Tag: interviewwiththevampire

Throwback Thursday: Rediscovering the Vampire Chronicles – A Journey into Anne Rice’s Immortal World

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Drink from me and live forever.

During my teens, I read this novel several times and even made a little skit to perform for my high school’s Drama Fest. I saw the movie more times than I can count, and those intense teenage years, were filled with the Vampire Chronicles. I read the new installment of Price Lestat a few years ago, and it felt like revisiting an old friend. I was devastated when Anne Rice passed away as she was my favorite living author.

With the series Interview with the Vampire, my love for the characters resurfaced, and I decided to revisit the original novel. I instantly fell in love with the world that Rice created and its three central characters, Louis, Lestat, and Claudia. Only this time, I didn’t find myself sympathetic towards Louis as I always was in the past. This time, I felt like he was always placing the blame on Lestat when it was obvious that some of the terrible choices he made were his and his alone.

New Orleans is as much as a character in the book as the characters themselves, with its lush vegetation, Spanish houses, churches, mausoleums, and jasmines. I loved reading about Louis’s encounter with Lestat who proposes to him a better life and offers him the gift of immortality (although Louis sees this more as a curse). Claudia, a young child who cannot grow up is by far the most interesting and complex character. She has reasons to detest the ones who made her, and yet, like Louis she places the blame only on Lestat when they both share this blame.

Lestat, the charismatic maker who later becomes the protagonist of the Vampire Chronicles is depicted as violent, ill-tempered, a spend thrift, and arrogant vampire. But as we later learn in the books that follow, Louis’ interpretation of events were not always correct.

I absolutely loved revisiting this vampire world and it also reminded me that the new TV series follows the events of the novel much more faithfully than the movie ever did (although some things were altered for the series).

Anne Rice created a lush, alluring world with characters that are worth loving (and disliking sometimes, like Armand!) but ultimately remain in your heart forever.

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Review: Interview with the Vampire (TV Series)

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Anyone who knows me knows how obsessed I am with Anne Rice’s novel, Interview with the Vampire as well as with the 1994 movie adaptation. There was a time in my life when I watched the movie once a day for nearly three years, and that’s why I can quote the two hours film verbatim even after all these years. So when I learned AMC was going to have a TV series based on Anne Rice’s novel, I was both excited and skeptical. Would I love it? Or would I hate it? Throughout the months I heard about the changes they were going to make (change of the century, Louis is a POC, and Claudia is no longer a young child but a teen). I didn’t know how to feel about these changes, however, I decided to dive into the series.

The first episode felt jarring, these characters I loved for so many years had fresh faces as new actors brought them to life. But the moment we see Lestat (Sam Reid) reach out and kiss Louis (Jacob Anderson) passionately by the end of episode one, I was both seduced and compelled to keep on watching.

The new actors have managed to embody Anne Rice’s characters unlike any other actors before (and I thought Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt did a good job at the time). But there’s something about the way Sam Reid manages to create an accent that would truly be one that Lestat would have, how he manages to be both repulsive with his violent behavior, yet enthralling when he’s charming. Jacob Anderson does an excellent job of showing Louis’s vulnerability and guilt but also demonstrates his inability to truly get away from a toxic relationship.

I think Anne Rice would be proud of this adaptation, especially since we finally get the true toxic romance that she was only able to hint at but couldn’t be completely explicit about (same with the movie).

Meanwhile, I’ve fallen back into my former obsessive tendencies in regard to this book. I’ve already rewatched the series three times, and have lost count of how many times I’ve specifically watched the scene where Louis and Lestat have their final dance.

If you haven’t checked it out, I completely recommend it. After all, as Lestat says, “I’m going to give you the choice I never had.”

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