Interview with the Vampire

I was too young to see Interview with the Vampire when it came out in 1994, but I do remember what a big freaking deal that movie was. Watching it yesterday was definitely a trip back in time because it is loaded with all the hot man-hunks of the day. I even forgot that Kirsten Dunst was Claudia. It was a good movie, and we enjoyed it, but the unfortunate thing is that, twenty years later, it seems awfully campy. For all the lush settings of the first, we couldn't help but laugh when Lestat woos Louis. Or when Lestat squeezes a rat dry into a wine glass for Louis. Or when Louis spots a rat and munches on it. Oh, and the poodle part. And when Lestat dances with the body of Claudia's mother. That all had us howling! Either the Internet has corrupted us completely or audiences were not as sophisticated twenty years ago. And the ending! After an hour of Louis' emo pondering, we sure weren't expecting that, but again, we laughed!

I haven't read the book, but it seems like there was too much book to be in the movie, so it felt a little unevenly paced, especially when Louis and Claudia escape to Paris. It wasn't immediately clear why the Paris vampires carted off Claudia and her new mother and we had to look up the IMDB trivia to fill a few gaps.

It's easy to see how this movie was such a big deal, however, and sets the template for Twilight and other vampiric works. The homoerotic overtones were pretty heavy - Lestat practically has an O when he turns Louis - and I sure wish Louis and Armand could have smooched! But in a time when a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition was enough to throw public arts funding into a complete crisis, I couldn't see it happening. Hopefully they remake it some day!