Reimagining Female Vampires: Two Female Serial Killers in Byzantium

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Neil Jordan's Byzantium(2012) offers a fresh new look into the world of vampires. Centering on a vampire mother and daughter, who have been on the run from a secret society of vampires for two hundred years,the film questions and redefines female vampires. Clara and Eleanor look like the typical“good"and “bad" vampires in recent TV dramas and novels, but their opposite characters illuminate how women are monsterized and/or idealized in relation to their sexuality. If we view these two opposite women as two female serial killers, their patterns of aggression and the nature of their oppressions can be explained by feminist criminological studies. The mother looks like a sadistic sexual killer, but she is not. She, and others like her, have been portrayed as such since their rebellion against the ideological construction of femininity results in their demonization. The daughter, on the other hand, appears angelic, since she embraces her feminine role as a caretaker. Her lethal nurturing, however, marks her as an angel ofdeath.   These two female serial killers also represent the rebellion against the traditional vampire fiction. The main male characters are named Darvell and Ruthven, evoking the literary beginning of vampires in English literature. The vampire secret society, the Brethren, which allows only male membership, represents the sexist values of homosocial vampire fiction. The Gothic imagery in this film allows us to see Clara as a Gothic victim who rejects being a victim. Eleanor, for her part, is a Gothic heroine who saves herself in the end. They are persecuted victims of and fighters against the male homosocial society of vampires. Byzantium departs from the traditional vampire fiction, which reflect patriarchal values, to develop new female vampires that survive the dangers and threats of a misogynic world.

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