Carmilla (2019) – review

Director: Emily Harris

Release date: 2019

Contains spoilers

I always get excited when a new version of Carmilla is produced. The Sheridan Le Fanu story is a cornerstone of the genre; massively important in itself and in its influence on the genre, an influence that sometimes might be hidden under a bushel.

This version is not a horror film, rather it plays with the uncanny instead of terror (though it has a couple of bloody moments). Indeed it may actually be more a ‘belief in vampires’ film than an actual vampire film. What Carmilla is in this lies within viewer interpretation. As I explore this there will be spoilers.

Hannah Rae as Lara

In this version we are in England, rather than Styria and, as things begin, we hear splashes in water. Lara (Hannah Rae), rather than Laura, is throwing stones into the lake. It is boredom. A girl coming of age, her father (Greg Wise) seems less of a presence in her life than her governess, Miss Fontaine (Jessica Raine), who tries to imbue the properties of a lady as she sees them but is coloured with her own frustrations and superstitions.

left arm bound

We see that she regularly binds Lara’s left arm behind her back. Lara is left-handed and Miss Fontaine clearly believes in the superstition about the left-handed, she sees it as the devil’s hand and by binding it she is trying to force a right dominance on her charge. Lara is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Charlotte, a companion around her own age who is due to stay for an extended visit. However, she is disappointed to discover that the visit is called off due to illness.

Fontaine by the crash

One night there is a commotion and Lara sees an unconscious young lady (Devrim Lingnau) carried into the house. There has been a carriage crash and mention is made of keeping the lights on as the driver of the carriage may have gone for help. In the morning Lara sneaks to the crash sight and two men carry the driver off, he was impaled through the chest in the accident it appears (clearly carrying a vampire trope overtone for the viewer). Lara finds a silver necklace with a cross on the floor.

Carmilla awakens

The girl is still unconscious when the doctor (Tobias Menzies, Underworld: Blood Wars) sees her but, as he puts water to her lips, she awakens though she appears unable to speak. Lara is told not to disturb the girl. Later Fontaine finds a book in the carriage wreck that we see has a picture of a satyr/Pan in it - something scandalous for the religious governess. The Doctor sees her on the road and makes a comment about the girl being as pretty as an angel and Fontaine makes comment about looks turning a man’s head. The Doctor admits he sees the same devil as Fontaine does.

opening the magician

Earlier we saw Lara caught with what appears to be an anatomy book, copying pictures, and being chastised for it. She returns to her father’s study at night and retrieves the book and meets the girl, who asks why she is being kept in the house. When Lara asks her name, the girl asks Lara to name her and Lara suggests several names, Carmilla being one and the girl responding positively to it. As she leaves Lara carries the book to a fireplace where a man, later seen to be a travelling tinker/magician (Scott Silven), lies. She straddles him, which feels sexually daring, opens his coat and lifts his shirt. With the book opened to a certain page, as a guide, she digs her fingers into his torso and rips opens his stomach.

Jessica Raine as Miss Fontaine

She awakens in bed – this was clearly a dream and yet the girl is now speaking and says her name is Carmilla. The girls grow close and do become blood sisters – by putting blood on their lips and kissing – but it is Lara who tastes Carmilla’s blood first. We hear of girls becoming ill in the area and we see a romance blossom between the two. Miss Fontaine recognises something, warning Lara off her path. However, what we do not see is blatant vampirism.

Kiss

Carmilla is not English, barely eats it seems, sleeps late and she places the cross from her bedroom wall under her bed out of sight, the magician’s dog noisily dislikes her and there is the book. This is evidence enough to convince Miss Fontaine. When she catches the girls kissing it is all the excuse she needs to separate them and we also see that Lara becomes ill at that time. However whether Carmilla is a vampire or a young lady scapegoated by a religious/superstitious authority figure is down to viewer interpretation.

drawing breath

Lara is an unreliable witness also. We see another dream with her being sawn literally through the stomach (again the magician is the man in the dream) and Carmilla kissing her and then seeming to draw her breath out. Drawing of breath is often used as a euphemism for energy vampirism. Whilst this might be Lara’s subconscious making sense of a vampiric attack, equally a reading of the film might be that Carmilla is a part of Lara. Perhaps she is Lara’s blossoming womanhood; Carmilla wearing one of her dresses causes Lara to comment that it doesn’t look like that on her – referencing the curve of breast displayed. 

a rare moment with her father

You could also read it that Lara might actually be the evil thing that her left-handedness suggests to Fontaine, something her dreams of human vivisection foreshadow. In this reading Carmilla might be the personification of that part of Lara and such a reading takes us far away from the normal reading of the story and makes this text wonderfully subversive of the original story. The film uses imagery of insects, of decay and Fontaine suggests that (with flowers) something pretty must die for the flower to fruit. The very last scene, which mirrors the first, gives credence to this reading.

Devrim Lingnau as Carmilla

I said at the head that this is not a horror. We get a sense of something off kilter throughout – but I’d suggest it is not necessarily the obvious superstitions portrayed and it is more around Lara's coming of age. The acting is strong throughout and the atmosphere hazily drawn in perfect broad-brush strokes through lovely photography. This is a version of Carmilla that makes the viewer think and question what they have seen and that is a brilliant use of the story. 8 out of 10. The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK