Customer Reviews

Carmilla [VHS]

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Good movie. During the time of the civil war, a southern family receives a mysterious female during the night. As she is hurt, they take her into their household. The daughter and she become very close friends, and she ends up seducing the daughter to become a vampire just like her. While the girl's father tries to save her.

The girls play their roles very well. It's hard to know whether you should root for or against the vampire.

This 60 minute horror is made-for-TV film starring Meg Tilly, Ione Skye, Roy Dotrice and Roddy McDowall. The story is based on the short story 'Carmilla' written by 19th century Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu, but the location is shifted to Southern America probably because of its lower budget. Still the quality of the film is not bad, and some scenes of the film, if not very inspired as a whole, are given a creepy touch.

Ione Skye is Marie, a lonely girl who suddenly befriends a stranger, beautiful girl Carmilla (Meg Tilly). With Carmilla's arrival, however, strange things start to happen, like bizarre deaths with red marks on the victims' neck, and Marie's father (Dotrice) and Inspector Amos (McDowall) suspect that Carmilla is a horrifying vampire.

You don't find much mystery in this short film (though there is one gory scene in the second half), and Carmilla's identity is obvious from the beginning, but the film is better than you expect in this kind of made-for-TV films, certainly better than `The Eyes of the Panther' or `Turn of the Screw' from the same Nightmare Classics series made around 1990 (ex-produced by Shelley Duvall). Some might think Meg Tilly is miscast, but she is gorgeous nonetheless, and Roddy McDowall adds a slightly comical touch, which is precious in this rather ordinary storytelling. And there is suggested lesbianism between Marie and Carmilla, but sadly the suggestion ends only as suggestion.

Average made-for-TV film with beautiful Meg Tilly. We have not heard about her for a long time. What is she doing now?