Zohra Lampert finds herself falling under the spell of a mysterious squatter (Mariclare Costello) in her family cottage in LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH.


In our previous issue, John-Paul Checkett began his survey of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s CARMILLA and its adaptations to film with a detailed examination of the 1872 novella, followed by similarly rigorous readings of films from Carl Theodor Dreyer’s VAMPYR (1932) to John Hough’s concluding segment of Hammer’s “Karnstein Trilogy,” TWINS OF EVIL (1971). This concluding half of his research—an earlier draft of which appeared in the fanzine VAN HELSING’S JOURNAL—continues through the 1970s to the most recent adaptations and draws some fascinating conclusions about what these films say about CARMILLA, and what they say about us. —Ed.


Portrait of Carmilla Karnstein by award-winning artist Mark Maddox, based on her description in J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s original novella.


 


“The fiend who betrayed our infatuated hospitality has done it all.”


LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH 1971, Paramount, OOP, DVD-1 Warner Archive, $21.99, DVD-R-1


Although on the surface it more closely resembles CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) and MES- SIAH OF EVIL (1973), this intelligent and haunting film by director John D. Hancock is something of a “stealth adaptation” of CARMILLA, employing vari- ous elements from the novella to craft one of the best horror films of the 1970s. The plot concerns Jessica (Zohra Lampert), recently released from a psychiatric hospital, her musician husband Duncan (Barton Heyman), and aging hippie friend Woody (Kevin O’Connor), who flee New York City for an apple orchard in Connecticut. After being harassed by the oddly somnambulant locals, the trio dis- cover female squatter Emily (Mariclare Costello) living in their farmhouse. Sensing that she, too, is a “lost soul,” they invite her to remain on. The al- ready fragile Jessica begins to unravel further when she begins to hear voices calling her name and sees strange figures wandering the countryside. Her paranoia increases as Emily first seduces Woody, then slowly sets her sights on Duncan. When a local antique dealer tells her the story of Abigail


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