Written by Anne Rice
Directed by Neil Jordan
Lestat (to Daniel): "Don't be afraid... I'm going to give you the choice I never had."
Having watched two seasons of the show of the same name, it was definitely time to go back and revisit this one. Does it still hold up? You bet it does.
In the present, you've got the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) being interviewed by Daniel Molloy (Christian Slater). Daniel's a bit sceptical about his subject being a vampire, so Louis decided to make a believer out of him.
With Louis, you get his life as a Plantation owner and a man who lost both his wife and child. You've got also his meeting with the charming Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise). Instead of killing Louis, Lestat saw something in the dissatisfied man to make him into a vampire.
Unfortunately for Lestat, turning Louis into a vampire wasn't the best idea. Louis seemed more fond of eating rats than humans and when he did done on humans, he didn't feel good about it. Then there was the addition of orphaned girl Claudia (Kirsten Dunst). Talk about a character who widened that divide between Louis and Lestat.
Claudia might have had Lestat's bloodlust but she felt as stifled by him as Louis did and the two of them did manage to break away from Lestat's control with extreme force. Saying that, we all know how that turned out for them.
It resulted in Claudia's death at the hands of Santiago (Stephen Rea) and Armand (Antonio Banderas) as well as a vengeful Louis. Add a tense reunion with Lestat, Molloy missing the point of Louis's tales and that final encounter between two characters and it played out as well as it had done the first time i watched this movie.
- Anne Rice (who adapted the script from her own book) wasn't keen on Tom Cruise's casting and while I get it, I think he did hold his own as Lestat.
- Due to Hollywood homophobia at the time, Rice had also considered retooling Louis as a female character. Obviously she didn't.
- River Phoenix was originally cast as Daniel Molloy. There's a tribute to him at the end of the movie.
- Thandiwe Newton also had a small part in this movie. Her character doesn't last that long.
- There's a loose sequel called Queen Of The Damned.
- Chronology: 1791 Louisiana to 1994 San Francisco as well as time in Paris and New Orleans.
It's been thirty years since it's release and Interview With The Vampire remains one of the best vampire movies to date. Both Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise on paper feel like such odd choices for Louis and Lestat but they're the driving force behind it's success. Both are on fine form here.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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