On her 140th birthday, young Karmina flees her native Transylvania when faced with being promised to the horrible Vlad. As she arrives in Montreal, she has difficulty adapting to the local customs and ways of life.
Written by Ann Burke, Yves Pelletier, Andrée Pelletier, and Gabriel Pelletier, based on a story by Ann Burke, and directed by Gabriel Pelletier, “Karmina” is a vampire comedy that is very much set in the 1996 Montreal culture. The film is filled with jokes and funny situations that most of its fans know by heart at this point. The opening sequences spoken in exaggerated Quebec French and subtitled in regular Quebec French are hilarious by their creativity. The entire film works a lot with plays on words, cultural differences, and language barriers. It has a very rooted-in-local-culture feel yet the addition of vampires from another continent help even non-Quebecers to relate to the story.
The cast is one that the local public was already familiar with at the time but that international audiences might not know at all. In the lead of Karmina is Isabelle Cyr who does a fantastic job of playing the innocent fish-out-of-water part. She has a way of showing child-like amazement and innocence while making it earnest and feel true. Playing against her is Yves Pelletier (previously of comedy troupe RBO) as Vlad, the one-liner creating vampire who she has been promised to and Robert Brouillette as Philipe her Quebec love interest with no clue that vampires exist. The two of them make good opposites and good counter-balances in the humor of the film. The rest of the cast is also great with France Castel and Gildor Roy shiny amongst a group of strong yet ridiculous performances. This is one of the films that without the perfect ensemble cast would not have worked out as well as it has. The casting by Ginette D’Amico is basically genius.
The film’s special effects are interesting, yet dated; something to be expected for a film with not the biggest budget and that is over 20 years old. Their use is interesting and that final showdown is worth checking out even now.
The film’s musical score by Eric Cayla is good, but what really stands out is the presence of the songs by Patrick Bourgois of pop-rock-ish group les B.B. His songs are used throughout the film as the love interest is in a band that plays at a Chinese buffet and other fantastic locations and he dubs the singing voice. As the band is not exactly known outside of Quebec or French-speaking countries, his music can add to the oddity of the film for viewers from other locations or who don’t speak the language at all.
“Karmina” is a bit of a unique film (with its sequel) that came at a time when Quebec did not produce a lot of its own horror movies. It was marketed mostly as a comedy but it’s definitely a horror comedy. It’s beloved by its public and still works over 20 years later which is a testament to the people behind it. “Karmina” is funny even with sadly some jokes lost in translation, but it still has a lot to offer with those losses. It’s an odd piece that is fun to watch as a film but also as a glimpse into Montreal in 1996. The city having changed so much, it feels like a different place and just a different time, adding to the film’s fish-out-of water feel and story.
Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 13th to August 2nd.