by Eric Lindbom
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE: THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES
Though 122 minutes, director Neil Jordan’s 1994 film adaptation of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE: THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES felt much longer. While reportedly faithful to Anne Rice’s novel (I haven’t read it but I devoured the sequel THE VAMPIRE LESTAT), Jordan saddled audiences with the same ennui suffered by (literally) long in the tooth vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac. Brad Pitt gave a dreary performance as this depressive monster with a conscience.
Lushly mounted, Jordan captured the sensual quality of Rice’s writing. A game Tom Cruise did spright, teasing work as Lestat, Louis’ amoral vampire creator, and Kirsten Dunst made a startling debut as a vampire tyke angry at being stalled in perpetual childhood.
Yet for all it did right, the repetitious bloodletting, lack of suspense and leaden pace made Jordan’s INTERVIEW oddly anemic.
Today, Rice’s trademark innovation of focusing on the psychic perils faced by the undead over the centuries has inspired countless imitators and even parodists (see WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS). Despite abundant recent content focusing on the drama of vampires’ predicaments vs. those suffered by their victims (including the third go-around for LET THE RIGHT ONE IN now a Showtime series) AMC is taking another shot with the limited series ANNE RICE’S INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.
Alas, I’m not a television critic and no longer a scribe on freebee screener lists (those were the years!) so I can only gauge the new INTERVIEW based on its first episode. Judging from this small sample size, creator Rolin Jones’ fresh take is off to a promising start.
He’s set the story in our modern day with nods to the COVID epidemic. The urbane Louis tells his story to a reporter Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) for a second time. In a new twist, the duo met years before but Molloy’s drug abuse and hinted at conflicts derailed the project.
The back story is still set in early 20th century New Orleans. In flashback, we meet Louis an enterprising black pimp. This approach to the Louis character will give actor Jacob Anderson room to pivot from a straight talker trying to support his family into a cultured predator.
Louis’ secret, that he’s closeted, he may not even grasp but he can’t dodge the gaydar of curious Lestat. Actor Sam Reid cuts a vivid figure, a dandy with blonde tresses his boundless charm gives way to an impulsive temper that keeps us off guard.
The homoerotic subtexts in Jordan’s version are far more up front this time. Louis’ acceptance of Lestat’s Faustian bargain to turn vampire may hinge as much on sexual desire as offers of power and immortality. If AMC’s INTERVIEW promises a tragic love story for our pansexual age, I bet it won’t have the fusty romanticism of Francis Ford Coppola’s BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (which still has shelf life if only for Eiko Ishioka’s costumes).
For one thing it brings jolts. The gore strikes unexpectedly from a sidelong street corner attack to a propulsive take down of a doomed priest.
At seven episodes, Rolin Jones and company should feel no pressure to hurry through the text as AMC has already renewed INTERVIEW for a second season. With this do over, Rice’s expansive universe should have the space to breathe and escape the episodic fate of Jordan’s lumbering take.
Eric Lindbom is a hardcore horror buff with a strong stomach, weaned on the Universal classics from the ’30s and ’40s. He’s written film and/or music reviews for City Pages, Twin Cities Reader, LA WEEKLY, Request magazine and Netflix. He co-edits triggerwarningshortfiction.com, a site specializing in horror, fantasy and crime short stories with illustrations by co-editor John Skewes. He lives in Los Angeles.
