William Katt as the forbidding father figure of Bret Wood’s modern day CARMILLA allegory, THE UNWANTED.
“I should have told Papa, but for two opposite reasons. At one time I thought he would laugh at my story, and I could not bear its being treated as a jest; and at another... as he had been rather an invalid for some time, I was afraid of alarming him.”
THE UNWANTED 2014, Kino, $18.99 DVD-1, $24.95 BD-A
In this criminally underappreciated adaptation of Le Fanu’s tale, drifter Carmilla (Christen Orr) arrives in the rural town of New Canaan, Georgia, following the trail of her mother, Mircalla Karnstein (Kylie Brown), whom she never knew. Traveling by foot to Mircalla’s last known address, she is re- buffed by ranch owner Troy Pickett (William Katt), who denies any knowledge of the woman. A chance encounter with Troy’s daughter Laura (Hannah Fierman), however, reveals that Mircalla had in- deed rented a trailer from the Picketts before her sudden disappearance, and the lonely and pro- foundly isolated Laura, fascinated by Carmilla’s independent spirit, persuades the newcomer to stay in Mircalla’s former home while she continues her investigation. As their friendship deepens, Laura’s plight is made more explicit. Simultaneously infantilized and sexually exploited by her widowed father, Laura’s desperation for human connection
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leads her to subject herself to abusive sexual rela- tionships, and to assuage her guilt about her own emerging sexual orientation and the shame evoked by her victimization through self-mutilation. When, at the urging of Laura, she and Carmilla become lovers, Troy responds first with horror, then with a grim determination to protect his daughter from the fate that destroyed her mother.
Stories are never innocent, as every story, regard- less of genre, entices the reader to adopt a certain perspective and to share in its guiding assumptions. Stories thus exert an insidious influence, with the most effective leaving a subtle yet indelible impression. The horror story is, of course, the least innocent of all, for in order to achieve its desired emotional effect, it must persuade the reader to adopt its particular definition of the horrible, the monstrous, and the profane. The brilliance of director Bret Wood’s screenplay for THE UNWANTED stems not only from the way it con- trasts two opposing definitions of monstrosity, but also from its use of this juxtaposition to radically alter one’s perception of the confidence scheme at the heart of Le Fanu’s novella.
It is critical to recall that, although presented in the form of a first-person narrative authored by its female protagonist, Le Fanu’s CARMILLA, as part of IN A GLASS DARKLY, is delivered to the reader having first been filtered through the ministrations of two male agents: Dr. Hesselius, who seemingly values the narrative only for its spiritual implications, and later his secretary, who serves as both the
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