Carmilla (web series)

Carmilla
Genre	Comedy-drama Mystery
Created by	Jordan Hall Ellen Simpson
Based on	Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Written by	Jordan Hall
Directed by	Spencer Maybee
Starring	Elise Bauman Natasha Negovanlis Sharon Belle Kaitlyn Alexander Annie Briggs Matt O'Connor Aaron Chartrand Nicole Stamp Shannon Kook Sophia Walker Ian D. Clark
Opening theme	"Love Will Have Its Sacrifices" performed by SOLES
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	82 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	U by Kotex Jay Bennett
Producers	Ted Biggs Stephanie Ouaknine Smokebomb Entertainment Shift2
Cinematography	Robert Walsh, Nick Haight
Editor	Dillon Taylor
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	3-16 minutes
Original release
Network	Vervegirl
Release	August 19, 2014 (2014-08-19) – present (present)

Carmilla is a Canadian web series starring Elise Bauman and Natasha Negovanlis, based on the novella of the same name by Sheridan Le Fanu. The series premiered on the Vervegirl YouTube channel on August 19, 2014.

The series takes place at the fictional Silas University in Styria, Austria, where more strange things happen than normal. The series is told from the perspective of Laura, a freshman student who is investigating the disappearance of her roommate, when she is suddenly assigned a mysterious new roommate named Carmilla.

The series is a multi-platform digital media experience with many outlets on social media sites, where fans can follow the characters' stories when they are not on-screen. Currently boasting over 21 million views, the first season consists of 36 three to seven minute episodes. A Christmas special was aired on December 24, 2014. On December 9, 2014, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on June 2, 2015 and concluded on October 1, 2015, with the season finale consisting of 16 minutes, the longest-running episode to date. The series is executively produced by the tampon brand U by Kotex. Season Zero was announced with a teaser trailer just after the release of the final episode of Season 2, and will be a 12-part mini season starting on 22 October 2015 and concluded on November 24, 2015.

Carmilla has been highly praised for its near all-female cast and representation of various LGBT characters. Due to budgetary constraints, the actors cast in Season One were not in ACTRA.

Plot

Season 1

The series begins as a "vlog" of a plucky, tenacious, and somewhat naive freshman student, Laura Hollis (Bauman), at the fictional Silas University. When her party-going roommate Betty (Glowicki) suddenly goes missing, Laura is assigned a new roommate, the dark and broody Carmilla Karnstein (Negovanlis). After being refused any information on the whereabouts of Betty, Laura, aided by her friends, discovers that her former roommate is not the only girl to have abruptly gone missing from Silas, and that Carmilla may be behind the disappearances.

As the series progresses, it is revealed that Carmilla is a vampire who has been commanded by her mother, the Dean of Silas University, to supply her with virgin sacrifices. However, Carmilla does not agree with her mother's actions and agrees to help save Betty. Laura, who is one of the Dean's next targets, finds herself slowly falling for her roommate as Carmilla goes to great lengths to protect her and recover the missing girls.

Season 2

The series returns in a new setting, where Laura, Carmilla and her friends have returned to Silas after running away. When their plans to run away again are ruined with the revelation of several murders at the school, Laura sets out to find the killers while balancing her job as the new Voice of Silas and her newfound relationship with Carmilla.

Things escalate with the appearance of Carmilla's older vampire sister, Matska "Mattie" Belmonde (Sophia Walker), and Baron Vordenberg (Ian D. Clark), the descendant of a vampire hunter whose family was murdered by Carmilla 300 years prior.

Season Zero

While Carmilla and Laura are trapped in the library, they watch VHS tapes. They show Mel, Perry and Carmilla teaming up to solve the mystery of a plague of skipped periods, and one of the Zeta brothers, Bash, jumping into the lake while behaving like a rooster and falling into a coma.

Episodes

Main article: List of Carmilla 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 started aired from June 2, 2015 to October 1, 2015. The next season, titled Season Zero, began airing on October 22, 2015 and consists of 12 episodes.

Cast and characters

Main characters

• Laura Hollis (played by Elise Bauman) is the 19-year-old sheltered and courageous protagonist. She is a journalism major and grew up with an over-protective father who goes to great measures to protect his only child. Despite her love of sugary foods, Laura is tiny, and, as a child, was signed up for Krav Maga classes by her father so she could learn how to defend herself. Though she is somewhat bookish and dorky, she is adorable 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 is eventually in a relationship with her by season 2. It is implied that Laura does not have a mother, and 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.
• Carmilla Karnstein (played by Natasha Negovanlis) is Laura's new roommate. 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 as a sacrifice to the angler fish god in her cult. During the 1800s, Carmilla fell deeply in love with Ell, one of her mother's targets. She tried to protect Ell from her mother, but when her mother revealed to Ell that Carmilla is a vampire, Ell rejected Carmilla. Carmilla was tortured and buried underground for several decades in a coffin of blood for disobeying her mother. She was freed during the second World War by a bomb exploding and unearthing her coffin. Carmilla was eventually found by her mother and forced back into her enslavement of luring 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. By the end of season one and entering the second season, it is clear that she is in a relationship with Laura. 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, and can transform into a giant black cat.
• Danny Lawrence (played by Sharon Belle) is a third year student and English Literature TA at Silas. She is a member of the Summer Society at the university and has a strong will to protect those she cares about. Danny is athletic and charming; shows a romantic interest in Laura, which appeared to be returned in the beginning of the series, but as season one progresses, Laura finds Danny's over-protectiveness to be suffocating and reminds her too much of her father. Danny doesn't often get along with Carmilla, finding her to be rude and messy, but tries to put her feelings of dislike behind her for Laura. In Season 2, she and Laura's friendship is repaired and the two work together again. She becomes the Student Representative of the Board of Silas. She becomes an outcast in the Summer Society when she protects Kirsch from the other Summers and later joins forces with Laura.
• S. LaFontaine (played by Kaitlyn Alexander) is a non-binary student at Silas University and is Perry's best friend. They go by their last name, and are quick to correct anyone who calls them 'Susan.' After episode 26, creators and cast confirmed on tumblr that preferred pronouns are they/them/their. They are a biology major and one of the few characters not put off by the supernatural and strange aspects of Silas University. LaFontaine is the first to accuse Carmilla of being a vampire. During season 1, they were kidnapped by the Dean as a message to Laura. Laura mentions that she thinks LaFontaine and J.P. are dating, but it is never confirmed by LaFontaine.
• Lola Perry (played by Annie Briggs) is a German major at Silas University, LaFontaine's roommate, and Laura and Carmilla's floor don. Regularly referred to as simply 'Perry', she is caring and nurturing, and often mothering her friends and classmates. She has a strong urge for constant order and fiercely believes in normality. She initially refuses to believe that Carmilla is a vampire, coming up with various excuses for Carmilla's strange behavior. She states in the Christmas Special that she celebrates Chanukah, making her the only explicitly non-Christian character on the show to date. She's hinted to have feelings for LaFontaine, whom she's known since grade school. In Season Zero, set in 2012, Perry is shown to have an interest in the occult and new age practices, wearing flowers in her hair.

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.
• 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.
• Elizabeth "Betty" 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.
• Sarah 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.
• Elsie (played by Paige Haight) is a student at Silas University, Carmilla's 'study-buddy' in the beginning of the first season, and one of the girls who eventually went missing and was saved in season one.
• J.P. Armitage (played by Dillon Taylor/Aaron Chartrand) is a student of Silas from the 1800s who was sucked into the computer system. J.P. originally resided in the library, but was transferred onto a flash drive by LaFontaine and is brought back to Laura's room. He aids Laura and her friends when they are researching information in order to find out how to stop the Dean's evil plan. His flash drive is destroyed by Carmilla's mother, The Dean, but later it is revealed that LaFontaine made a backup of J.P. on another flashdrive. Laura mentions that she thinks LaFontaine and J.P. are dating at the end of season one, but this has yet to be confirmed by either of them. During the second season, the library disappears due to Matska taking charge at Silas and so does much of J.P. with it, until LaFontaine manages to bring him to life in Will's body after finding it on a trip to visit the Lustig crater. Due to the fact that the body J.P. inhabited is that of a vampire, he now possesses the same traits and abilities as the aforementioned supernatural.
• Theodore "Theo" Straka (played by Shannon Kook) is a member of the Zeta Omega Mu fraternity and is introduced in the second season. He does not seem to get along well with the Summer Society, particularly with a Summer Society member called Mel, and is protective of his Zeta brothers.
• Melanippe "Mel" Callis (played by Nicole Stamp) is a member of the Summer Society and is introduced in the second season. In the second season, she is shown to be ambitious, fierce, loyal to her Summer Society sisters, brave, arrogant, and doesn't get along with Danny or the Zetas. Mel strives to claim the title of the president of the Summer Society the following year from Danny assuming her budding friendship with the Zetas and interactions with Laura and Carmilla will end up in her demotion once and for all. When Mel plans to kill Kirsch in the Adonis Hunt, Danny stops her, this allows Mel to win the election to become the president of the Summer Society, despite this she still takes orders from Danny who is the Student Representative of the Board of Silas. In Season Zero, set in 2012, Mel is shown to be shy and nerdy, wearing glasses and conservative clothing.
• Matska "Mattie" Belmonde (played by Sophia Walker) is the Chair of the Silas Board of Governors and was also resurrected by the Dean, making her Carmilla's older vampire sister. Her relationship with Carmilla is different than her mother and other siblings, where it shows the two have a great friendship and have had each other's backs for over 300 years. Despite this, Mattie often chides Carmilla over her relationship with Laura. When she loses her power as the Chair of the Silas Board to Vordenberg, she becomes a fugitive when Vordenberg orders the detainment of all known vampires. She is eventually killed by Danny, who only got the information to kill her from Laura who gained the information from Carmilla. Her death also sets Carmilla against Laura and the others.
• Baron Vordenberg (played by Ian D. Clark) is a member of the Silas Board of Governors. He is originally seen to be a kind old man who wishes to help Laura, but he has a great dislike for Carmilla, whom murdered his ancestor's family over 300 years ago. When Laura helps Vordenberg become the Chair of the Silas Board, he reveals a more vindictive side of himself, when he orders the detainment of all known vampires.

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Result
2014	AfterEllen Visibility Awards	Favorite Web Series	Won
2015	Shorty Awards	Favorite Webshow	Nominated
2015	Streamy Awards	Best Drama	Nominated

External links

• Carmilla at IMDb