10 Most Underrated Female Horror Movie Monsters In History

10. Carmilla - The Vampire Lovers

A full 25 years before Dracula came out and made vampire fiction what it is today, Irish author Sheridan le Fanu published Carmilla, a story about a female vampire who pursues female victims. 

In 1970, Carmilla finally got the big screen treatment in The Vampire Lovers, a Hammer horror and the first of three films based on le Fanu’s work. 

The lead character, played by Ingrid Pitt, is the daughter of a countess who also goes by the name Marcilla and pursues several women, including the niece of a local baron. As she operates under the veil of ignorance afforded to women at the time, the townsfolk slowly realise that there is a monster in their midst, and resolve to destroy it once and for all. 

As a film, The Vampire Lovers isn’t the best offering from Hammer, even at this late stage, but Carmilla herself is a wonderful villain who breaks all the social norms of the time. The queer dynamics of the film - while no doubt driven by the male gaze - make it fascinating to watch back all these years later, while Carmilla’s campy mannerisms wouldn’t look out of place in a modern cult classic.