Welcome back for another edition of A Second Look with Jeff Stockton! In this segment I will take a "second look" at a past LRF release with a fresh set of eyes.
Steven Soderbergh was back to work for Last Resort Films this round with Dandelion, so I decided to take a second look at the director's LRF debut film, Carmilla. Based on the horror novel by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, the film fared decently at the box office as well as with critics. Soderbergh even managed to win a surprise Best Director GRA trophy for the film. My recollection of my opinion of the film was that the story and the visuals were good, but that the film was poorly cast.
After taking another look at the film, the casting issues are even more glaring to me than they were originally. In what world are Woody Harrelson, John Goodman, Lili Simmons and Sammi Hanratty believable in 19th century Austria? It takes you instantly out of the story and I had a hard time getting back into things despite a decent script from Jack Slipter (one of his better scripts) and Soderbergh's direction (although he certainly did not deserve the Best Director GRA for this film).
Original Grade: C+
New Grade: C-
Carmilla Link: https://lrfdatabase.weebly.com/carmilla.html
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