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floating-dancer-blog · 7 years

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So despite the ocean of content I've seen I can't for the life of me figure out if Carmilla is a movie, tv show, or web thing. Banish my ignorance please.

(Warning: Long answer with minor spoilers)

Okay,it won’t be easy explaining the nature and draw of Carmilla toa non-Carmilla fan. But for you, I’m damn well going to try.

Carmilla is a low-budget, Canadian web series on YouTube,created by KindaTV and sponsored by a tampon company. It spans over 3 seasonsand 109 episodes, each of which lasts around 2-7 minutes. That is, if you don’tcount the Christmas Special and Season Zero.

Looselyadapted from Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 19th century vampire novella of thesame, the show’s story revolves around a lesbian journalism student, LauraHollis (Elise Bauman), who enrolled at Silas University in Styria of modern-dayAustria. A few weeks into her first semester, Laura’s roommate Betty wentmissing. All that was left behind was a notification card, written in multiplechoice and covered in mysterious yellow goo.

Nosooner had Laura informed a rather apathetic university administration abouther missing roommate did a dark-haired, emo-looking woman in leather pantsbarge into her dorm room. Her name was Carmilla (Natasha Negovanlis) and shewas Laura’s new roommate. Suspicious of the circumstances surrounding Betty’sdisappearance, Laura conducts an informal vlog investigation with a ragtaggroup of redheads and a good-natured (but dumb) frat boy, all the whileenduring Carmilla’s condescending remarks, confectionery-based petnames, and “annoying” attempts to dissuade her from the task.

Alongthe way, Laura discovers Carmilla’s secret identity and they eventually fallfor each other, though neither of them voice it at first. She, Carmilla and therest of the Scooby gang would also encounter a sentient library, the Dean’ssupernatural proclivities, an alchemy club, a vampire cabal, a kidnappingconspiracy, an angler fish god, and mushroom spores that could turn the studentbody into zombies – all of which exist on a campus that literally survives onthe power of Sumerian mythos. And that’s just Season 1.

Season2 sees them battling against evil corporate in the form of Silas’ BoardMembers, a shadowy business enterprise called Corvae, and Carmilla’s vampiresister, Matska Belmonde (Sophia Walker), not to mention a Silas version of aNazi SS squad, hell bent on eliminating anything remotely supernatural(vampires included) from campus grounds. In Season 3, the stakes (pun intended)are raised even higher, as Laura, Carmilla and a redhead bio major, Lafontaine,attempt to stop an impending apocalypse that was being caused by a Sumerian goddess.

Whatimpressed critics most about the Carmilla series was that:

(a) The entire show was filmed in vlog format, withjust one camera angle. By all accounts, this should have been anunmitigated disaster, storytelling-wise. However, the quality of the show’sscript and the stellar performance of the main and supporting cast, especiallythe palpable chemistry between Natasha and Elise, have made the series aphenomenon beyond all expectations (and they were pretty low to begin with).The YouTube series has now racked up more than 70 million views with fans(affectionately called ‘creampuffs’) scattered across 193 countries (http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/carmilla-web-series-movie-1.4367622).Moreover, it has won numerous awards, including the AfterEllen VisibilityAwards and the Canadian Screen Awards.

(b) Another reason for the show’s success lies inthe representation of its LGBTQIA characters. The romantic relationship betweenthe main protagonists, Laura and Carmilla, was less about their sexualorientation and more about how it fluctuated and developed throughout themortal dangers that they face each season. There was no protracted agony overthe fact that they’re both lesbians and focus was mainly on their growth ascharacters in their own right. The majority of the supporting characters werealso well-rounded and hardly walking clichés. The Carmilla cast evenconsisted of a non-binary person and people of color. So, the series ticks mostof the boxes for those in the LGBTQIA community, who feel starved ofrepresentation.

© The show’s lovable campiness and humor, whichwas often based on pop culture references, slapstick montages, and wittyone-liners and ripostes, make it accessible to its viewers, regardless ofwhether or not they belong to the targeted demographic. However, the humor waswell-integrated into the writing and never detracted from the impact of theshow’s more serious and, sometimes, heart-wrenching moments.

(d) The series overturns the Bury Your Gays trope –a sore point among the LGBTQIA community after the demise of Lexa in 100and beloved gay characters on other shows.

Riding on the coattails of Carmilla’saccomplishments, the showrunners decided to turn the web series into a movie asa love letter to the fans of the series. Their official announcement of thefilm whipped the Carmilla fandom into a frenzy, with many yelling, “Shutup and take my money!” from the rooftops.

The resulting film - just released in late October2017 - saw one-third of its funds coming from the fans alone; an unconventionalfeat achieved by an already unconventional series. Being a small, independentfilm, The Carmilla Movie didn’t exactly light the box office on firewith its limited cinematic release in Canada. But the online response to thefilm with respect to its Internet release was extraordinary. Rave reviews aboutthe movie poured into Twitter, Instagram, IMDB, Tumblr, and its distributionplatforms, Fullscreen and VHX. So, just like its previous YouTube incarnation,the film was a resounding success and currently scores a rating of 9.7/10 onIMDB. The creampuffs appear to be appeased at the moment, though they are nowclamoring for a sequel.

I hope that I have banished your ignorance about Carmilla.If you wish to watch it, you can do so by following the links in the orderprescribed below:

(1) Season 1 (Carmilla- The Series | S1 E1 “Disorientation”)

(2) Christmas Special (Carmilla | The ChristmasSpecial)

(3) Season 2 (Carmilla| S2 E1 “Brave New World”)

(4) Season 0 (Carmilla| S0 E1 “Blast From The Past”)

(5) Season 3 (Carmilla| S3 E1 “I Know What You Didn’t Do Last Summer”)

(6) The Carmilla Movie (https://www.fullscreen.com/)- Requires paid membership. Free one-week subscription trial available.

Ciao!

#carmilla #carmilla movie #hollstein #asks

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