Yet another Carmilla adaptation (but make it homophobic) - Carmilla 2019 review

“You must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me, and still come with me, and hating me through death and after. There is no such word as indifference in my apathetic nature”

- says the titular Carmilla in the LeFanu novel of 1872.

But there is such word as indifference when trying to make something out of this same-titled film currently in cinemas. It may offer a decent backdrop for a lazy October afternoon trying to get in the Halloween vibe, but much like autumn leaves it dreadfully falls apart at any second glance.

The film follows Lara, a young woman living in an isolated mansion with her father and a very religious governess, Miss Fontaine. Lara is starved for companionship - her father is barely there, and Miss Fontaine offers little more than bible verses and reproaches. All changes when a young woman (Carmilla) is found almost-dead near the estate. The family takes her in, and Lara is immediately enraptured by this mysterious stranger.

For the director, Emily Harris, this is the first horror in an otherwise very drama and documentary-focused career, and this can perhaps explain some things. Starting with the vampire itself, present in the loosest sense. This Carmilla is a creature that feeds on another being’s life force to sustain herself. But so are fungi. Is it enough? By (almost) completely removing the visual signifiers spectators have learned to associate with vampires (coffins, long fangs, bloodthirst!), all that is left in this story is a predatory lesbian preying on innocence and youth. I don't think the intention here is to villainize lesbians - however, speculations on intentions don't matter much when what is on-screen is a series of homophobic tropes and stereotypes.

Is faithfulness to a 150 years old text what we need from a lesbian movie? Or have perhaps our views (as a society, as viewers, as people) on queerness changed in the last century or so?

The film even doubles down visually on its theme of sin and lost innocence by intercutting the scenes with close-ups of nature – a ladybug, right after showing us Lara...

...worms, right after Carmilla is first found...

And then, as love between them blooms, a rotten fruit.

In one of the most intimate scenes of romance between the two, Carmilla says "flowers are meant to be picked". Nothing but heavy-handed metaphors and imagery for the Spoilt Youth motif, that add nothing to the experience.

This latest rendition of the classic comes after over a century of celluloid takes on Carmilla itself, from early cinema’s Vampyr (1932) to the groundbreaking queer web-series Carmilla of 2014. Over a century in which the vampire has lived a thousand non-lives through paper and celluloid alike, and has been textually gay for over half that century. Expectations are high, and this movie does not meet them.

At its best, it’s somewhat reminiscent of Lizzie (2018), but maybe just because it’s yet another mediocre period piece lesbian horror. At its worst, its moralism reminded me of Sunday school. An uninspired adaptation that heavily punishes its women for daring to be here and queer.