back to browsing

Interview with the Vampire [DVD]

1 disc
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

Horror author Anne Rice penned the screenplay for this full-blooded adaptation of her novel, which chronicles the life of 18th-century nobleman Louis (Brad Pitt) after he is bitten by powerful, charismatic vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise). Though enthralled with the undead lifestyle at first, Louis is unable to warm up to killing humans and grows despondent. To comfort Louis, Lestat creates another vampire (Kirsten Dunst in a star-making peformance), a young girl who from then on cannot age. Antonio Banderas appears as Armand, a 400-year-old vampire, and Christian Slater plays the radio producer who interviews the remorseful Louis.

Director Neil Jordan captures the lush decadence and erotic fervor of the novel, infusing the film with rich, dusky tones. The big budget is well used to bring each period and place to sharply detailed life, and there is no skimping on the blood or immortal angst. Thandie Newton has a small role as Louis's Creole servant near the beginning of the film, and Jordan regular Stephen Rea appears as a Parisian vampire theater star. INTERVIEW broke weekend box-office records when it premiered and has since earned a spot in the pantheon of great vampire films.
Read More...
Credits

Tom Cruise, Thomas Cruise Mapother, Brad Pitt, William Bradley Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Kirsten Dunst, Stephen Rea
Critic Reviews

"...The movie is hypnotic, scary, sexy, perversely funny and haunting in a way that taps into primal fears..."
Rolling Stone
"...A sophisticated, spookily intense rendering of [Rice's] story....Cruise is flabbergastingly right for this role..."
New York Times
"...[INTERVIEW] does right by Rice....[It] honors such great movie fantasists as Jean Cocteau and NOSFERATU director F.W. Murnau..." -- Rating: B
Entertainment Weekly
"...INTERVIEW does a gorgeous job of re-creating not only 19th Century New Orleans and 19th-Century Paris but also the book's genuinely weird, disturbing, almost unimaginable world of those who can never die..."
Los Angeles Times
"...The movie is true to the detailed vision that has informed all of Anne Rice's novels....INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE is a skillful exercise in macabre imagination..."
Chicago Sun-Times