Welcome to episode 64 of The Horror Double Bill, the podcast where each week we pair two movies to create something greater than the sum of their parts

This week we are returning to the world of sapphic blood suckers, with two films about female vampires that were, to some extent or another, inspired by the novella Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu

First up, we have Dracula’s Daughter from 1936, Universal Studios follow-up to their 1931 Bela Lugosi classic Dracula. This was directed by Lambert Hill and stars Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, and Edward Van Sloan.

Then we follow this with the appropriately named The Blood Spattered Bride, a Spanish production from 1972 directed by Vicente Aranda. This stars Maribel Martin, Simon Andrew, Alexandra Baestedo, and Dean Selmiar

Along the way will be deep diving into the story Carmilla and its influence on the modern vampire, queer coding in Dracula’s Daughter, pro and anti-feminist sentiments in the Blood Spattered Bride, whether actor Dean Selmier was in fact an undercover contract killer and much, much more

References

Universal Horrors: The Studio’s Classic Films, 1931–1946, written by Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas and John Brunas

Dracula’s Daughter by Gary D. Rhodes, Tom Weaver, Michael Lee and David Colton (Scripts from the Crypt)

Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema by Nicolás G. Schlegel

Euro Gothic by Jonathan Rigby

The Aurum Film Encyclopedia of Horror, edited by Phil Hardy.

The Blood Spattered Bride - interviews and commentaries on the Blu-ray release of the film from Mondo Macabro

https://www.aisge.es/vicente-aranda

https://cerebrin.wordpress.com/2020/01/24/entrevista-a-simon-andreu/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicente_Aranda

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11899128/Vicente-Aranda-film-director-obituary.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula%27s_Daughter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Holden

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/107212334/

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