W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K | 064
Carmilla
Bloodlust
Release 3 April
Director E mily Harris
Cast obias Menzies, Greg Wise, Jessica Raine T
Distributor epublic FilmR
Certificate 15
Director/writer Emily Harris whips up
an intoxicating affair between two women in
Carmilla, as she takes her turn at adapting the
1872 Gothic novella by Sheridan Le Fanu. It’s
a text that has inspired many directors over
the course of cinematic history, from the likes
of Carl Dreyer in 1932 with Va mpy r, Vicente
Aranda with Seventies cult classic The Blood
Splattered Bride, and even British director
Phil Claydon with the complete piece of trash,
Lesbian Vampire Killers in 2009.
In 2020 Harris takes a discerning stab at
the book, with a sensual tale of first love and
sexual awakenings packed full of beguiling and
provocative imagery.
Harris relocates the story to 1780s rural
England, where a 15-year-old girl named Lara
(Hannah Rae) lives in an isolated dwelling
with her strict governess Miss Fontaine
(Jessica Raine). When a mysterious stranger
lands on their doorstep, after an unfortunate
crash, her presence titillates and frightens
those around her.
Koko-di
Koko-da
Unhappy death day
Release 7 March 2
Director ohannes NyholmJ
Cast eif Edlund, Ylva Gallon, Peter L
Belli, Katarina Jakobson, Morad Baloo
Khatchadorian, Brandy Litmanen
Distributor Picturehouse Entertainment
Certificate 18On a day out in Denmark just
before her eighth birthday, young Maja
(Katarina Jakobson) tells her parents,
Elin (Ylva Gallon) and Tobias (Leif
Edlund), that she wishes the day could last forever.
The day will end up playing in her parents’ minds
in perpetuity, though not for the reasons that the
happy child intends.
And in Swedish writer-director Johannes
Nyholm’s Koko-di Koko-da, a literal never-endingquality will take effect for another dreadful day in
the aftermath.
Tragedy follows, and three years later the couple
are back on the road once more. Taking a trip
to find their way back to each other from a state
of freefall, their overnight camping in the woods
spells disaster. In the dusk hours of the morning,
an entourage of creepy, nursery rhyme-singing
individuals – accompanied by both a deceased
pet and a very much alive and threatening one –
attack their tent. Elin is assaulted and seemingly
killed, while Tobias cowers and hides. He doesn’t
last long as the bowler hatted dandy-like leader
(Peter Belli) of the pack pulls a Mr Burns and
releases the hound on him.
That would appear to be the end of the couple,
except Nyholm rewinds the narrative back to
them in the car from earlier and arriving again at
their campsite, with different nuances to the story
direction we saw maybe 20 minutes before. The
same attack events ensue, except Tobias seems to
have a degree of precognitive awareness of what’s
about to go down.
A more melancholic, ethereal riff on the
narrative formula of Groundhog Day or, indeed,Happy Death Day, Nyholm’s horror fable is a
fascinating and genuinely unnerving exploration of
people stuck in a cycle of grief they can’t escape.
It combines absurdist excursions with genuine
emotional weight concerning trauma, loneliness,
abandonment, guilt and resentment. And just when
you think you’ve cracked its unrelenting narrative
games, things veer wildly off course.
It’s a tough watch, but few films have achieved
the feel of a waking nightmare quite like this.
Josh Slater-Williams
The titular role of Carmilla is played by
German-Turkish newcomer Devrim Lingnau,
who – with her red hair and piercing eyes –
resembles a woodland fox. Lingnau’s dynamic
and on-screen chemistry with Rae is sizzling
hot which, alongside Harris’ eye for visceral
visuals, makes this an extremely scintillating
viewing experience.
The score by Phil Selway, the drummer from
Radiohead, works well with Harris’ focus on
the fertile wilderness surrounding the women,
but it’s occasionally distracting as it overpowers
what is happening on screen.
The vampiric element of the book is pared
back somewhat, with symbolic displays ofviolence appearing in potently realised dream
sequences, where women thirst heavily for
blood and flesh. It’s all delivered with a dash of
humour and an obvious affection for the ways
young women bond and yearn for things that
they don’t yet understand.
Harris displays real promise with her first
solo feature film; sinking her teeth deep into
the original novella’s themes of fear and
persecution, and elegantly translating them for
a modern audience.
Katherine McLaughlin
Johannes
Nyholm shot
the film early in the
morning to give it a
dream-like vibe.