Interview With the Vampire (1994)
Interview With the Vampire (1994)
“I’m flesh and blood, but not human. I haven’t been human for 200 years,” explains Pitt’s character, Louis, at the onset of the Interview With the Vampire, Neil Jordan’s misconceived version of Anne Rice’s novel.
Complete with a ponytail, fancy suit, and pale face, Pitt’s character details his life as a man — and vampire — to a curious journalist (Christian Slater).
Based on Rice’s popular novel, Interview did not do much to propel Pitt into superstardom, because he was miscast.
Told in retrospect through flashbacks from the current day to the 1700s, the film details Louis’ story of a man who lost his infant and wife during childbirth. Wallowing in his depression and hoping for a “release from the pain of living,” Pitt’s character is attacked by Lestat (Tom Cruise, miscast), a Parisian vampire transplant.
After being left for dead on the banks of the Mississippi River, Louis later submits to Lestat’s offer to live “free from sickness and death” as a vampire by drinking the latter’s blood straight from his wrist.
Louis recounts centuries of life as a vampire, including trips to New Orleans so the duo could dine on French cuisine, as Cruise’s character Lestat exhibits truly creepy behavior, like biting a woman’s breast during a sexual encounter.
The vampires convert a young girl named Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) to join their bloodsucking family. As the film unfolds, a strange father-daughter relationship develops between Louis and Claudia.
Ultimately, Louis is portrayed as a broken man whose regret is the only semblance of humanity he retains. A vampire who chronically lamented the idea of killing innocent victims to feed and sustain his own life, he’s described as an “immortal with a mortal’s passion.” If the absurd layers of this film aren’t enough to pique interest, any film that includes Brad Pitt slicing flying, flaming vampires with a massive scythe is worth a watch.
It’s time to make a series for great material that was poorly conceived and executed by Jordan in 1994.
