What is the meaning of the archetype of the lesbian and bisexual killer in Hollywood cinema? This book reveals where its subversive potential lies.
Thirty years ago, Paul Verhoeven's Basic Instinct was released, a film that sparked strong controversy within the LGTBIQ+ community due to the link between psychopathy and non-normative sexualities. Catherine Tramell, the character that launched Sharon Stone to stardom, is one of the protagonists of Absence and Excess. Lesbian and Bisexual Killers in Hollywood Cinema; an essay in which Francina Ribes Pericàs addresses the paradox between the invisibility of female homosexuality in mainstream cinema and the spectacular presence of lesbian scenes in contemporary commercial films.
The protagonists of popular titles such as Single White Female, Bound, Wild Things, Heavenly Creatures, or Monster are generally strong women who display ambiguous sexuality while committing violence and murder. Thus, the archetype of the lesbian or bisexual killer emerges, crystallizing during the neo-noir boom in 1980s and 1990s Hollywood and embodied by excessive femininities, heirs of the classic femme fatale and close to the figure of the lesbian vampire.
In her book, the author explores the seed of this archetype from the origins of cinema and also analyzes how it has transcended the genre in which it was defined to acquire new connotations, questioning the meaning of this recurring character born marked by misogyny and homophobia but hiding an unmistakable subversive potential.
