Director: Jimmy Sangster
Writers: Tudor Gates, Sheridan Le Fanu
Stars: Barbara Jefford, Ralph Bates, Suzanna Leigh
Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
Link:
Synopsis
A girl walks through the woods and is watched by someone in a creepy black cape and carriage. The carriage pulls alongside her, and she gets in. She gets a better look at the passenger and screams. Credits roll.
The coachman carries the girl inside, and a budget Christopher Lee-looking actor hands the woman in black a huge knife, which she uses to cut the girl’s throat. The two use the girl’s blood to resurrect a skeleton from a coffin. Mircalla/Carmilla wakes up and looks alive once again.
In the daylight, the barkeeper explains about vampires to Richard LeStrange, a traveler and writer, who isn’t familiar with the undead. He wants to go up and check out Karnstein castle. He finds the blood from the previous night.
LeStrange is quickly surrounded by three creepy women who turn out to be normal girls who are friends of Giles Barton. Barton has opened a finishing school just down the hill from the castle. The headmistress doesn’t approve of LeStrange’s books. The Countess is bringing her niece, a new pupil. We get lots of shots of topless girls in the boarding school that night. Don’t think too hard on the fact that they’re supposed to be underage teenagers in boarding school.
LeStrange talks the new English teacher into leaving town, and he volunteers to take his place. He has to share a room with Giles. LeStrange jokes that Barton is in training to become a vampire himself. Meanwhile, several other girls go missing or are killed with bite-marks, even though everyone knows there are vampires about. One of these is Susan, who is Mircalla’s roommate.
LeStrange professes his undying love for Mircalla, even though they’ve never actually spoken before. We see Barton throwing Susan’s body into the well. Barton confronts Mircalla, and he knows who she is; he found a portrait of Carmilla/Mircalla. He begs to become her servant. She bites him, leaves him screaming, then runs off.
The next morning, they find Barton’s body, but the examining doctor is actually Count Karstein himself. Could they be up to something?
LeStrange digs through Barton’s things, and he finds the picture of Carmilla/Mircalla as well. Now He knows the truth. He looks at Barton’s body and finds the bite marks. He confronts Mircalla, and they kiss and have sex as we hear someone singing the weird and completely inappropriate song “Strange Love.”
More intrigue develops, and someone finally calls the police over the missing girl. Mircalla explains that her mother is coming for a visit and that LeStrange mustn’t say anything about their love. The Headmistress has called the countess for help making the police go away. The police inspector finds Susan in the well and soon finds himself down there as well.
The Countess takes care of Susan’s body, placing it in a grave so that when her father has her exhumed, she’s exactly where she’s supposed to be. Susan’s father brings in an expert, who recommends bringing in a priest. Before long, they form a posse and storm the castle. LeStrange wants to stop them, but the crowd is too big.
The Count and Countess see the mob coming and call for Carmilla to come with them, but it’s too late. The mob kills the coachman by staking him through the heart, and they see that he was indeed a vampire. LeStrange rushes into the burning castle to warn her, but Mircalla is killed by a falling wooden plank as the castle burns.
Susan’s father pulls LeStrange out of the castle as it collapses. The Count and Countess are inside, but tell each other that fire can’t hurt them.
Commentary
It was way too obvious thath they used a close-up of Christopher Lee’s red, bloodshot eyes when Count Karstein resurrects Carmilla, who isn’t Ingrid Pitt anymore; she too, has been re-cast. Count Karstein isn’t the same actor either, but he didn’t speak at all in the “Vampire Lovers” the previous film in the series.
I assume that most of the girls in the finishing school are supposed to be teenagers, but these actresses aren’t fooling anybody. They all look entirely too old for their parts. Still, the topless shots of the “teens” is tacky, at least by today’s standards, even if we do realize it’s all pretend.
LeStrange is the leading man and hero of the story, but let’s not forget that he weaseled his way into the job of teacher to be near a bunch of young girls. That may have been the way of things in the 1800s, but not so much today.
It’s got a very soap-opera style, and there’s way too much angst in this one. It’s not completely clear what’s going on until Barton dies, and I really expected that he would come back, although he didn’t. The Count and Countess clearly did survive, so the third film must have already been planned.