Interview with a Vampire

Director: Neil Jordan
Star(s): Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, Stephen Rea, Kristen Duntz and Christian Slater
Date: 1994
Themes: Vampires and immortality

Review:

I was first attracted to this film becuase it was a vampire film and then because of the all-star cast that were involved.

The film begins with Christian Slater interviewing the vampire Louis as the title suggests. As the story is told the setting changes to the 17th century with Louis (Brad Pitt), a suicidal man whose wife and child were killed. He is noticed by the extrovert vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise). Lestat bites Louis neck and gives him the option to either die or become a vampire. Louis decides to become a vampire and they become partners. Lestat teaches him about beng a vampire but at first Louis is horrified by killing humans and lives by sucking blood from rats until the exciting character Claudia (Kristen Dunst), who is a little girl turned vampire, turns up and changes his prospective on life.. The story then concentrates on the teaching of Claudia by the vampires. The story develops a very distressing plot where Lestat is supposedly killed by Louis and Claudia and Claudia and her "mother" are also killed. Louis is saved by an important vampire (Antonio Banderas) and returns to the house where they all used to live later in the 19th century and he discovers a weak Lestat who has barely survived but Louis just walks away.

I believe the story depicts Anne Rice's novel well and many of the interesting ideas that she has about vampires. The film is an unusual and rather heartfilled view of vampires. It seems that they are not shown to be servants of the devil but people who are cursed with an eternal hell. Kristen Dunst steals the spotlight from her male co-stars because of her fantastic acting.

Links:
Pictures, sounds, trailer and script of the movie
Interview with a Vampire Dedication Page

Best Line: "I'll give you the choice, I never had."