Carmilla

One of the characters believes that after death, there are "deserts of eternity". I experienced these while watching this beautifully shot but so, so, so slow-moving film.

The acting by Jessica Raine and Hannah Rae is good. However, the story fails to get out of first gear. While there are some great moments, there is no suspense, and you won't remember much about the film a week after viewing. Slow and beautiful like Kubrick does it but without any message.

I LOVE vampire movies, i've seen as many as i can get my grubby little hands on, and i really loved this one. This one has a very beautiful ambiguity that i really really love. At lot of these other reviews seemed to hate that, but in this adaptation you don't know of carmilla really a vampire, you just know something isn't right with her, and i loved that. It's still visually very beautifully gothic, but if you want candelabras and fangs on necks this isn't necessarily a traditional vampire flick.

In the original novel, lara doesn't reciprocate carmillas advances but this one is this very strange, romantic love story between the two of them that i think works much better than original antagonist carmilla.

There is a bit of gore in this one, it's mildly graphic, but i think it works really well especially in the context of the whole movie.

I gave it a 5 rating because this is still a movie that you might want to see. But just be forewarned that this movie does not do the Carmilla story justice.

The actresses in this film are good-looking and there is some chemistry between them, but otherwise they are not very talented or special. The film setting and costumes are good enough to be convincing of the time period, and you might enjoy the cinematography. But there is a lack of a story being told.

And the story is also lacking any explanation about who Carmilla is or even what exactly happens at the end of the movie. There was also much room to tell more of a story than what is being told here that goes to waste. Finally the film is full of the usual lesbian movie clichés which I found tiresome. So if you're looking for a good lesbian movie, this is not it.

This would have made a beautiful short film, worthy of a higher rating, for acting, cinematography and concept; the actresses are as fetching as the scenery and it's a period piece - what's not to like. stretched too thin, repetitive scenes that drag on forever, and the pretty sand castle collapses as one falls asleep mid-scene. a central tenet of the plot is not well enough executed for suspension of disbelief, even for a die-hard fantasy/sci-fi fanatic like myself, who usually finds escapism preferable to hyper realism and has no patience for the 'suspension of disbelief' crowd. I haven't read the book, but it seems doubtful that this crucial detail wasn't more convincing on the written page, or that so little happened over such a long time. put a gel sleeping ice pack on your eyes, put Enya on in the background, burn some lavender incense and take a nap instead.

I have seen and own the Hammer trilogy that is famous for being one of the first to adapt the story, and I would call them tame by 1980 standards, but yet still interesting to view. I would say the same for this adaption. Being 60, I grew up in the era of plot driven stories that at drama and so do not believe that every movie is non stop action as it has been since 2000. It is not a porn flick either, it is an attempt to understand the author point of view. There are other adaptions from this time period that I have not seen. I found a new Blu Ray and paid less than $30 for it and will add to my library of fine films and movies as well as B movies that I love.