relationship between Laura and her father and the threat that Carmilla is initially seen to represent. The film also references Tod Browning’s DRACULA (1931) through a music box that plays the “Swan Theme” from Act II of Tchaikovsky’s SWAN LAKE. That being said, this is less a straightforward adaptation than a psychosexual autopsy of Le Fanu’s novella, very much informed by the current zeitgeist. While previous adaptations have ignored the novella’s lesbian content, pathologized it, or softened it in accordance with the demands of male heterosexual fantasy, Wood offers both romantic and sexual content that is not only unabashedly female-centered, but also incorporates a modern understanding of the fluidity of sexual orientation and expression. In its examination of Laura’s do- mestic plight, the film is uncannily accurate in its depiction of the dynamics inherent to parental sexual exploitation, including behavior that is often mistakenly viewed as willful complicity on the part of the victim. It is also far more successful than the film version of THE MOTH DIARIES in its por- trayal of sexual promiscuity and self-mutilation in response to trauma. Wood’s screenplay is also obviously informed by current American sexual politics, with Katt’s feeble yet malignant patriarch emblematic of our increasingly impotent male cul- tural hegemony, whose strangled death cries echo in the vicious misogyny of the gamergate scandal, pick- up culture, and, too often, in our political discourse. It is a shame that Wood’s film has not yet been embraced by a larger audience, especially given that it is, without exaggeration, the best-acted ad- aptation of the novella ever committed to film. Al- though the three principal leads are all outstanding, Hannah Fierman’s performance as Laura merits special consideration, and should have served as the springboard for a bigger career. The film is entirely unique as the sole adaptation to present Carmilla in an unambiguously positive light, and the only one that is (quite arguably) completely devoid of supernatural content. Although the film depicts both bloodletting and blood drinking, nei- ther are necessarily indicative of supernatural vam- pirism, reflecting instead the sexual dynamics explored in Theodore Sturgeon’s SOME OF YOUR BLOOD. Perhaps even more remarkably, the two female leads never acquiesce to the demands of male fantasy, and their love story is as beautiful as it is tragic. Although its emphasis on character de- velopment over plot might frustrate some genre fans accustomed to less subtle fare, the ending, which fortunately completely follows through on the films initial premise, reveals that this is indeed a horror story, but one that earns its emotional
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resonance by making viewers care deeply about its two central characters. Unfortunately, the emo- tional power of both the climax and the film’s most important love scene are undermined by a distractingly incongruous use of hard-rock music, making one hope against hope that a re-edited version may someday be offered.
“These poor people infect one another with their superstitions, and so repeat in imagination the images of terror that have infested their neighbors.”
J. SHERIDAN LE FANU’S VAMPIRE CARMILLA 1999, Sub Rosa, OOP, VHS
VAMPIRES VS ZOMBIES
aka CARMILLA THE LESBIAN VAMPIRE 2004, Unearthed Films, OOP, DVD-0
THE BATMAN VS DRACULA 2005, Warner, $6.99, DVD-1
BLOODWINE 2008, R Squared Films, $14.99, DVD-1
Given its numerous exploitable elements, it is surprising how infrequently CARMILLA has been mined for material by the producers of micro- budgeted DTV horror fare. The first of these, Tom LePine and Denise Templeton’s VAMPIRE CARMILLA, offers pretty much what one would expect from an adaptation of Le Fanu featuring George Stover. Stranded in a strangely deserted village while settling her deceased sister Monique’s (Marina Morgan) estate, Laura (Stacia Crawford) and her boyfriend David (Kevin Summerfield) stumble upon Monique’s diary (inexplicably writ- ten in 19th-century prose), which reveals how she was rescued from her abusive marriage and sui- cidal misery by Carmilla (Bootsie Cairns), a mys- terious stranger she met during a full moon. It is soon revealed that Carmilla and Monique have converted the townspeople into a sort of vampire- zombie hybrid, and that the two visitors have been chosen to join the undead armada. Though indebted to THE BLOOD SPATTERED
BRIDE and LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH, VAMPIRE CARMILLA possesses none of their strengths, and both the supernatural and erotic elements are handled with a level of incompetence remarkable even by the unambitious standards of
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