Interview with the Vampire

UK Release: 20th January 1995

Watched on DVD: Monday 24th September 2012

Rating: 18

Genre: Horror, Romance

Runtime: 2hrs 3mins

Tagline: Drink From Me And Live Forever 

IMDb Plot Synopsis: It hadn't even been a year since a plantation owner named Louis had lost his wife in childbirth. Both his wife and the infant died, and now he has lost his will to live. A vampire named Lestat takes a liking to Louis and offers him the chance to become a creature of the night: a vampire. Louis accepts, and Lestat drains Louis' mortal blood and then replaces it with his own, turning Louis into a vampire. Louis must learn from Lestat the ways of the vampire.

My Review: I’m in two minds when it comes to this film. On the one hand it was nominated for two Academy Awards and is critically acclaimed as one of the best films from the 1990’s. Certainly it had a classic film quality in its sets, costumes and camera work, but that doesn’t mean that the film itself is necessarily of as much quality. As on the other hand, I found it hard to connect to after the first hour or so. It dragged terribly and while the concept was very interesting to begin with it didn’t quite live up to the build-up in my mind. I detested Tom Cruise’s character (but then that could be clouded by my dislike for Cruise’s acting in general), Brad Pitt was good, but it was Kirsten Dunst that excelled for me. She was so very young and yet managed to put across the dark complexities of this film so beautifully. That’s what I was most impressed with. Otherwise it was a lot of thoughts and ideas that perhaps indulged itself too much. Or perhaps as a child of the nineties myself I am used to (or indeed have come to expect) something of more substance. I appreciated it for what it is - an interesting and groundbreaking film - I was just hoping for a little more after all the hype surrounding it.

Score: 7/10