Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's
Films

            We'll take a look in this page at the different movie adaptations based on material written by Le Fanu. Here they are, in chronological order:
 

Vampyr aka Vampire aka The Strange Adventure of David Gray aka Castle of Doom (1931) - Germany.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer.
Leading Players: Julian West, Henriette Gérard, Sibylle Schmitz.
In this uniquely beautiful and disturbing film Dreyer wanted "to create a day dream on the screen and to show that the horrific is not to be found around us but in our own unconscious mind". Loosely based on "Carmilla", the script also borrows from other stories contained in In a Glass Darkly.
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Et Mourir de Plaisir aka Blood and roses (1960) - France - Italy.
Director: Roger Vadim.
Leading Players: Mel Ferrer, Elsa Martinelli, Annette Vadim.
This adaptation of "Carmilla" was clearly intended as an art-house horror movie. Predictably enough, Vadim highlights the lesbian implications behind Carmilla's choice of the Karnstein bride as the favored object of her vampiric attentions.
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La Cripta e l'Incubo aka La Maldición de los Karnstein aka Crypt of Horror aka Terror in the Crypt aka The Karnstein Curse aka La Maledizione dei Karnstein aka The Crypt of the Vampire aka The Vampire's Crypt aka Karnstein aka The Crypt and the Nightmare aka Carmilla aka The Curse of the Karnsteins (1964) - Italy - Spain.
Director: Thomas Miller.
Leading Players: Audrey Amber, Christopher Lee, Ursula Davis.
This is a flaccid rendering of Le Fanu's "Carmilla". Count Ludwig von Karnstein (Lee) is worried about a curse in his family which says that the evil witch Sheena will eventually be reincarnated in one of his descendants.
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This movie is not available on VHS or DVD at this time.

The Vampire Lovers (1970) - UK.
Director: Roy Ward Baker.
Leading Players: Ingrid Pitt, Pippa Steele, Madeleine Smith.
British Hammer embarked on a trilogy derived from "Carmilla". This first installment features Mircalla (Pitt), the beautiful member of the Karnstein family which escaped destruction by vampire hunter Baron Hartog. She vampirizes the young Laura, daughter of General Spielsdorf.
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Lust for a Vampire aka To Love a Vampire (1970) - UK.
Director: Jimmy Sangster.
Leading Players: Yutte Stensgaard, Suzanna Leigh, Ralph Bates.
This is the second of Hammer's Karnstein trilogy of films derived from "Carmilla". The story, set in 1870, tells of the ravages perpetrated by Mircalla Karnstein (Stensgaard) in a girls' finishing school adjacent to the castle's grounds.
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Vampyros Lesbos aka Die Erbin des Dracula aka Las Vampiras aka Lesbian Vampires aka El Signo del Vampiro aka The Sign of the Vampire aka The Heritage of Dracula (1970) - Spain - Germany.
Director: Jesús Franco.
Leading Players: Susan Korda, Dennis Price, Ewa Stroemberg.
Franco's sexy, rather sadistic horror movie combines the Countess Dracula motiffs with elements of "Carmilla" and Stoker's Dracula's Guest. Franco tells of the Count's descendant, a beautiful woman called Nadina who lives on an isolated island.
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Twins of evil aka The Gemini Twins aka Virgin Vampires aka Twins of Dracula (1971) - UK.
Director: John Hough.
Leading Players: Peter Cushing, Madeleine Collinson, Mary Collinson.
This is the third, last and best of Hammer Karnstein trilogy. The plot opposes the puritanical witch-hunter, Weil (Cushing), and the vampiric count Karnstein (Thomas) battling over the fate of the Collinson twins.
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This movie is not available on VHS or DVD at this time.

La Novia Ensangrentada aka The Blood Splattered Bride aka 'Til Death Us Do Part (1972) - Spain.
Director: Vicente Aranda.
Leading Players: Simón Andreu, Maribel Martín, Alexandra Bastedo.
This is one of the many "lesbian" horror films nominally derived from "Carmilla". Maribel Martín plays a frigid young newlywed and Alexandra Bastedo (first seen, inexplicably, buried up to her neck in the sand) an enigmatic figure who proves to be a vampire.
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This movie is not available on VHS or DVD at this time.

The Inn of the Flying Dragon aka Ondskans Värdshus aka The Sleep of Death aka L'Auberge du Dragon Volant (1981) - Sweden - UK.
Director: Calvin Floyd.
Leading Players: Per Oscarsson, Patrick Magee, Marilu Tolo.
Floyd's free adaptation of Le Fanu's "The Room in the Dragon Volant" is a well-made vampire tale which counts on suggestion and ambiguity to make its points.
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This movie is not available on VHS or DVD at this time.

Showtime's Nightmare Classics: Carmilla (1989) - US.
Director: Gabrielle Beaumont
Leading Players: Roy Detrice, Roddy McDowall, Meg Tilly.
This made-for-television version is one of the best adaptations of "Carmilla".
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J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1998) - US.
Leading Players: Bootsie Carnes, Marina Morgan.
Yet another variation on the vampire classic, this one following a young woman searching for her missing sister who falls (not entirely unwillingly) into the title character's clutches.
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Carmilla (1999) - US.
Director: Jay Lind.
Leading Players: Stacia Crawford, Marina Morgan, María Pechukas.
This version finds the lesbian vampire stalking the wilds of Long Island.
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This movie is not available on VHS or DVD at this time.