THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Vampires are known to be the most complicated creatures ever written because each path one takes is different from the rest. And I don’t think there is one as complex as Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles.
PLOT
The film takes place in 1990s San Francisco and follows Louis de Pointe du Lac who shares his vampiric life to reporter Daniel Molloy. In 1791, he lived in New Orleans became despondent upon the death of his wife & unborn child. One night, he drunkenly accepts to be turned by Lestat de Lioncourt who sensed his dissatisfaction in life. Quickly upon becoming a vampire, Louis regretted the decision by resisting to kill humans and prefer consuming animal blood, whereas Lestat revels in each life he takes. He would change these ways when attempting to kill a little girl named Claudia whose mother died from a plague. However, Lestat would entice him to stay by turning her as well, choosing to raise her together. When 30 years go by, Claudia finds herself livid that she’ll never grow up psychologically and remain a child in appearance. She would strike vengeance towards Lestat by tricking him to drink blood of dead twins, who she made overdose with laudanum. With this poison able to weaken him, she and Louis dump him in a swamp. Lestat would survive the poison and in his attempt to avenge their actions, Louis sets him on fire where he would not be seen again. Believing him to be gone for good. He and Claudia travel to Paris in 1870 where they meet the oldest vampire Armand who happens to be the one who turned Lestat years prior. He runs a coven in a theater where they stage theatrical horror shows for humans. Tensions quickly become high when another vampire named Santiago (Stephen Rea) reads Louis’ mind, sensing that he and Claudia have killed Lestat. It upsets him since vampires are not supposed to kill each other. Louis wants to stay with Armand to learn the meaning of being a vampire, but the latter suggests to send Claudia away for her sake. Knowing what he tends to do, she begs him to have a new companion out of a human named Madeleine (Domiziana Giordano). Just when he complies, all three get abducted by Santiago and the other Parisans for what happened. Louis gets trapped in a coffin while Claudia & Madeleine get exposed to sunlight and turn to ash. Armand would only free Louis the next day and when he finds out what happened, he would kill Santiago and the Parisans by burning down the theater. Armand would save him from sunlight after he struck his vengeance and offers him a place by his side. But the rebel vampire would refuse to join as he cannot forgive him for allowing Claudia to die. When returning to New Orleans in 1988, he would find a surviving yet weakened Lestat, who expresses regret of turning Claudia. He offered Louis to rejoin him, but he would refuse and it would be the last time the two would see each other. Louis ends the interview there with Molloy, but the human only becomes intrigued to be a vampire as well. Outraged of him not understanding his tale of suffering, he attacks him to scare him out of the idea. Just when he vanishes, Molloy would drive away and listen to his taped interview. The film would end in a shocking cliffhanger where Lestat would attack him while driving, offering him the choice on if he really wants to be a vampire.
THOUGHTS
I may have a preference over werewolves, but that doesn’t mean I’ll ignore vampire stories and boy was this intriguing. Rice and director Neil Jordan leave me fascinated the whole time by showing something that challenges you to see how twisted life can become. You feel all the dread from Elliot Goldenthal’s score and the cinematography from Philippe Rousselot pushes you to the strong belief that our lives are bound to take a dark turn. And that’s the whole point of the story: it shows the exact feeling of what happens when you wish for something and must live with being unable to take it back. That is the cruel part of life because we live one and with each decision we make, we have to think it over to prevent negative repercussions. This is boldly captured from such a stellar ensemble. Brad Pitt leaves behind an everlasting impression as Louis for accurately making him such a tortured character. He surrendered himself in becoming a vampire because he felt that he had nothing left to lose. The last thing he lost was his life because that is what he gave up. You respect him because he tries so hard to be noble by hating every life he has to take for his own sake of survival. Although his mortality was the last thing he had left, Claudia ultimately became his last set of motivation to keep his head up. But once he officially becomes one with nothing left, he doesn’t hesitate in unleashing the wrath he’s been holding himself back on. He was willing to share his life story to Molloy because he wanted him to avoid making the mistake he made. Even though he didn't get the desired result, at least he tried but I don’t think he’ll do this towards everyone he comes across. You can feel bad for Louis as much as you want, but no vampire ever had it worse than Claudia. Breakout Kirsten Dunst has you wired in by empathizing with a character who has the worst dilemma imaginable. She acts so devious to those who look after her and is so filled with rage because she can’t handle her own harsh reality of becoming a woman outside. She can become so mature within and can’t be able to express it the other way around. She can still be a scary character to witness because she is smart enough to have her own batch of victims, but it will always be the tragedy that defines her. Her death is nothing more than the same feeling because she never had the chance to fight for her life. Since you’ll feel bad for her & Louis, you know you’re gonna love hating the man that made them so. Tom Cruise is straight up hypnotizing in the villainous role of Lestat that you can’t look away when he acts so despicable. He is bold about each action and wants those around him to remember it. It is very easy to look at him as Louis’ polar opposite because he has no shame in what he does. He is also so cunning that he’ll manipulate to get what he wants. And that is exactly what it was when turning Claudia just to keep Louis around. He felt so emotionally attached to him because he desired having an eternal companion and found an easy target out of him. Even though he did regret turning Claudia, he doesn’t change completely. Knowing how close he was to Louis during his interview only proved that he never truly let him go. And whatever he decides to do with Molloy will be only be full of bad intentions. Antonio Banderas makes his presence known out of Armand because he acts the most mysterious of the bunch. Due to being oldest known vampire, he knows that the disconnection makes life more bearable for him to cope with. He is willing to make an exception out of Louis because he understands how difficult it is to be something so evil. You don’t feel bad for him when Louis turns him down because his emotions are too strong for him to ignore the past and for that, he must continue living alone before the end comes to him. Since this movie is called Interview with the Vampire, you know there’s gonna be a character that’ll consume the story like us. Christian Slater makes his own impact with Molloy because he’s one who is too fascinated with the thought of being a vampire he can’t fathom the consequences of such a lifestyle. The final actions from Louis & Lestat are his wake up call and whatever decision he makes, let’s hope he doesn’t regret it. There’s no doubt that I enjoyed this movie for what it is, but it doesn’t change that there were moments I didn’t understand. For example, was there really a point for the pimp to rob Louis if the prostitute was going to get paid for her line of work? I mean it’s just a weird excuse to introduce Lestat, which is more confusing than how he didn’t get spotted lifting Louis when the area had so much people nearby. If I gotta get into it now, why doesn’t anyone take notice of missing people that are nowhere to be found every night? Lestat would apparently kill 2-3 people per day and if he ain’t moving until Louis burns down his plantation, it’s a surprise he was never a suspect on those people’s whereabouts. I’m even wondering why did he break into a cemetery? Considering how merciless, he could’ve broken into another house if he wanted to. I have said my complaints about continuity errors, but I was laughing pretty hard when Louis gets lipstick smeared on his nose for one shot, only for it to disappear by the next. I want to say it’s blood, but I know it’s not. And how come we don’t see him Louis officially accept killing humans? We know that Claudia was an attempt to put her out of misery, but since he spent a while eating animals, I feel like we deserve to see the next step he chose to survive. Also, did anyone ever question Claudia’s existence for the past 30 years she was in New Orleans? I find it hard to believe that everyone who found out were the victims that died trying to spread the word. I don’t like picking on anyone’s intelligence, but how come neither Lestat nor Louis smelled the corpse Claudia kept in her room? Based on how decayed it look, there is no way for them to ignore such a smell. If I gotta pick on anything, I’d have to ask why don’t vampires know the difference of warm and cold blood beforehand. I know this stirs up the pot for Claudia to try killing Lestat, but for someone as old as him, he should’ve been aware of things like that. And if you don’t think that was confusing, I would say it was insane for Louis to dump him in the swamp rather than burn him immediately. If he burned him first, it probably would’ve worked. I’ve already said how said it is when Claudia dies, but how come she doesn’t try escaping? She had at least an hour try to test her strength and she could’ve gotten out of her cell. You never know until you try it. Other than that, this is still interesting for what it is once you ignore said flaws. In conclusion, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles has to be one of the most intriguing vampire stories out there for being bold in each direction it went and knowing how to get under your skin. If these are your kind of stories to prefer, then check this out when you can.
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