While its title may have you thinking of Carmilla and Countess Báthory, the word “beyond” does some heavy lifting in Sam Tabet’s incisive new book. Beyond the Lesbian Vampire, the latest in the Horror Studies series from University of Wales Press, does indeed begin with the bloodsucking, sapphic figure synonymous with 70s exploitation cinema, but Tabet is interested in another archetype: the “violent lesbian” of the late 2010s. 

With case studies on films from The Neon Demon to The Perfection, whether exploring the vampire, witch, or a monstrous final girl, Beyond the Lesbian Vampire is a focused, thoroughly researched contribution to her field born, like many of the best works of academia, out of necessity. She notes in her introduction that the archetype has been restricted to research on violent women but absent from the recent wave of queer horror studies, which privileges either the more specific experience of gay men or that of a wider “queer” figure. Still, she acknowledges that these works by writers like Darren Elliot-Smith, alongside foundational theorists like Harry M. Benshoff and Alexander Doty, provide the building blocks for her intervention. Filling a scholarly vacuum, Tabet carves out a place for the violent lesbian in contemporary queer horror studies to revelatory effect.