Honourable Mention: Carmilla – Season 2

Director: Spencer Maybee

First aired: 2015

Contains spoilers for Season 1

This is an honourable mention (as it is available to watch for free) for the web serial Carmilla and it is such a sin that I have taken so long to get to posting this as the serials have proven to be good fun and went on to spawn bigger things

At the end of Season 1 the vampire Carmilla (Natasha Negovanlis) and Laura (Elise Bauman) had been through Hell…. Almost literally. They had fought the evil dean of Silas University (Carmilla’s mother) who was looking to sacrifice students to a creature of light. Carmilla had taken a soul sword and stabbed her mother and the being – only for them to discover that the ‘being’ was a lure – literally a lure on the end of a giant angler fish – referred to as a demi-God.

Carmilla and Laura

In the post-season special we discovered that the girls were looking to escape over the alps but, at the beginning of this season, they are back at the University having failed to cross the alps (villagers and pitchforks might have been encountered). The demi-God never made it to the campus as the aperture from its underground cave was too small; but the power vacuum left by the death of the dean has led to the Summers (the sorority), the Zetas (the fraternity) and the Alchemy Club splitting the campus into three sections and now involved in border skirmishes and outright attacks.

they're all dead

Now, if all this sounds exciting, I need to forewarn you (if you are new to the serial) of the format. The serial is in the form of webcasts (and events in the room the casts are recorded). The serial is a one set affair and the events are described (and referenced in costume and makeup). This actually works really well, giving it a play-like feel. Anyway, they are back, they have new accommodation (Carmilla neglects to mention it was her mother’s house) but almost immediately things go awry when Perry (Annie Briggs) enters the room traumatised and covered in blood.

Mattie

She had visited the press club – and they’ve been slaughtered. As Laura sees a mystery to be solved (and takes on the mantle of newscaster) the gang become faced with the reappearance of the Silas University Board of Governors – chaired by Matska “Mattie” Belmonde (Sophia Walker) – Carmilla’s vampire sister who thinks it her duty to kill Laura (as slayer of their mother) and is only held back by Carmilla. The board seem to be up to no good, liquidizing assets to a sinister corporation and so the gang side with board member Lugenbaron Vordenberg (Ian D. Clark, Forever Knight). However, is it wise to side with a vampire hunter, stuck in the past, whose ancestor was killed by Carmilla?

vampire screech

The relationship between Laura and Carmilla is also under strain. Carmilla is a vampire, has centuries of experience and a jaded view of the world. Laura is a 19-years old, with an idealistic view of the world who thinks love means to change and to better oneself. Actually, the way the relationship was handled was really rather well done and hats off to Sophia Walker, who was magnificent as Mattie. We discover in this that an elder vampire (Mattie is older than Carmilla) can scream – an ultrasonic screech that hurts humans and causes recording equipment to fritz.

If you fancy watching season two then you can find it here and the imdb page is here.