Carmilla

Plot

Season 1

The series is told through a fictional vlog broadcast by Laura Hollis, a freshman studying journalism who has decided to document her college experience. When her roommate Betty suddenly goes missing at a swim team party, Laura is assigned a new roommate, Carmilla Karnstein, whom Laura describes as "broody."

Laura, aided by her friends, discovers that her former roommate is not the only girl to have abruptly gone missing from Silas. The season follows Laura's investigation and her relationship with Carmilla, which progresses from hostile to romantic over the course of the season. Meanwhile, the university's mysterious dean is up to something that can't be good.

Story between seasons

Between the first and second seasons, series story editor Ellen Simpson published additional story content. Canon Twitter accounts under Laura, Carmilla, and LaFontaine's names relay the group's encounters with supernatural Styrian dangers while trying to escape the Silas campus.

Between stories on the Twitter accounts, a Christmas special was released detailing the group's not-so-pleasant encounter with a seemingly-pleasant Mama Klaus.

Season 2

The second season begins with Laura, Carmilla, LaFontaine, and Perry's return to the Silas campus following the Dean's defeat. Laura decides to investigate the murder of several members of the newspaper staff. Other strange occurrences on campus draw the attention of Carmilla's adoptive sister Mattie and the Silas Board of Governors. Laura and her friends decide to launch an election to replace Mattie as the Chair of the Board with a kindly old baron.

New characters include:

Matska "Mattie" Belmonde, Carmilla's adoptive vampiric sister and chair of the Silas Board of Governors.

Baron Vordenberg, the descendant of a vampire hunter whose family was murdered by Carmilla 300 years prior.

Melanippe "Mel" Callis, a sister in the Summer Society.

Theodore "Theo" Straka, a brother in Zeta Omega Mu.

Season Zero

A teaser trailer announcing this season was released on October 1, 2015. This season consisted of 12 episodes instead of in previous, where there was 36 episodes. All the episodes except the first episode were released on U by Kotex's YouTube channel.

While Carmilla and Laura are trapped in the library, they watch VHS tapes that document interactions between Carmilla, Perry, and Mel while they are trapped in a room where U by Kotex brand tampons are stored. These events occur a year before Laura is a student at Silas University.

Season 3

The series was renewed for a third and final season on February 13, 2016. It premiered on September 15, 2016 and finished on October 13, 2016.

This season's episodes were released differently than in previous seasons. Season three was released in three acts with several episodes released within each act. Act I consisted of episodes 1–17, Act II was episodes 18–24, and Act III was episodes 25–36.

Laura and her friends face the Dean yet again, who has now possessed Perry and intends to open the gates of Hell. Laura and her friends spend most their time hiding out in the sentient campus library, that has been mentioned in previous seasons. They are in search of a way, once and for all, to stop the Dean.

New characters include Sherman Hollis, Laura's father.

Extra content from this season includes: Mel's transmissions from the pit. Thirteen podcasts of Mel, detailing the daily life and several different events that happen while the students of Silas University are trapped in the pit digging for the dean.

Film

A feature-length film based on the series was produced in 2017 and premiered on October 26, 2017 in theatres across Canada. It is available to stream via VHX. It also appeared on the platform Fullscreen before the site shut down.

A teaser trailer for the film was released on October 6, 2016, and an extended trailer was added at the end of the web series finale. A teaser trailer was released September 2, 2017. The movie is going to take place five years after the events of season three.

Natasha Negovanlis and Elise Bauman were confirmed to reprise their roles. This is the second film that the two have co-starred in, the first being Almost Adults, created by The Gay Women Channel, a channel on YouTube. According to news first reported by Variety, the following actresses and actors appeared in the film: Dominique Provost-Chalkley, Grace Lynn Kung, Cara Gee, Annie Briggs, K Alexander, Nicole Stamp, and Matt O'Connor.

The movie takes place five years after the final events on season three. Laura and Carmilla have moved in together in an apartment in Toronto, Ontario. Post-graduation, Laura has felt rather unsuccessful with her journalism career thus far. After experiencing lucid dreams in a Victorian setting, Laura notices supernatural events are occurring in her life again. Carmilla has once again become a vampire after a mysterious meeting with a supernatural-therapist. Perry and LaFontaine own a start-up, Danny is a vampire rights activist, and Mel and Kirsch have joined Laura in journalism. Laura and Carmilla, along with Perry, LaFontaine, Mel, and Kirsch travel back to Styria, Austria to the Victorian mansion Laura has been dreaming of. Along with the ghosts of Carmilla's former victims, they fight the ghost of Carmilla's ex-lover in order to regain Carmilla's humanity.

Episodes

The first season of Carmilla consists of 36 episodes, which aired from August 19, 2014 to December 2, 2014. A Christmas special aired on December 24, 2014. The second season of Carmilla consists of 36 episodes, which aired from June 2, 2015 to October 1, 2015. The next season, titled Season Zero, consists of 12 episodes, which began airing on October 22, 2015 and concluded on November 24, 2015.

The third and final season of Carmilla consists of 36 episodes and was split into three acts. Act I, which contains the first 17 episodes of the season, aired on September 15, 2016. Act II contains episodes 18-24 and aired on September 29, 2016. Act III contains episodes 25-36 and aired on October 13, 2016.

Cast and characters

Due to budgetary constraints, the actors cast in season one were not members of ACTRA, a Canadian labor union for artists and performers. During pre-production for the second season, it was announced that the show would be financially able to support its actors in joining ACTRA, and several actors of color had been cast as new characters.

Main characters

Laura Eileen Hollis (played by Elise Bauman) is the sheltered and courageous protagonist. As the series begins, she is a 19-year-old journalism major at Silas. Despite her love of sugary foods, Laura is tiny and, as a child, was signed up for Krav Maga classes by her overprotective father so she, his only child, could learn how to defend herself. Though somewhat bookish and dorky, she is courageous and fiercely loyal to her friends. Laura enjoys various forms of pop culture, including Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Doctor Who, and is deeply inspired by historical strong female icons. Laura does not hide her initial dislike towards Carmilla, but as the series progresses and after discovering who Carmilla truly is, she finds herself falling in love with her and the two enter into a relationship by season 2. They break up during that same season, but during season 3 are working towards getting back together. It is implied that Laura does not have a mother; if her family correlates with her character's family in the original novella, Laura's mother died when she was young. Little is known of her past and of Laura herself other than basic facts discovered in season 1, and the fact she is a lesbian.

Countess Mircalla "Carmilla" von Karnstein (played by Natasha Negovanlis) is Laura's new roommate and the series' second protagonist. Born in Styria in 1680 as Mircalla Karnstein, the daughter of a Count, Carmilla was murdered at a ball and resurrected as a vampire, eternally aging her at 18. She is the "adopted" daughter of the Dean of Silas University, Lilita Morgan (also a vampire), who forces Carmilla to bring her girls to offer in sacrifice to the angler fish god in her cult. During the 1800s, Carmilla fell deeply in love with Elle, one of her mother's targets, and tried to prevent her sacrifice. When her mother revealed to Elle that Carmilla is a vampire, however, Elle rejected Carmilla. Carmilla was tortured and buried in a coffin full of blood for several decades, as punishment for disobeying her mother. She was freed during the Second World War when a bomb exploded and unearthed her coffin. Carmilla was eventually found by her mother and forced to continue entrapping girls. She was brought to Silas University and eventually becomes roommates with Laura Hollis, one of her mother's next targets. However, Carmilla becomes passionately drawn to Laura and vows not to let her mother harm her. Carmilla and Laura enter into a relationship by the end of season one, but it falls apart by the end of season 2. In season 3, the couple is working on rebuilding their trust. Carmilla is a strong willed, sarcastic, philosophy student who consistently fails to clean up after herself and often uses Laura's possessions without permission. She possesses supernatural strength and speed, pyrokinesis, and can transform into a giant black cat.

Supporting characters

Wilson Kirsch (played by Matt O'Connor) is a student at Silas University and a member of the Zeta Omega Mu fraternity. Kirsch has a desire to protect others, and upon meeting Laura, nicknames her "Little Nerd" and designates himself as her "Zeta Omega Mu safety companion". He joins Laura and her friends in the search for the missing girls at Silas. In season 2 he's shown to have developed feelings for Danny, which she does not reciprocate, but he happily accepts being in the "friend zone". In season 3, he is being used as feeding bag for Danny, who is now a vampire. Despite being just sustenance for Danny, Kirsch is shown to still be a loyal friend to her.

Will Luce (played by Aaron Chartrand) is a vampire, Zeta Omega Mu fraternity brother, and Kirsch's best friend. Also resurrected by the Dean, Will is Carmilla's younger brother. He refers to his sister as 'Kitty', and in return, is called 'Mama's Boy' for fulfilling the Dean's every request. Midway through season one, he attempts to attack Laura, but she is defended by Carmilla. He gets staked by Perry at the end of season one. His body is later used as shell to bring J.P. to life.

Elizabeth "Betty" Anne Spielsdorf (played by Grace Glowicki) is Laura's original roommate. Betty, who initially appeared to be a care-free party girl was kidnapped by the Dean in the first episode of season one. After her disappearance, Laura vows to discover what happened to Betty. When Betty is finally rescued, it is revealed that she was brainwashed into coming to Silas, is very neat and intelligent, and was her high school valedictorian. After her return, she comes off as slightly rude and is attempting to transfer to Princeton University. In Season 3, she is seen as still following Laura's vlogs, and helps the group decipher some hieroglyphics written in a dead language.

Sarah "SJ" Jane (played by Breton Lalama) is a pre-med student at Silas University. Sarah Jane was attending a swim team party when she went missing. She later reappeared, but couldn't remember what happened to her and eventually turned into a party animal. She began dating Kirsch, and while attending a party with him fell out of a third floor window during a botched attempt to summon her to the Dean. The fall resulted in her death.

Natalie (played by Lisa Truong) is a student at Silas University and one of the girls who went missing. After initially returning, like Sarah Jane, she could not remember what happened to her and eventually turned into a party animal. She was attending the Peace Augsburg Luau when she went missing again. She was eventually saved by Laura and her friends at the end of season one.

Reception

Carmilla has been praised by Dana Piccoli of AfterEllen for its near all-female cast and representation of various LGBT characters. In 2016, the series won a Canadian Screen Award and a Rockie Award for Branded Content at the Banff World Media Festival. Its use of LGBT characters and fantasy has earned it comparisons to the hit television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Novelization

On May 7, 2019 a novelisation of the web series was released. The book Carmilla is written by Kim Turrisi.