Five years after the events of the web series, Carmilla is no longer a vampire, but a living, breathing human. The former vampire seems to adapt well to her new mortal life in Toronto with her girlfriend, Laura. However, Carmilla's bloody past is never far, and eventually comes back to haunt them when Laura begins having nightmares related to Carmilla's past.
Cast
Production
The film is based on the Canadian web series Carmilla. Both the film and the web series were adapted from the 1872 gothic novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. In September 2017 a trailer of the film was shown at the 2017 New York Comic Con. Aside from the characters that had already appeared in the series, the film introduced one new character: Carmilla's first love Ell, who was played by Dominique Provost-Chalkley. While the web series was presented in five-minute segments viewed through the webcam of the main character, Laura Hollis, the film also shows the characters when Laura's camera is offline. The film was shot in 14 days in June 2017. The film stars the cast of the web series: Elise Bauman, Natasha Negovanlis, Annie Briggs, Kaitlyn Alexander, Nicole Stamp, and Matt O'Connor. Newly introduced cast members include Dominique Provost-Chalkley, Grace Lynn Kung, and Cara Gee. Filming took place throughout the month of June 2017 in and around Toronto. 30% of financing for the film, which was made for less than $1 million, came from preselling the film via VHX to fans. Alejandro Alcoba and Jordan Hall wrote the script for the film.
Release
On October 26, 2017, the film was released in Cineplex theatres across Canada for one night only, before being released for streaming on Fullscreen the following day. In January 2018, the film was first broadcast on television. It was shown along with the complete web series in an 18-hour marathon on Hollywood Suite.
Reception
Amy Zimmerman of The Daily Beast praises that the film does not focus on "pale men and their fawning female victims", but rather queer women who are not "portrayed through harmful stereotypes". According to Amy, "Carmillas creative team actively avoids the tropes that have come to define queer women in pop culture". Jessica Oshanani of Her Campus thinks that the film is "incredible and worth watching". She believes that the cast, who bring their own unique personalities into the film, are one of the best things about the film. Peter Knegt from CBC.ca felt that the film was made mainly for fans of the web series. Because he had not seen the web series first, he found it hard to follow the plot in the film. He also mentions that the film is "not just a lesbian vampire movie, but a whole world dominated by characters who are queer and/or female", and that it even has a non-binary character in LaFontaine. Karly Ko from Autostraddle says that The Carmilla Movie was even better than she expected as a fan of the web series. She praises the cast and the depiction of the characters' relationships. Aja Romano from Vox believes that The Carmilla Movie is mainly interesting to those who are happy to spend a few hours watching two beautiful women who are happy with each other in a simple and sweet love story.
