The Evolution of the Lesbian Slasher

Horror as a genre is no stranger to lesbianism–in fact, women and the women who love them have been woven into the genre practically since its birth. In 1871, Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu began publishing a serial Gothic novella narrated by Laura, a young woman in love with and haunted by her best friend Carmilla, a vampire. This novella would inspire the Gothic and vampire genres at large and Bram Stoker’s Dracula specifically. It would also become the prototype of the Lesbian Vampire, all the rage in 20th century exploitation horror film and literature.

But though lesbianism could often be found afoot in vampire media–albeit often smothered by the Hays Code chastity belt or outright demonized as just another symptom of the monstrous vampires’ evil nature–other horror subgenres were not so flush with lesbian representation–or really any queer representation, unless in the form of wildly misunderstood and vilified caricatures–until fairly recently. This has never stopped LGBT people from finding reflections of ourselves within horror, subtext being a country we’re all familiar with. For a long time, it was where the people like us lived, tucked away beneath the textual stairs, seen and recognized and cared for only by each other.

So, with how prevalent lesbianism–demonized or not–has been in the horror genre, why does it seem to have bypassed slashers…