CARMILLA is one of my favorite works of gothic fiction, and one of my favorite books, period. Because of that, especially discovering it as an opinionated teenager, I was wary of adaptations very early on, knowing how loosely they treated the source material. It is a genuine tragedy for such a small book. At the start of it, Laura's the loneliest girl in the world and at the end she's lonelier. Left with the impossible task of reconciling that her sweet love, the snarling monster & the unknowable phantom were the same person. The lesbian is not subtextual, it is as overt as it could possibly be in 1872 and all the more impressive for that, even if, yes, that love is treated as predatory, is demonized, and is something Laura is ultimately “saved” from, her connection with Carmilla is genuine. And there is a profound sadness and loneliness to Carmilla that is not shown by the vampires that would follow in Stoker’s DRACULA.
All of that being said, it took me forever to revisit THE VAMPIRE LOVERS after my initial viewing. Considering the fact that I am someone who re-reads CARMILLA at least once a year, it is astonishing that I had not seen this film since I saw it for the first time as a college freshman. It is a *beautiful* movie. An absolutely gorgeous gothic masterpiece, lavish and moody and melancholy, an aching but violent portrayal of men's abject fear of female sexuality.
It's a loose adaptation of the source material but as someone raised on DRACULA adaptations I have become very used to that, and my definition of a "faithful" adaptation has grown very broad. VAMPIRE LOVERS was kind of doing the "it's an adaptation of the book but also kind of a sequel" thing long before it was popular. It really takes a singular key component of the text, with the backstory and the reveal that Carmilla had done this before and under a different name, and expands upon that exponentially.
This vampire is one of the smoothest operators in history, and so much of men's unease toward her stems from the fact that she is cleaning up with the ladies, commanding their attention while the boys are barely given the time of day as a result. Ingrid Pitt's performance is so cool and confident, it's mesmerizing to watch.
There are shots in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS that feel like the distilled essence of Gothic imagery, from Emma sitting at the window with the full moon and looming castle in the background to the vampire creeping through the cemetery. One of the great vampire films. A moody and sensual indulgence.