Cinematic Vampires

Interview with the Vampire came out in 1996, the screen version of the popular Anne Rice novel with the same title. The movie concerned a family of vampires and their interaction with other vampires.

Louis is the main character, at least from the point that he is the one telling the story. Brad Pitt manages to portray the ever-whining Louis to the teeth (no pun intended). Sorry if my opinion in this matter offends anyone, but this is my page anyway. I loved the book and even the movie, but my interpretation in both was that Louis was a helpless little whiner, for whom nothing was ever good enough. (This interpretation did change a bit with Lestat's descriptions in his book and further written portrayals of Louis)

Through Louis' tale, we are introduced to Lestat. A blonde haired Tom Cruise plays the enigmatic Lestat, who makes a meal, and then a vampire out of Louis. Louis then spends most of the first half of the movie berating Lestat for not telling him more about vampires and their kind. This movie (and the book) portray Lestat as a monster, and not the heroic vision Lestat paints himself out to be in the later novels.

Claudia Then, there is the tragically young Claudia, a child that Louis feeds upon and Lestat then vampirizes in order to keep Louis tied to him a little bit longer. Claudia's body will never grow beyond that of a child, yet her mind and her emotions develop into that of a woman. You could only imagine the horror she must feel at that difference between mind and body, and who could she blame? Why, Lestat, of course.

Louis and Claudia travel to Paris, and there, they meet the vampires that comprise the Theater of the Vampires. This is a coven of vampires who run a theater where they pretend to be actors pretending to be vampires on stage. First, we meet Santino, the apparent ringleader. We also get to see several scenes that the vampires act out before a live audience, one of which is the actual feeding upon of a human.

We do then, of course, meet Armand, played by Antonio Banderas, who attempts to seduce Louis away from Claudia so that he may have a contact with the new age. (Coincidentally, I read the book first, and I had never seen Antonio Bandaras in a film before this one. I was a little shocked to see that Antonio was almost exactly my imagination's picture of Armand, except for maybe he should've been a little younger.)

All in all, I liked the movie. It is about vampires after all. However, the book is much better, more entertaining, more vivid, and the characters are much more in depth. I am still anxious to see the movie version of The Vampire Lestat, though. I liked that book even more and think that I might like the movie better.

As on all my other pages, I do not own the copyrights to any of the pictures, or information provided on this page.