Interview with the Vampire - 1994

There's new horror, there's old horror, and then there's "formational" horror.  I'm coining this right now, and it simply means the horror from when you were young, perhaps getting introduced to the genre, and you watched these movies, and they helped you understand what the genre was.

I don't know what exact age I was when I saw Interview for the first time.  I do remember that even then, the cast was a huge deal.  The cast is, in retrospect, probably one of the biggest things about this film, and very much helped it achieve success.  That and direction by Neil Jordan helped the film gain mainstream attention.  I don't have to google it to know this film must've been a financial success.  It simply HAD to be.

Brad Pitt stars as Louis, a downtrodden and defeated man who gets munched on by Tom Cruise and becomes a vampire.  Louis relates his story of vampire life to Christian Slater, and as the story unfolds we see Antonio Banderas and Kirsten Dunst play other leading figures in the vampires chronicle.  And you know what?  It holds up.

I remembered most of this film.  What I didn't know at the time, and on rewatching really stands out, is that it's shot extremely well, and the pacing is such that a two hour film simply flies by.  There is an odd mysticism to the characters, there is small attention to deal, there is nudity, there is a bit of violence, but overall it's remarkable how tame this film is.  IMDB classifies this as a Drama/Thriller moreso than horror, and I agree with that definition.

I'd say, on rewatching, there a few moments of plotholes, and some parts that don't make too much sense, but overall it is fantastic world-building, and it's believable as a vampire movie can be.  It made me want to read the book, and it also made me wonder about these characters more.  Also, I forgot that the Interview segments take place in San Francisco, so that was a fun bit.  I have walked by the building where the interview takes place many a time, shit, it's right on Market Street.

I sorta wish this had generated a few sequels and/or more of a legacy.  We got Queen of the Damned, but I don't think that had any of the same characters, and for sure was not as good.  This is something where I'm frankly shocked it didn't make a bigger impact in the media and sell some film rights to Anne Rice adaptations.  I give it a nice, 4.5 star rating.