This story originally appeared on Them.
While Hollywood has always seemed to embrace vampires, there’s at least one kind that, according to actress Lili Reinhart, strikes fear in the heart of executives everywhere: sapphic blood suckers.
The Riverdale star said that Hollywood is “too afraid” to make the lesbian vampire book adaptation that she is hoping to get made, per a new interview with Hits Radio.
“There is a book, it’s a novella, that I’m trying to get adapted that is about lesbian vampires,” Reinhart said. “And people are too afraid to make that. So if you work at a studio and are watching this video, I don’t know why you wouldn't make that in this day and age. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Considering that we had a micro-boom of lesbian vampire cinema as far back as the 1970s — not to mention the 1936 release of Dracula’s Daughter — it’s sad, but perhaps not surprising, to hear that Hollywood is reticent to let sapphics imbibe some hemoglobin.
- YouTube youtu.be
Positive reaction to Reinhart’s potential adaptation was swift. “I need the lesbian vampire movie ASAP,” one person wrote in the comments under the video on YouTube.
Several people on social media already seemed to speculate that the novella Reinhart is talking about must be the 1872 gothic book Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu — a lesbian vampire novella that has been enjoying a resurgence among the sapphic community on BookTok. In 2019, bisexual writer Carmen Maria Machado edited and wrote an introduction for a new edition of the lesbian vampire romance released to recognize its rising popularity.
“Carmilla the people are calling for you louder than ever,” one person wrote on X in response to Reinhart’s statement. “CARMILLA IN THE YEAR 2026 YES PLEASE WE NEED IT,” another person wrote on X.
As many critics have observed, Carmilla influenced Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was published 15 years later. Both stories are told in the first person. Additionally, both Carmilla and Dracula’s Lucy have similar descriptions and sleepwalk at night. Stoker’s Dr. Abraham Van Helsing is similar, as well, to Le Fanu’s Baron Vordenburg. Both books describe similar illness symptoms, while both titular antagonists pretend to be descendants of older nobles. Additionally, a short story by Stoker, “Dracula’s Guest,” takes place in Styria, the same Austrian region as Carmilla, and is believed to have been a prologue to Dracula.
Reinhart, who is bisexual and has starred in films such as Hustlers and Forbidden Fruit, has also been growing her résumé as a producer. In 2021, her production company Small Victory Productions signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios.
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