The Carmilla Movie Review: Lesbian Vampires and Queerness Galore!
Here’s the thing. I love vampires, like, a lot. And I love lesbians, like, a lot. And I’ve known about the Carmilla web series for a long time, it’s been on my must-watch list for years. But I got the opportunity to watch The Carmilla Movie at Outfest, and let me tell you, all of my queer lesbian fantasies have been fulfilled. I am so mad at myself for putting off watching the web series! And I have already started binge watching it on Youtube – I may already be done with the first two seasons… But let’s talk about this movie first.
Look, I’ll try to be objective here and not let my vampire obsession get in the way, but I just really loved everything about this movie. It had everything I love most in the world: gorgeous girls, vampires, gorgeous girls playing gorgeous vampires, and completely unnecessary – but, like, very beautiful - corset sex scenes.
The movie is based on the characters from the web series in an entirely new adventure. Our villain, Ell (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) lures the protagonists to a creepy, old mansion where they attempt to save Carmilla’s (Natasha Negovanlis) past victims from their continued hellish fate. The team’s rescue mission is full of campy, queer (like so gay) comedy. We also get to see a bit more of Carmilla’s backstory and how it affects her relationship with her girlfriend, Laura (Elise Bauman). I thought the movie handled the story well and was able to stand alone; without ever having watched the web series I was able to follow the movie with no issues or confusion. In fact, seeing the movie just really pushed me to finally watch the web series.
The Carmilla Movie hold all of the characters from the series, which is wonderfully diverse. We get representation for so many groups from lesbians to bisexuals to nonbinary folks. It’s fantastic. We also get to see strong and powerful women of color, and the creators and cast are all representative of the LGBTQ community as well.
I’m super excited to finish the web series, and even more excited to see what else gets to happen with the Carmilla franchise in the future.
Watch The Carmilla Movie today on Amazon at the link to the right!