype

as Count Dracula himself.

By the early 1970s, Hammer films had already produced several Dracula films, so then turned

their attention to Carmilla, with censorship laws relaxing in both the UK and the US and

a boom in exploitation films around the world.

Hammer took the opportunity to bring Carmilla to the big screen with the vampire lovers,

a film that included explicit nudity and lesbian sex, as well as the blood and violence

we'd come to expect from Hammer.

The vampire lovers ended up becoming the first chapter in a loose trilogy of Hammer horror

films known as The Canstein Trilogy.

They all took plot elements from the original Carmilla text, but they also, most importantly,

all included daring lesbian storylines alongside vampire horror.

With this steamy new trilogy of films, it was clear that both Hammer horror and the vampire

subgenre were entering a bold new era.

Join me as we continue exploring the evolution of the vampire, and we discuss the vampire

lovers and twins of evil.

Welcome back to the evolution of horror.

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