''Carmilla'' is a 2019 British romantic

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

written and directed by Emily Harris in her

feature directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. Based on the 1871 novella of the same name by

Sheridan Le Fanu Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (; 28 August 1814 – 7 February 1873), popularly known as J. S. Le Fanu, was an Irish writer of Gothic literature, mystery novels, and horror fiction. Considered by critics to be one of the greatest ghost ...

, it stars

Hannah Rae Hannah Rae (born 18 July 1997) is an English actress. She came to prominence in her 2016 feature film debut ''City of Tiny Lights'', for which she was nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer Award at the British Independent Film Awards. Film ...

, Devrim Lingnau,

Tobias Menzies Tobias Simpson Menzies (born 7 March 1974) is an English actor. He is known for playing Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in the third and fourth seasons of the series ''The Crown'', for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding S ...

, Jessica Raine and

Greg Wise Matthew Gregory Wise (born 15 May 1966) is an English actor and producer. He has appeared in several British television programmes and feature films. He played the role of John Willoughby in ''Sense and Sensibility'', which also starred Emma Th ...

. The film follows a lonely woman preyed upon by the titular vampire. ''Carmilla'' premiered at the

Edinburgh International Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, international, European or UK Premieres), in al ...

on 28 June 2019, and was released in cinemas in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2020.

Premise

Lara lives with her father and her strict governess, Miss Fontaine, in total isolation, and is struggling to find an outlet for her curiosity and burgeoning sexuality. When a carriage crash nearby brings a young woman into the family home to recuperate, Lara is enchanted by Carmilla. The pair strike up a passionate relationship, which strikes fear in the heart of Miss Fontaine, and a complex triangle emerges between the three women.

Cast

* Jessica Raine as Miss Fontaine *

as Lara * Devrim Lingnau as Carmilla *

as the doctor *

as Mr. Bauer * Scott Silven * Daniel Tuite as Paul the Stableman *

Lorna Gayle Lorna N Gayle (born 14 April 1963), known professionally as Sutara Gayle, is a British actress and singer, known for appearing in the films '' Run Fatboy Run'' (2007), ''The Dark Knight'' (2008) and '' One Day'' (2011). In 2015, she played Shont ...

as Margaret

Production

On 17 August 2017, ''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' reported that Jessica Raine and Tobias Menzies had been cast in the film, joining Hannah Rae, Devrim Lingnau, and illusionist Scott Silven in the production.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

on 11 September 2017.

Release

''Carmilla'' had its world premiere at the

on 28 June 2019. The film was originally set to be released in the United Kingdom on 3 April 2020 by Republic Film Distribution, but it was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

; it was ultimately released in cinemas on 16 October 2020 and on

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

on 19 October. In May 2020, Film Movement acquired US distribution rights to the film and released it in

virtual cinema Virtual cinema is a term referring to video-on-demand streaming services facilitated by independent film distributors and art-house theaters to release new films and to share profits. Under the service, part of the admission price supports a physi ...

s on 17 July 2020.

References

External links