Chad’s Grade: B
In 1976 Anne Rice gave a new spin on the vampire legend with her chilling, sensuous, and beautifully written debut novel Interview with the Vampire. After Hollywood transformed the vampire creature into cold monstrous ciphers, Anne Rice returned the nocturnal bloodsuckers to their more passionate roots that fueled Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Her creatures of the night were downright Shakespearean, with fierce emotions, deep soul searching, and a heavy dose of homoeroticism. All these qualities are inherent in the novel’s breakout character, the brooding Lestat, an alpha male-level vampire who delights in his bloodsucking lifestyle.
Hollywood was interested in a film adaptation, although the book’s erotic tone made film executives nervous. After watching Blade Runner, Rice reportedly begged Ridley Scott to direct, but he passed. It would take nearly 20 years for the project to be realized by producer David Geffen and director Neil Jordon, who was hot from his Oscar-winning The Crying Game in 1992. Rice adapted the screenplay herself, although Jordon did a heavy rewrite before filming began.
But the behind-the-scenes casting caused controversy. River Phoenix was initially cast as Malloy, the young interviewer, but after his tragic and fatal drug overdose, he was replaced by Christian Slater. Brad Pitt, Hollywood’s golden “It” boy, was cast as the book’s main protagonist Louis. But the real suspense was reserved for the juicy part of Lestat, and after a bevy of stars declined, including Daniel Day-Lewis (can you imagine!) Hollywood was stunned when Tom Cruise accepted the role. Rice was reportedly furious at the casting of Pitt and Cruise but relented as Jordon urged her to trust his vision.
Rice shouldn’t have worried as Cruise makes for a fearsome Lestat, and he’s easily one of the best things in the film. And pairing Neil Jordon with this material makes for a perfect match, keeping the homoerotic tone but not overdoing it. The film contains controversial plot elements, including child vampire “Claudia,” and Jordon handles everything with a confident hand, lending the film a painterly tone rich in atmosphere and mood.
Interview with the Vampire tells the story of Louis, a 200-year-old vampire who recounts his life story to Malloy, a young journalist in modern-day San Francisco. Louis was a broken young plantation owner in 1790s New Orleans mourning his deceased wife and child. Then one fateful evening, he gets a new lease on life when he is seduced by the vampire Lestat and is transformed into a creature of the night. At first, Louis is hesitant to kill and feed on human blood but eventually relents when he accidentally feeds on Claudia, a sickly 10-year-old girl, and transforms her into a vampire. Soon, Lestat, Louis, and Claudia form a nuclear “vampire” family, surviving through the decades until Claudia and Lestat have a falling out, where the vicious child vampire brutally murders Lestat in (ahem) cold blood.
Louis and Claudia flee to Europe, desperate to find more of their kind. They happen upon a vampire theatre troupe in 1860’s Paris, led by the powerful 500-year-old Armand, who has his eye on Louis as a potential lover/companion. But Claudia and Louis find more than they bargained for when they discover that the cardinal sin for any vampire is to kill their own kind. They find their immortal lives in danger if Armand and his band find out they killed the powerful Lestat.
Rice’s seminal novel was one of the first vampire stories where we witness the story from the nocturnal point of view. That is why the interview conceit works so well, as Malloy asks the questions we want to ask a vampire. There’s a fun bit where Malloy goes down all the undead clichés found in the classic monster lore, garlic, crosses, and the stake in the heart, and Louis sneeringly dismisses each one. Christian Slater is quite good in these scenes moving between skeptic and wholesale believer.
The rest of the cast is a mixed bag, especially Brad Pitt as Louis, whose performance is too dour and stiff for an involving protagonist. Pitt seems lost and uncomfortable with Rice’s lyrical dialogue, holding back that fiery sexiness we would see in his later roles. The same goes for Antonia Banderas as Armand, an ancient vampire with a lustful eye for Louis. This is a 500-year-old vampire with stories to tell and passions to explore. Instead, Banderas comes off as a blank slate, giving his line readings a low monotone drawl.
Thankfully we have Tom Cruise as the fearsome Lestat, who fills the screen with a spirited, full-throated performance. This was a massive departure for Cruise, where he plays a villainous/anti-hero role. He leans into the homoerotic tone, reading his lines with a smooth, sensual style and a fearsome glare that hints at his enormous appetite, especially for the blood of the elite upper crust. And he’s matched by the astonishing Kirsten Dunst as child vampire Claudia, who matches Cruise beat for beat. Dunst was just 12 years old when she was cast, and her Claudia is a frustrated monster whose lust for blood matches Lestat’s yet trapped in a child’s body. The fearsome face-off between Claudia and Lestat is one of the film’s highlights, and the movie springs to life whenever these two are on screen.
The film also benefits from subtle visual effects and makeup work provided by the great Stan Winston. The vampires in the movie are haunted and beautiful, with translucent pale skin, blue varicose veins, and glowing cat-like eyes. And, of course, fang-like teeth whenever they sense blood. The sequence where Claudia transforms into an undead creature is a seamless marriage of makeup and CGI effects as we witness her hair curl, child-like fangs grow, and her white skin fade. This is a little girl you do not want to encounter after sundown.
Interview with a Vampire does stumble a bit in a few key areas. Since this was 1994 Hollywood, the film never fully embraces the gay subtext of the novel. It flirts with it in several scenes, such as Lestat’s playful tone with a cherub-looking snack but then pulls back in a romantic moment between Armand and Louis, who never kiss despite their lips just inches apart. And with the movie being told from the vampire’s POV, humans are seen just as food. Sometimes it’s beautifully done, such as the overhead shot of the vampire troupe descending over a naked woman on stage. But there’s a cruel scene where Lestat gleefully toys with two prostitutes, slowly devouring and draining their blood in front of a horrified Louis. These are not the fangless vampires from the Twilight films. If you are squeamish about vampires and blood, this is not the movie for you.
But the movie’s biggest sin is the tone-deaf ending that nearly torpedoes the film. Lestat’s abrupt reappearing in the finale, where he attacks Malloy in his car on the golden gate bridge, makes no sense and is full of groan-worthy one-liners. It was clearly added for shock value and to set up a potential sequel. And the almost borderline comedic tone is at odds with the lyrical, introspective story we just witnessed.
That said, if you’re a fan of Anne Rice’s novel, this is a mostly faithful, gorgeously filmed version with several Hollywood superstars in their prime. The film was both a critical and commercial hit, with Dunst receiving a golden globe nomination for best supporting actress. And it helped launch the late 90’s early 2000 boom of vampire-themed films, culminating in the aforementioned Twilight franchise.
There was a 2002 sequel entitled The Queen of the Damned, but it was DOA upon release. None of the original stars returned, and Lestat was recast with an underwhelming Stuart Townsend. It’s a genuinely terrible film with the quality of a direct-to-video release. But it is notable for the final performance of talented R&B singer/actress Aaliyah who tragically died in a plane crash. There’s also a glossy TV series set for release on AMC in 2022, but it looks to have several radical changes from the novel. But Anne Rice was involved as a producer before her death so let’s hold our fangs (!) out in the hope that it’s just as good as the 1994 feature film version.
