Then there is a carriage wreck and Carmilla (Meg Tilly) comes to stay. This is spooky and gothic as Carmilla wears Marie’s mother’s very low cut dress and glides around being a charming decadent parasite serial killer. Marie is only too eager to pose prettily in her billowing white dress as her vampire friend feeds on her. Remember how in ‘Moonlight’ Josef turned Mick into a vampire in a very sensual way? It’s like that.
The death of a beggar child and a maid causes Amos (Roddy McDowall) to show up to investigate. Leo and Amos plot Carmilla’s destruction as Marie and Carmilla do slo-mo running and plan to run off together. Leo is appalled at the idea of his daughter being a vampire and bellows: “She can’t have you.” It all leads to a bloody climax and an ambiguous ending. This was good and very memorable.
Best Lines:
“The bodies have to be buried or they’ll rot in this heat.”
“There are stories of sickness in the south.”
“Some friends are good for you and some are not.”
“I’d like to examine the body.”
“If you’ve just eaten, I would suggest that you wait.”
“Plague does not bite.”
