Carmilla 2019 Movie Review

『Forbidden Love in an Oppressive World — A Pure Yet Tragic Exchange of Emotions Between Women』

🎥 Film Overview

🎬 Title: Carmilla (2019)
🌍 Country: 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🎞️ Genre: Romantic Horror / Psychological Drama / Gothic
📢 Director: Emily Harris
📺 Platform: Netflix, other VOD services

👩‍💼 Cast: Jessica Raine – Miss Fontaine
Hannah Rae – Lara
Devrim Lingnau – Carmilla

🧩 Deep Story Exploration (Spoilers)

🌿 First Love and the Eruption of Desire Amid Oppression

Carmilla is a reinterpretation of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 gothic novella. Rather than emphasizing action or explicit horror, this film reimagines the classic lesbian vampire narrative as a decadent period drama centered on themes of female repression, religious hypocrisy, and sexual awakening.

🌙 Gothic Melancholy and Visual Symbolism

• Visual Style: Through candlelit interiors, somber rooms, and vast yet claustrophobic landscapes, the film perfectly captures a mood of isolation and oppression. The imagery often resembles 18th-century paintings—subtle and shadowy—visually reflecting Lara’s entrapment in a world of control.

• Connection with Nature: Director Emily Harris frequently inserts close-ups of insects, decaying plants, and the movement of soil. These images serve as metaphors for growth, decay, and uncontrollable desire that surround Lara and Carmilla’s relationship, adding an undercurrent of unease and foreboding throughout.

• Deconstruction of the Vampire Motif: The traditional vampire element is transformed into a symbol of otherness and forbidden desire rather than literal horror. Carmilla’s “feeding” is depicted mostly through dreams and metaphors, drawing attention to the notion of female sexuality as contagion and the social persecution it evokes.

🌹 The Sensual Awakening of Lara and Carmilla

The narrative focuses on Lara, a 15-year-old girl living under the strict watch of Miss Fontaine. Her secluded, monotonous life begins to unravel with the arrival of the mysterious Carmilla.

• Lara’s Repression: Miss Fontaine forbids Lara from using her left hand, suppresses her curiosity and reading, and confines her femininity within the limits of purity and obedience. Lara’s isolation and stifled curiosity make her particularly vulnerable to the allure of the unknown.

• Carmilla’s Temptation: After a carriage accident, Carmilla enters the household, bringing with her a sense of freedom, sensuality, and boundary-breaking allure. She becomes the catalyst for Lara’s inner liberation, helping her discover her authentic desires. Their connection becomes not just romantic but a journey toward self-recognition and identity.

• Defying Taboos: The private spaces and secret moments shared by Lara and Carmilla directly challenge the patriarchal and religious authority embodied by Miss Fontaine. As their bond deepens, Lara’s complexion grows paler (a metaphor for vampiric exchange), and Fontaine’s hysteria and suspicion escalate dramatically.

🍷 Miss Fontaine’s Desire and Persecution

One of the film’s most intriguing aspects lies in the complex character of Miss Fontaine. She is not a simple villain but a product of repression herself.

• Repressed Femininity: Her obsessive religiosity and need for control stem from her own suppressed sexuality and jealousy. As she witnesses the closeness between Carmilla and Lara, it’s implied that she yearns for the freedom and intimacy she herself was never allowed.

• Transformation into a Persecutor: Fontaine’s suspicion of Carmilla as a vampire—or a demonic seductress—arises from her fear and disgust toward female desire. Through Fontaine, the film portrays how social repression mutates into moral hysteria and persecution. The true horror here is not the vampire, but the fearful prejudice of adults.

✍️ Queer Narrative Tradition and Modern Interpretation

The film follows the tragic trajectory of the original novella. Carmilla is ultimately destroyed (killed) by Miss Fontaine and Mr. Bauer (Lara’s father), leaving Lara isolated once more in a world stripped of love and freedom.

• Tragic Trope: This conclusion can be read as an example of the “Bury Your Gays” trope, but within the period setting, it realistically conveys how 18th-century society punished forbidden love with cruelty and moral righteousness.

• Eternal Wound: Lara’s loss is not merely romantic but the destruction of her first love and the awakening of her identity. The film simultaneously captures the beauty and brutality of love, leaving viewers with a profound sense of grief and anger.

Carmilla (2019) drains not blood, but the tears and suppressed desires of women. Through its exquisite mise-en-scène and restrained direction, it paints a somber yet delicate portrait of personal liberation through sexual awakening—and the cruel fate that befalls those who challenge societal norms.

🎯 Personal Rating

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★☆