Interview with The Vampire [Neil Jordan]

I liked the film of Interview with The Vampire when I saw it eons* ago, but sometime after that I picked up Anne Rice's source novel, which turned out so crappy I dropped it less than a third into. So when I saw the DVD at a friend's place I borrowed it with the intention of checking out if my initial impressions were all too hasty. As it turns out, no. Interview... in its film adaptation is a worthy addition to the vampire cinema chronicles.

The screenplay (Rice herself) is skilfully pared down and keeps the events of the story moving at a sharp clip. For whatever reason, the flagrant homoerotic elements of the novel are implied, but with a restraint that keeps the film from veering entirely into soggy romance territory. The lead performances are sufficiently charismatic to keep the proceedings interesting: Tom Cruise in particular gives his character Lestat a flamboyance that works brilliantly in context, creating one of horror cinema's more enduring monsters. However the real star is director Neil Jordan himself who cocoons the proceedings with a superbly evocative Gothic atmosphere. The look of the film, with its frequent use of candle-lit stages, period furnishings and rich tailoring is like “Merchant-Ivory meets Hammer Studios”, if more grandiose, thanks to a significantly fatter production budget, than either of those chaps could hope for. In fact, the characters' jumping ship mid-way to Europe was a bit disappointing since they'd done such a fine job of showcasing the look of 19^th century America (oh well, at least they didn't go to Transylvania to “naaver dreenk vine”). Elliot Goldenthal's moody score with its heavy Jerry Goldsmith vibe is also a big hit with me.

Interview... loses its way in the parts where Lestat is off-screen (and the revenge exacted by Brad Pitt's character on the Parisian vampires comes off ridiculously easy), but it's still recommended as a sufficiently entertaining, sumptuous looking and “not afraid to bare its fangs” vampire film.

* In an age when people actually thought Guns n' Roses was a big deal and bought this film's orchestra-heavy soundtrack album just to hear their cover of The Rolling Stones' Sympathy for The Devil.