Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) Review

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Interview with the Vampire follows Louis de Pointe du Lac, who after being turned into a vampire by the charismatic Lestat, details the whirlwind of events to follow to a journalist in the present day. 

I actually avoided this film for a great many years, believing it to be the 90s equivalent of Twilight in all honesty, on the back of its outwardly romanticized view of vampires. But I’ll admit, I was pretty wrong. Interview with the Vampire is much more, a tragic story about love, loss, and loneliness and how it all starts with a choice. Louis and Lestat each represent a different take on life. For Louis, who began a depressive, wanting to die, eternity is an extended curse, full of hurt and heartbreak. However, for Lestat, life is lived second by second, holding a particular love for his affliction. Therein lies our central conflict for Louis, who is torn between the love of his own humanity and the overwhelming desire for blood, putting him at odds with Lestat, and his soon to be “daughter” Claudia, who is the best, and worst of both men. 

Thus, this no longer becomes a film about vampires, but a film containing vampires, in what is just one man’s life story where vampirism is but a plot device, a way of presenting characters who cannot die or age or be harmed, so that the philosophical questions of life itself can be explored. In a world of survival, will that require the foregoing of moral conscious? Or is there a moral way to kill a human, like a humans do animals? These questions loom over Louis like a plague, as his life is marred by tragedy and death, cursed with eternal life.

We get a solid cast as well, starring Stephen Rea, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, and Brad Pitt. Pleasantly surprised at just how good Dunst is, for only being 12 at the time, easily holding her own against a charismatic, though frightening Cruise and a severely miscast Pitt, who never quite feels right for the role despite a decent performance. 

Based on the novel by Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire, directed by Neil Jordan, is a surprisingly grim film, that poses questions on the morality of being a monster in a monstrous world, where the biggest threat to their survival is themselves.

7.9/10