INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
4 stars
Acorn Media International. Digital Out Now. DVD and Blu Ray 6th November
We all know the Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt movie directed by Neil Jordan which was, unbelievably, in 1994!
Now we finally have the 7 episode first season of the TV series available on these shores in the UK – which came out last year Stateside. Of course it is based on Anne Rice’s famous debut novel published in 1976 and the first part of her series The Vampire Chronicles. Sadly Rice passed away in December 2021 but she was involved with this production before her death.
This initial televisual outing covers the first half of the book, though not having read the novel I couldn’t say how well it adapts the tale.
Investigative journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) is invited to Dubai to interview one Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) – they had met before nearly 50 years previously. Molloy has aged whereas du Lac hasn’t – as he is, of course, a vampire.
He is keen to tell his story to the reporter – an account about him and Lestat de Lioncourt… initially of pupil and master. The show spins back to 1910 New Orleans as du Lac, a businessman in the Red Light district of Storyville meets and becomes enamoured with said Lestat (Sam Reid), a fascinating foreign stranger.
Despite his ethnicity, du Lac mixes in society circles of rich, powerful, white folk. As he is drawn in by this charming newcomer he is bitten by Lestat and becomes a bloodsucker himself… though he tries to resist the urge to actually attack humans. With new powers, now that he is a parasitic menace, he uses them to become even richer as his relationship with Lestat heightens.
Sam Reid is charismatic as Lestat with Anderson giving an intense performance as du Lac. Inevitably as this is a TV series – already commissioned for a second season though no doubt delayed by the strikes – things are a little slow and drawn out, though things liven up from episode four with the introduction of teen vampire Claudia (Bailey Bass). This is a handsomely mounted offering, stylish, colourful and lushly told with high production values and brings to the fore the underpinnings of sexuality only hinted at in the film.
Steve Kirkham
