ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of Barbara Steele’s career as an actress, with a focus on those films which confirm her position as a cult star. While best known for her essential presence in Italian Gothic cinema of the 1960s, Steele also boasts several films later in her career which confirm her cult stardom. The Italian Gothic film is itself a sub-genre that lends itself to cult appreciation. Italian Gothic cinema has been used as a way of differentiating between casual fans of horror and more committed, ‘authentic’ fans of the genre. Steele’s status as an iconic cult star has been central to her casting in films, namely 2008’s The Boneyard Collection, 2011’s The Butterfly Room and 2014’s Lost River. One of the central concerns of both the study of stardom and the study of cult texts is that of authenticity.
