Vampire, did you say vampire ?
In our defense, the project seemed to be going poorly. Launched in 2016 by the late novelist and her son Christopher Rice, this Interview with a Vampire 2.0 unfortunately suffered froma most chaotic preamble, to put it politely. Should we have seen a sign there? Maybe. But still traumatized by the infamous Queen of the Damned and the equally unsavory musical LestatRice mother and son wanted to persevere in their business, determined to make Chronicles a proper serial odyssey.
Despite a duo full of good intentions, the project Interview With the Vampire however found himself tossed around from executive producers to distributors, before finally landing at AMC Networks in 2020. And everyone knows what happened in 2020. A pandemic and thirty-six thousand hiccups later, Jones, Johnson, then Taylor are officially designated as the brains of a first season, which unearths its new star-crossed lovers along the way.
When it starts to get complicated
Sam Reid (already seen in The Riot Club) is thus announced as the replacement for a former peroxided Tom Cruise, while Jacob Anderson, known for having lent his features to the taciturn Vers Gris of Game Of Thrones, is immediately chosen to play the no less morose Louis of Pointe du Lac. All these beautiful people together, the production could, logically, have cheerfully extricated itself from its coffin… but there again, nay.
Let’s talk little, let’s talk well, the promotion of‘Interview With the Vampire did not convince many people; starting with Ecran Large, which was happy to vilify the first official previews. Resolutely bland colorimetry, fake blood that looks like cheap acrylic paint, contact lenses probably ordered on Amazon… Let’s say that it was difficult to find something to catch on in these images supposed to arouse curiosity.
“We’ll get through this, I tell you.”
In addition to the cult following that Rice’s work has enjoyed since its beginnings in 1976, the 1994 film directed by Neil Jordan had already more or less established itself as a perfect adaptation among aficionados of bloodsuckers (the author of these lines also specifies having rewatched it so many times that it would almost be embarrassing). So suffice to say that the expectations surrounding this new series, whose merits were already doubtful, were not necessarily high.
memory is a monster
Just once, Ecran Large can admit it without (too much) blushing: we were wrong. Rather than comparing pointlessly Interview With the Vampire to its cinematic predecessor, it is a matter of considering this proposition for the reinterpretation that it really is. Mark Johnson had discussed it extensively: many changes from the original novel were to be expectedsuch as the spatio-temporal framework within which the story now takes place.
Here, the titular exchange has already taken place between Louis and Molloy in San Francisco; but now fifty years later, the vampire wishes to retreat to exercise. Having since established his quarters in Dubai, he once again calls on the journalist (played for the occasion by an excellent Eric Bogosian) with a view to revising his previous confessions.
When you notice the number of creative freedoms between the two interviews
Although the process may seem a bit easy, it nevertheless makes it possible to effectively include the various alterations made to Rice’s text. Starting with the character of Louis, redesigned for the occasion in young Creole man condemned to the closet by the morals of New Orleans in 1910and promptly converted into a brothel manager (just to spare the modern viewer from sympathizing with a plantation owner and the slaves who go with them).
This bias may have made a few jaws clench, but it has the merit of establishing solid foundations on which to build the romance between the poor guy and Lestat. Because this is the clear ambition of this new version, eager to exploit the full potential of this atypical couple.
Lestat even meets the parents, isn’t that sweet?
The “dark gift” put forward by the blonde is therefore not no longer offered as relief to Louis’s suicidal tendencies as with a view to freeing him of the rejections of which he is a victim – familial, sexual, and of course, ethnic. After all, the vampire figure has long established itself as a metaphor quick to denounce a plethora of marginalizations.
For Rice in particular, the monster is the personification of mourning, but also a non-gendered creature with polymorphous sexuality (at least, that’s how she described it in the columns of Playboy in 1993). But Jones, Johnson and Taylor for their part favored an angle whose intricacies significantly depict systemic racism and whatnot – which, given the current North American social climate, could not have been more appropriate.
Who remembers what happens to the infant in Coppola’s Dracula?
madness for two
Moreover, Interview With the Vampire explore diligently a generous gothic romance. And to do this, the channel decided that it was better not to go easy on it. Readers of Chronicles will surely remember that the vampires are more or less eunuchs, but the executive producers preferred to ignore this slight detail.
Let’s talk little, let’s talk well, Louis and Lestat hardly wait for their wedding night to discover each other biblically, and the resolutely organic character of their relationship (supported by the undeniable alchemy between the two actors) will continue to be copiously showcased throughout the episodes. “Sexy” therefore seems to have been one of the main notes of intention in the writing roomand despite a series of more than shaky trailers, the viewer will be delighted to discover that the notion of pleasure is not only carnal.
Bye bye subtext
Indeed, the aesthetic is opulent ; sets and costumes have obviously been developed with a view to best translating the universe of the story and the individuality of each character (special mention for the masked ball sequence from the final episodeand a good part of the dresses lent to Claudia).
Unfortunately, there had to be a dark side to the picture. Also, and despite its many visual and narrative qualities, the series has a handful of missteps, the main one annoyingly returning to the characterization of Lestat. A hybrid between the monster described by Louis and the antihero around which the literary sequels are structured, the character of Sam Reid must tick a staggering number of boxes, so much so that he ends up being portrayed as a catch-all. all moody and unstable.
With a taste of your lips, I’m on a ride; you’re toxic, I’m slippin’ under
In idea, it might well not have been particularly dramatic. But the semi-abusive portrait what producers and screenwriters did in order to justify Claudia’s possible revolt, harming their romance.
A few departures from the road aside, the series nevertheless respects each of the major narrative points of the novel on which it is inspired, and therefore offers a relevant revisit whose creative liberties prove, for the most part, surprisingly welcome. A reassuring observation which leaves the public free to hope for the best for the future.
Interview With the Vampire is available from May 10 exclusively on Paramount+
Interview With the Vampire
