Director: Roy Ward Baker
Writers: Sheridan Le Fanu, Harry Fine
Stars: Ingrid Pitt, Pippa Steel, Madeline Smith
Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
Link: https://amzn.to/37BQmMA
Synopsis
We see Joachim von Hartog writing a letter about the supernatural happenings of the Karnsteins. We get a man with a voiceover narration doing some kind of battle with “murderers from beyond the grave,” a vampire with a shroud. Vampires can only return to the grave with their shroud. He finds a shroud on the ground and takes it. He then waits with a sword in hand and a pretty girl comes up to take back the shroud. He is about to bite him– but he decapitates her. Credits roll.
The General is putting on a fancy party for his daughter’s birthday. The countess comes to the party and introduces her daughter Marcilla, who is instantly popular with the young officers at the party. The countess almost immediately has to leave, but asks the general to watch over Marcilla until her return. His own daughter, Laura becomes Marcilla’s friend.
Laura wakes up screaming in the middle of the night after dreaming about a huge cat. Time passes, and she has more nightmares, and she starts getting weaker and weaker; the doctor blames anemia. At one point, Marcilla comforts the sickly Laura with a kiss. And then another kiss. Not long after, Laura is dead. They find bite marks on her chest, and then can’t find Marcilla. The general gets depressed and goes to visit his friend, Baron von Hartog.
The countess’s carriage has an accident, and Mr. Morton invites the countess’ daughter, Carmilla, to come stay with them to recuperate. Carmilla is, of course, Marcilla, whom we met earlier. She becomes friends with Morton’s daughter, Emma. Emma and Carmilla get naked and undress in front of each other a lot. Then they roll around on the bed together. Soon, Emma starts dreaming about a great cat in her room, and it’s as big as a wolf.
The general’s servant comes to call on Emma, but Carmilla has bewitched the governess, who sends him away. He could identify Carmilla as Marcilla, since he saw her at the General’s house. The butler calls the doctor to look in on Emma, against the governess’ orders. The doctor notices booby-bite-marks just like the deceased Laura had. The doctor puts garlic in the room and a cross around Emma’s neck. The butler suspects that the governess is behind Emma’s illness.
Carmilla comes in later, sees the cross and garlic, and slowly back out of the room. She catches the doctor on the way home and drains him dry. The innkeeper explains to Mr. Morton about the Karnsteins and Baron von Hartog. Morton goes out to find the General and von Hartog on the road, carrying the dead doctor with him.
Morton, von Hartog, and the General all head up to Karnstein castle. Meanwhile, Carmilla is working hard to get the servants to remove the garlic from Emma’s room. Renton the butler doesn’t suspect her of anything. Carmilla bites Renton, and now he’s her slave as well.
The three old men find Marcilla/Camilla’s grave and dig it up; the coffin is elsewhere. Camilla takes Emma away, saying they would go to her home. Carmilla drains the governess and Renton, just as the General’s servant rushes in to save Emma. He prays, and Camilla just vanishes into thin air.
The three old men see Camilla wandering through the woods and follow her back to the castle. They find the coffin buried under the floor. The general volunteers to do the staking. Emma can feel what’s going on with her connection to Camilla as they stake Camilla and then behead her.
Commentary
This is the first Hammer film that I can think of that had full frontal nudity. It was really blatant; not a bit subtle. There’s a lot of lesbian subtext, and even some obvious stuff, but it’s all super tame compared to modern films. It must have been really shocking in 1970.
We never get any explanation about who the Countess or the mysterious man in black is, but it’s obvious that at least he is a vampire. Presumably he’s the head of the vampire family, but not only does he not get caught, he never even speaks in the film. He just looks whatever’s going on ominously a few times.
All the performances here are good, but Peter Cushing is completely wasted and only gets about 10 minutes of screen time. The real star here would be Ingrid Pitt, who gets all the best scenes and alternates between an innocent girl and a demonic blood sucker. I can see wht Hammer used her in most of their subsequent films.