Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire (1994) is adapted from Anne Rice's 1976 novel and is one of the productions that turned the vampire from a horror figure into a character. A journalist sits in a room in San Francisco and the man across from him begins recounting two hundred years of his life. Louis was turned in Louisiana in 1791 and has never accepted it. Lestat, who turned him, is the opposite: entirely content. The relationship between the two is the centre of the film and carries the same open erotic tension as the novel. In a major studio film in 1994 that was not usual. The third character is Claudia, a child turned at five. Her body does not grow while her mind ages, and over time she accumulates a rage toward the ones who did it. Kirsten Dunst was eleven and was nominated for a Golden Globe. The real story of the production is painful. The journalist had been cast with River Phoenix. He died on 31 October 1993, a week before he was due on set. Christian Slater took the part and donated his entire two hundred and fifty thousand dollar fee to two charities Phoenix supported. The film is dedicated to him. It runs 123 minutes. Good for: gothic horror, period film, and vampire narratives. Less good for: the blood and killing are heavy, the treatment of a child character is disturbing, and the pace is slow.