Interview with the Vampire (1994) – Film Review

Director: Neil Jordan
Cast: Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas
Certificate: 15

By Sarah Morgan

In 1994, you could barely move without a reference to Interview with the Vampire popping up on TV or in whatever periodical you happened to be reading. If the internet had been widely available, social media would have bombarded us with trailers and images.

It was one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year, thanks in no small part to its cast, headed by two of the biggest heartthrobs of the day – Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise – and being based on Anne Rice’s bestselling novel of the same name. Director Neil Jordan could do no wrong either, being fresh from his success with The Crying Game (1992).

It was not, however, without controversy – Rice publicly stated that Cruise was not her idea of who should play Lestat, one of the vampires in the tale. The character was, in her words, ‘tall and rangey’, something nobody could accuse Cruise of being. However, on seeing the finished result, she changed her mind – did she really believe it, or did she realise she might be ruining a nice little nest egg for herself and her family if she poured scorn on it?

“Misadventures”

Well, we’ll probably never know the answer to that, but the movie was a huge box office success. It seems that cinemagoers around the world couldn’t wait to see Cruise, who’d made his name as all-American heroes, playing against type for once.

Lestat is not, however, the vampire being interviewed. That honour goes to Louis (Pitt), an 18th century New Orleans plantation owner who is grieving the loss of his wife and child when Lestat enters his life and initiates him into the world of the undead bloodsucker.

Louis recalls his misadventures, which take him from the US to Europe, with Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), a little orphaned girl who becomes his vampiric daughter, while talking to a journalist (Christian Slater) in modern-day San Francisco.

“Lavish”

No expense has been spared on recreating the period settings; art director Dante Ferretti and his wife, set decorator Fransesca Lo Schiavo, received Oscar nominations for their work, while Philippe Rousselot’s cinematography is as sumptuous as that of John Alcott on Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, all shadows and flickering candles.

However, the lavish treatment of the subject is perhaps part of why the film doesn’t quite work for me. A smaller budget may have resulted in a more intimate tale, one with a grittier and more earthy approach. Maybe if Jordan, who was used to working on a less lavish scale, had written the screenplay himself, it could have been better too. Castling less well-known actors, ones who didn’t need to live up to a certain image, would also have been an advantage.

Instead, we’re left with a rather anaemic tale. One that looks fantastic, but lacks the shocks and scars a true horror movie requires. A missed opportunity.

Sarah Morgan( Writer )

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

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