The Unwanted (2014)
A young woman arrives in a rural town seeking the whereabouts of the mother she never knew and becomes involved with an emotionally fragile self harming waitress.
I quite enjoyed this revision on Le Fanu's Carmilla. Eschewing actual Gothic for American Southern Gothic this is a beautifully acted piece if rather slow moving during it's middle third.
As it's based on Carmilla it is essentially a story of a lesbian vampire but those hoping for lashings of steamy sex will be disappointed as will those hoping for a blood bath - although one scene rips off Hammer's Countess Dracula right down to Ingrid Pitt's shocked pose as she's discovered in yes, a bloody bath.
It's all quite ambiguous with no proper villains so to speak - although William Katt as the obsessive father probably comes closest - but the characters drive the film along with i think very good performances and Christen Orr as Carmilla and Hannah Fierman as Laura convincingly portray two lost and tortured souls slowly coming together.
The finale is very effective and took me by surprise how it played out.
A solid slow burner, ideal for anyone wanting something a bit different from the norm.
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