Thursday, February 10, 2011

Round 3: Twilight VS Interview with the Vampire

Ding ding ding....Round 3

Twilight VS Interview with the Vampire


Interview with the Vampire is a 1994 film based on Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire.  Anne Rice, as many of you know, is a notorious vampire novelist.  She has written many good vampire tales such as Queen of the Dammed and Vampire Lestat.  Mrs. Rice hails from New Orleans, Louisiana so she has a geographical connection to myself.  Interview with the Vampire was her first novel, written in 1973.  Here is a summary of the film.

Interview with the Vampire has a star studded cast including Brad Pitt, Christian Slater, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Bandaras, and Tom Cruise.  Yes, these extraordinary actors are vampires!!  It begins by a 200 year old vampire named Louis (Pitt) telling his life story to a reporter named Daniel (Slater), hence Interview with the Vampire!  Louis was a 24 year old plantation owner in 1790s Louisiana, grieving over the loss of a wife and child, begging to die.  He comes across a vampire named Lestat (Cruise) who instantly connects with him and transforms him into a vampire.  Lestat continued to feed off of slaves from the area, while Louis chose a different lifestyle, similar to the Cullens, which was to feed off of animals instead.  Louis eventually begins to feed on humans but still cannot come to terms with the way Lestat cares not for human compassion.  In an attempt at suicide, Louis burns his plantation after killing his best slave. 

The plague broke out in New Orleans and Louis finds a girl named Claudia (Dunst) with it living with her dead mother and changes her into a vampire.  After 30 years pass, Claudia realizes she will never change, never grow up, and becomes angry with Lestat.  She gives him victims already dead by poisoning to feed on and, slits his throat, then she and Louis dump his body into the swamp.  Lestat later finds them, after feeding on swamp animals to survive, and Louis sets him on fire and they flee to Paris, assuming once again that he is dead.  While in Paris, Louis ponders the reality of other vampires living amongst the humans.  He finds two other vampires named Santiago and Armand (Bandaras).  They offer Louis and Claudia a place in their coven.  Armand tells Louis he wants him by his side, while secretly telling Claudia to leave him.  Louis refuses to leave Claudia, then Santiago informs Louis it is forbidden for a vampire to kill another vampire.  Armand finally convinces Louis to leave Claudia by telling him he has a special gift, that he is connected to humans through a broken heart.  Saying their goodbyes, Louis and Claudia are abducted by the coven and Claudia is left to turn into ash with the rising sun while Louis is trapped in a metal box.  Armand rescues Louis and he learns of Claudia's demise, therefore going on a killing spree, killing all of the vampires in the coven, including Santiago.  Armand once again rescues Louis and offers him a place by his side.  Louis refuses and leaves for good.

Many years pass and Louis, lonely and still grieving over Claudia, finds Lestat, still alive but not nearly the vampire he once was.  He educates Lestat to the modern world then turns down his offer to rejoin him.  The interview is coming to a close.  Daniel cannot accept it.  He wants to be turned into a vampire so he can see what it is like.  An angry Louis leaves Daniel confused but happy that his interview with the vampire went so well.  Driving away, Daniel is attacked by Lestat, who returns to full force and says to dying Daniel he is offering him the "choice he never had."

This movie has bits and pieces that are similar to Twilight but this movie has more gore and blood.  I appreciated the fact that there are vampires in other films that "choose" not to feed off of humans, but instead feed on animals:  vegetarians!!  But as Edward Cullen says "It's like a human only surviving on tofu.  It keeps you strong, but you're never fully satisfied!"  Anyway, this film is pretty good.  I wouldn't say it was one of my favorites, but it is a vampire film.  The outstanding cast is what makes most people watch it anyway.  Seeing Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise portray vampires is almost comical.  I, again, did not read the novel from which this movie derived, but I can be almost certain that it is better than the film.  Not that I have to say it aloud, but Twilight definately won this round.

3 comments:

  1. No it did'nt , you should read the book, its 1000 times better than twilight.
    You should'nt reveal so much of the film and how it ends btw.
    Great review except that.

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  2. id like to see a movie with all the different kinds of vampires from other stories together all in one, maybe even as a trilogy.

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  3. I like Tom but Brad Pitt is so gorgeous and sexy (http://coolometer.org/brad-pitt-vs-tom-cruse).

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