It’s definitely not the worst film I’ve seen…
A lot of people find vampires interesting. If you are not one of those people, welcome to the club! Honestly, vampires are just disgusting, and that’s that. Perhaps, I’m not fascinated about pale, widow’s-peak wearing, leaches because I stare back at one anytime I look into a mirror. The good news is that I will not live forever. Why? If I were a legit vampire, I wouldn’t be able to live like a normal one because, besides having to kill animals or humans to stay alive, I couldn’t drink blood. I can watch violent, bloody scenes onscreen, but in real life, I’m passing out, throwing up, or both.
Now you know how I feel about vampires, let’s talk about the film.
The film begins in 1994 San Francisco, with vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) kidnapping reporter Daniel Molloy (Christian Slater). Off to a good start—Brad Pitt and Christian Slater together! It’s like Heathers and Legend of the Falls had a really emotionally unstable baby.
Back to the summary:
Instead of sucking Daniel’s blood, Louis tells him his life story. It starts out sad: Louis was a wealthy, New Orleanian plantation owner in the late 1700s, but after the death of his wife and child, he succumbed to a life of booze, gambling, and women. It is at this vulnerable point in Louis’ life that Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise) turns Louis into the undead—exactly what you want when everyone you love is dead.
Lestat proves to be emotionally abusive to Louis and eventually to their young undead daughter, Claudia (Kristen Dunst). He raises Claudia to be a merciless killer, all the while, Louis blames himself for helping turn her into a vampire. Claudia begins to resent the fact that she will never be an adult physically and turns on Lestat. The rest of the film follows Louis and Claudia’s attempts at “killing” and running away from Lestat.
This is a really sad story, right? The problem is that the film can’t seem to make these connections between Louis’ wife and daughter to Claudia strong enough. See, Louis can only remember his dead wife and child as they last were; he can’t know what they would have become had they lived. Claudia is a second chance for Louis, but she turns sour because Louis is not strong enough to oppose his creator, Lestat. Understandably, he was not strong enough to withstand Lestat when he was turned into a vampire. If the film drew clearer parallels, it would be a much better film.
Another issue with the movie is that it tries to cram too many scenarios in. Obviously, I haven’t read the book, so I’m not sure how true the filmmakers stayed to it. However, they put a lot into this 2-hour flick, and that seems to be a big part of the reason that the film drags.
What I like most about the film is its earnestness and empathy towards Louis and Claudia.
Have you watched Interview with a Vampire? What are your opinions about the film? Let us know in the comments!
THE FILM ALIEN 