Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

I dunno how many people actually seen this show shot in 1994 but I haven't, up until last night.

I decided to find out for myself what all the hype about this vampire show leads to. it is apparently the mother of all vampire movies and if you haven't seen this, you haven't seen nothing.

so well, i began watching it with a lot of expectations. especially since i have not read the Anne Rice novel before, the movie would normally turn out better in this case.

the 1st thing that left me in awe.. was the vampire make-up. considering it was a show in the 90s, the make-up was really impressive. hell, it was so much better than Twilight!

the 2nd thing that struck me was how different tom cruise looked back then. i almost could not recognise him.. he looked more regular, like a typical angmoh. but then again, it could be the long hair that really altered his look in the show, cuz he looked really good in "Mission Impossible", which was shot only 2 years after "Interview".

i will do my best to cut the film some slack, since it was shot in the early 90s and it really wouldn't be fair to compare it to one of today's movies. but i do think that it would not have survived today's harsh movie critics.

the storyline was probably the best part of it, the main reason why it got picked up for a movie, I guess. it follows the transformation of a vampire (Louis) right from the beginning to the so-called end and the struggles and events that Louis went through as a new vampire.

Kirsten Dunst did an amazing job in the film and made the biggest impression on me. she is almost up there with Linda Blair in "The Exorcist". DAMN GOOD. Sad to say this is her best performance in a movie I've seen, so far.

Tom Cruise, in the show, was very much like his scientology-self today. A bit obsessed. The jumping on the sofa kind of obsessed. With trying to maintain his covent and preying on civilians in the show, I mean.

Brad Pitt was at his best in the film when he showed rage, his facial expressions were truly terrifying. The last part where the interviewer asked to be made, that was the best part of the show for me.


And ooh.. Antonio Banderas.. who would have thought he looked so good as a vampire? but alas, he turned out to be the same like Lestat (Tome Cruise's character), wanting only companionship from Louis and turning him into a heartless walking dead.

on the whole, the feeling I got was a very dark and gory one. it would be easy to fall asleep halfway through the show had you been very tired, prior to watching it. not because it was boring but because of the way the movie is being presented. It had a bit of Tim Burton feel to it.

after i finished the movie, it felt like there was something lacking. i thot maybe the movie was poorly edited as some parts felt really incomplete to me. like the scenes back to back, didn't glue. i couldn't understand why Lestat had chosen Louis to make him his companion (ok i know it is because he saw that he was a passionate man, but they should have done more build-up on that), why Louis was "forced" to prey on Claudia (again, not enough build-up) and or how Claudia came to figure that Louis was going to leave her. everything just felt so abrupt. It was like the director/screenplay writer wanted the main points to stand out in the limited amount of time, so much so that he's forgotten to put in minor details to accentuate and "garnish" the story line.

i think that is the always the main problem for novels-turn-movie. some details would have to go, else turning it into a drama.

i also felt that there hadn't been enough details about the origins or lifestyle of a vampire. but that could be because I am reviewing it 15 years later, where movies today are more strategised, more organised. and new movies have to be bigger and better in order to continue to impress us, the audience. perhaps the people who watched it 15 years ago would have thot it a wonderful film and that they've never seen anything like it before.

however, i have to admit that the impression of vampires that society have today, have been mainly influenced by this film, that it makes up a big piece of the puzzle in goth culture. the show has depicted vampires in the way i totally imagined them to be (not like those in Twilight, they have been totally romanticised). they are dark, mysterious, almost emotionless and dangerous.

there has never been another movie tag line more visual than this, "Drink from me and live forever". It truly summarizes the movie in one line.

the story, i have no doubt, would have been better presented in the novel. but even after watching the movie, it doesn't make me want to go and read the book like some movies did. and there's a lingering thought in my mind - why had they not shot a sequel to it? i am sure it would have made a great epic movie.

and unlike Twilight, after the show ended, I had not wished I knew any vampires.