Carmilla, the internet’s favorite lesbian vampire, returns this fall with movie adaptation

Carmilla the lesbian vampire will be returning in a film adaptation of the 2014 webseries with the film’s release date set for this fall.

Carmilla Karnstein, the internet’s favorite lesbian vampire, will be returning this fall in Carmilla the Movie (working title). Based on the campy supernatural 2014 webseries Carmilla, the film has begun principal photography in Toronto.

Produced by Smokebomb Entertainment, the original webseries lasted for three seasons, concluding in October 2016. The single-frame show follows the story of college student Laura Hollis (Elise Bauman) and her relationship with her new roommate Carmilla (Natasha Negovanlis), who happens to be a centuries-old vampire. Together, the girls fight Buffy-esque forces of evil at their strange university and eventually fall in love.

Carmilla the Movie will take place five years after the third season finale. Both Bauman and Negovanlis will be reprising their roles as Laura and Carmilla, while Kaitlyn Alexander and Annie Briggs will return as LaFontaine and Perry. Also returning are Nicole Stamp and Matt O’Connor as Mel and Kirsch, respectively.

Both the webseries and film are loosely adapted from the 1871 novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. This tale of a young woman preyed upon by a lesbian vampire was published 26 years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Le Fanu’s novella has had a staggering influence on vampire fiction, appearing in books, films, stage adaptations, and of course, an irresistible webseries updated for the 21st century.

The webseries has an enormous online following of more than 69 million viewers.  It has earned praise for its almost entirely female cast and its representation of LGBTQ characters. The show focuses on a lesbian relationship, which is still fairly uncommon in contemporary television. And how can we forget LaFontaine as one of television’s absurdly few nonbinary characters and by far the most lovable?

From Dracula to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, horror fiction acts as society’s way of exploring things it fears out of ignorance. Camilla the Movie comes at an important time, given society’s fear and ignorance of queer people. Especially queer women. It’s time for Camilla and Laura to come back — to give us Creampuffs (fans of the show) and queer girls one of our favorite lesbian couples back, and to show the rest of society that they should be a lot more scared of a demonic angler fish than LGBTQ folks.

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Camilla the Movie has not yet been given an official title or release date, but stay tuned for more information as we get closer to film’s expected release window.