Before vampires were mainstream…

1. Before vampires were mainstream…

2. General Information about The Hunger • Loose adaptation of the book by Whitley Strieber (1981) • Film version was released in 1983 • Directed by Tony Scott, brother of Ridley Scott (Blade Runner)

3. Their fashions have changed but blood is still the primary preoccupation

4. Timeline- 1983 • On the cusp of the Reagan Administration • DEFEAT of the E.R.A. • AIDS pandemic • Bodily fluids/ blood grotesque- AIDS scare • “My criticism is that [the gay movement] isn’t just asking for civil rights; it’s asking for recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I. “ Reagan, 1980 campaign trail

5. Extensive scientific testing • “In the vast majority of Reagan-era horror films, monstrosity and queerness are linked in retrogressive ways. The modern horror films’ focus on visceral gore and bodily fluids neatly dovetails into AIDS hysteria as well, even when the monster queer is a lesbian rather than a gay man. The most famous lesbian vampire film of this period, The Hunger (1983), is a good case in point. Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve play attractive and sympathetic lesbian vampire lovers, yet the major seduction scene, set to Delibes’s Lakme, is an excellent example of how the culture industry subtly constructs homosexuality as monstrous . . . what had begun as a beautiful scene of making love ends as yet another monstrous horror: the ‘foul disease of the vampire’ has been passed on once again.” – Benshoff, 244 from Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film

6. The Original Lesbian Vampire • The first publication of lesbian vampire novella Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu in The Dark Blue magazine in 1872

7. The Notion of Forever • “Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, 'You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever'. (Carmilla, Chapter 4). “

8. Critical Response for The Hunger • It did not win much critical support when it was first released • However, it later became a cult classic • Ebert gave the film one and a half stars • According to Roger Ebert, The Hunger “is an agonizingly bad vampire movie, circling around an exquisitely effective sex scene.” May 3, 1983

9. More Criticisms • glamorous conceit and sexual objectification of women; • horror film enthusiasts criticized it for being little more than soft-core porn with excessively arty set design and cinematography

12. Highly stylized Plays with film noir motifs Miriam controls the narrative Deneuve, as Miriam possesses the quality which Mulvey termed, “to be looked-at-ness” The femme fatale

13. Challenging the Male Gaze • John is also fetishized as the object of the gaze • Immaculately attired and suave, Bowie portrays a highly sexualized character • John is also needy • “Forever and ever” • Is an object but also objectifies

14. Sure you get to live for hundreds of years as a young man but then the rapid aging begins……. Homosexuality represented by the grotesque/ monstrous The effect of the Vampire’s Disease

15. Beware, the toothed vagina!

16. The Object of our Gaze • Vagina dentata (the toothed vagina) and the vagina that castrates (Joseph Campbell, “Primitive Mythologies”) • At least she’s non-human • Both attracts and repels

17. Myriam is not human; she a glamorous vampire • To escape castration anxiety from the domineering, sexualized image of Miriam, the spectator can subscribe to the “disavowal of castration by the substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous (hence over-valuation, the cult of the female star).” - Mulvey, 312

18. The Border According to Kristeva Normality Cleanliness/purity Heteronormative Human Non-human Monstrous/ diseased/ grotesque Blood, gore, guts Abject Abnormal sexual behaviour (lesbianism)

19. Vampire is representative of other • In The Hunger, the word “vampire” is never used • The embodiment of the vampire is representative of “other”, in this case, queerness • Abject= lesbianism • The patriarchal audience can accept Miriam’s sexuality if it is overshadowed by her predatory nature

20. Kristeva’s Notion of the Archaic Mother • “Fear of the archaic mother proves essentially to be a fear of her generative power. It is this power, dreaded, that patrilineal filiation is charged with subduing.” (Kristeva, “The Powers of Horror, 1982)

21. Lesbian Vampire Trailers from the 70s • Vampyres (1974) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_TSpC8s8_4 • The Vampire Lovers (1970) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9rAgWWi80E&NR=1 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTTfl8SU5k • Vampyros Lesbos (1971) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=032XmaYcl4s

22. The conversion to abjection/ the other

23. Susan Sarandon in The Celluloid Closet • The explanation for the lesbian sex scene • Was Sarah seduced by Miriam? • Did Miriam cast an evil spell on Sarah? • Did she get her drunk? • There must be a reason why a previously heterosexual woman would be enticed to sleep with a bi-sexual vampire queen.

24. The abject is hidden from sight The vampire's initial liberation of excess energies and disruption of normality is a very temporary affair. Social order is quickly restored, the cathartic experience nailed down again to the relief of the conformist audience/readership. This has, of course, always been the role of horror, and of much gothic. (Punter, The Literature of Terror, 1996) -PATRIARCHAL STATUS QUO-

25. Margaret Cho as other • Queerness without the veil or the fangs • https://youtu.be/srH4rkyRkvY?t=27

26. Reactions to Margaret Cho’s comedy ‘FUCKING CUNTS LIKE YOU MAKE ME SICK.’ ‘A disease to this nation. A cancer upon our country. I can only pray that you will be defeated and destroyed for the good of all.’ ‘Go back to your native land you overweight fisting lesbian.’ ‘GOOK CUNT, You fat ass slant eyed WHORE.’ ‘Went to your website and soon discovered you are queer too.’ ‘GO BACK TO ASIA CUNT.’ ‘I hope you have aids and pass it to all your liberal commie homo friends.’ ‘Fuck you you Oriental cunt.’ ‘Get the fuck out of my country.’ ‘I am hoping you develop breast cancer [. . .] you bitch.’ ‘You’re a slut and a lard ass.’ ‘Fat cunt Chinese woman.’ ‘Aids Cures Gays.’ Comments from the website, Free Republic

27. Further Discussion • What does the modern vampire in contemporary society represent? • Is homosexuality still represented as ‘other’ in contemporary films? Is homosexuality still demonized in popular culture? • What other mythical figures are representative of the ‘other’? • Does the right wing reaction to Margaret Cho represent the heteronormative, sunny side up of Kristeva’s border?