Welcome back to Dark Corners Streaming.
2019 film Carmilla, which you can find on Amazon Prime sounds right in Dark Corners wheelhouse
– the novel by Sheridan Le Fanu, has inspired films from Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr
to Hammer Horror’s The Vampire Lovers.
But this version, directed by Emily Harris, seeks to strip away much of the supernatural
to focus on the relationship between the two women, young Lara and her enigmatic house guest.
‘Carmilla’
Lara has been brought up in a painfully strict fashion
her left hand bound behind her back by her governess Miss Fontaine to force her to be right handed,
‘You keep to my rules and all will be well’
and I do wonder if Miss Fontaine is named after Joan Fontaine who starred in Hitchcock’s Rebecca,
another gothic story with lesbian overtones.
Lara’s main source of joy comes from the natural world
and the contrast between the lushness of nature and the cold, claustrophobia of the interiors is beautifully handled.
Following a carriage accident, a strange girl arrives at the house
and she and Lara form an instant bond growing swiftly into something more.
But is there more to this Carmilla than meets the eye?
‘Let’s be blood sisters.’
Miss Fontaine certainly thinks so and there are hints,
a cross taken off the wall and hidden under a bed the reaction of a dog.
Now, a lot of reviews I’ve seen have said that the film completely removes the vampire and horror angle
to make this a lesbian love story, showing how people’s ignorance can turn to fear,
‘I see the same devil lying in that bed as you do miss Fontaine’
and it certainly can be read that way but I found it a lot more ambiguous that that.
There’s certainly horror here
and I wouldn’t immediately throw out the vampire either.
‘What do you think?’
That’s rather the point.
This is as much about perspective as anything,
Harris herself said this is about our tendency to demonise the ‘other’,
but it could equally be about the seductiveness of the ‘other’,
particularly to a lonely child like Lara.
We’re told the story very much from Lara’s perspective
but flip that and Miss Fontaine could be the hero,
trying to save the girl.
And I like the fact that you can read it either way.
For me, that ambiguity is the film’s strongest point.
‘She grows worse. More pale by the day.’
But it also highlights its weakest point,
and it’s extraordinary to me that a film so subtle in its themes is so on the nose in its dialogue.
‘You’re playing with fire Lara - you and your left hand’
The wording is so unnatural and clunky that it sometimes seems to affect performances.
‘You’re not from around here are you’
Visually it is gorgeous.
It’s also unashamedly slow paced, but with a runtime just over ninety minutes, that certainly didn’t bother me.
This is one of those movies where I think you’re actually better off knowing something before going in
because nothing will ruin it more than expecting one thing and getting almost the opposite.
If you view it as a horror, and I do,
then it’s certainly a very different type to what you might expect and what you might be used to,
which I think is no bad thing.
It’s not going to work for everyone, but it did for me.
It’s quite rare that really a whole film is open to interpretation,
how you read it, and it’s even rarer to pull it off.
Give it a chance, but do be aware of what it’s not.
Thanks for watching. What did you think of Carmilla and what other film versions of the character would you recommend?
Let us know in the comments below.