The Mark of Lilith
‘The Mark of Lilith’ is a film that deconstructs traditional images of the vampire and confronts power, race and gender politics within relationships. Lilith has two distinct strands. In one, a young Black lesbian film-maker, Zena, undertakes a project on the goddesses of the past who slowly declined and came to be seen as demons. Part of her research involves watching horror films. The second strand involves Lillia, a white female vampire and the heroine of one of the films Zena watches. In this as in all other vampire films, Lillia's role is proscribed as that of parasite and victim. Her lover Luke is also a vampire, but she finds his insatiable bloodlust increasingly disturbing.
Inevitably the two women meet and return to Zena's flat. They start an affair which enables Lillia to overcome her amnesiac existence as a figment of a distorted masculine fantasy. Zena is able to make an analogy between the creation of female monsters and the way society as a whole views Black and lesbian women. The film builds its own sense of threat through a highly symbolic use of locations and animal imagery. Some scenes parody the horror element while others utilise theoretical material in a self-reflexive manner.
‘The Mark of Lilith’ is a dense and multifaceted investigation... for all its brevity, the film manages to cover a great deal of fascinating and suggestive material. It is a worthwhile appraisal of many taboos...
– Sylvia Paskin, Monthly Film Bulletin
Description source: Circles catalogue (1987). Edited by Jenny Holland and Jane Harris.
