Carmilla, a teenage gothic vampire story, debuts online today. It’s a study in understatement, perspective, and maybe art itself. Also giant stakes in the heart.
Written and directed by Emily Harris, the new film Carmilla is based on the 1871 novella of the same name by Sheridan Le Fanu, a vampire story that came out a full 26 years before Bram Stoker’s more famous work Dracula, making it the first of its kind.
The film centers on a young teenage girl named Lara (Hannah Rae), cooped up in her beautiful estate in the English countryside in the late 1800s. Lorded over by her governess Miss Fontaine (Jessica Raine), Lara is clearly craving an emotional connection. She’s routinely told that all of her actions are evil and that she’s opening herself up to the devil. Hey, at least it would be someone to talk to.
That devil arrives in the form of Carmilla (Devrim Lingnau), who survives a carriage accident near the estate. And it’s here that the movie starts to lose me. Although clearly framed as a vampire story, I never really got the impression that’s what Carmilla was. There’s no coffin, no aversion to sunlight, or any of the other hallmarks of vampirism we’ve gotten used to over the past hundred years. Carmilla and Lara do exchange blood, but it’s a few drops from cuts rather than biting on the neck. Carmilla’s behavior is odd and aloof at times, but mostly around the adults, not Lara.
Image: Carmilla/Film Movement
In addition to Miss Fontaine, the adults around Lara also include the family doctor, played by Game of Thrones alum Tobias Menzies (Edmure Tully). He and Miss Fontaine, who are romantically involved, are quick to jump to the conclusion that Carmilla is a vampire, especially when they find a book on vampires in Carmilla’s wrecked carriage and several local girls also grow ill as Lara does.
It’s not surprising that Miss Fontaine would make this logical leap, since she also insists on binding Lara’s left arm to ward off the devil. She’s the superstitious type. She was convinced, but I wasn’t.
The other reviews I’ve read seem to take Carmilla’s vampirism as a given, but the movie makes it seem murkier. Is it not possible the young teenagers are not simply acting out the scenes found in the book on vampires? Given Lara’s isolation, it’s not surprising to see her instantly attach herself to anyone whose not rapping her on the arm for leaving a toy out.
In the film’s ultra-violent ending, Miss Fontaine and crew drive a stake through Carmilla’s heart, but that is open to interpretation. That’s the way you kill vampires, yes, but it’ll also do in a human, especially when the stake is the same diameter as a tree trunk. Maybe Carmilla was a vampire, but the ambiguities are too many to ignore.
Image: Carmilla/Film Movement
The performances in Carmilla are understated, with most of the characters showing little to no emotion for most of it. The photography is stunning, though, with the heavy themes — loneliness, sexuality, religion, denial — contrasting with the gorgeous English countryside.
Carmilla is now available via distributor Film Movement’s virtual theater.
Grade: B-
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