Director: Various
First aired: 2022
Contains spoilers
Also referred to as Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, this TV adaptation of the opening volume of the author’s famous series of vampire novels courted controversy amongst fans from the very beginning. The cries of outrage were loud as fans discovered that Louis de Pointe du Lac, the vampire being interviewed, was to be played by Jacob Anderson – a black actor. Let me make this very clear from the outset, Louis is a fictional character and his ethnicity does not matter – the acting ability of the person cast is important, the writing is important but ethnicity not so. Jacob Anderson is magnificent in the role.
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| Jacob Anderson as Louis |
Ok, to be fair, the change of ethnicity did lead to other changes. Still in New Orleans, the time frame was brought forward to 1910 rather than 1791, allowing for the plot to show racial tensions rather than the original timeframe, in which Africans were enslaved in America. There were other changes within the story, as we’ll touch upon, both from the 1976 novel and the movie adaptation.
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| Sam Reid as Lestat |
Louis, living in Dubai, has reached out to writer Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian, Blade Trinity) to interview him and write his story. They previously encountered each other in the 70s and Molloy has the scar on his neck to prove it. Louis sends him the tapes he had made of their interview to entice him. His story runs thusly… Louis runs a brothel in New Orleans, providing for his family – a mother (Rae Dawn Chong), brother (Steven G. Norfleet) and sister (Kalyne Coleman). His position allows him some privilege, such as entry into a white establishment, and there he meets a stranger to New Orleans, Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid).
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| bite |
Lestat seduces him and here we get a bigger change in the story than the ethnicity of a protagonist or the timeframe. Anne Rice’s vampires were, whilst erotically charged both as beings and in her prose, asexual. The books had a homoerotic undercurrent, whereas the vampires in this are fully sexual beings and Louis and Lestat become lovers. This adds layers of othering to the vampires; gay (or bi in Lestat's case) and in a mixed-race relationship. Louis’ family life, and the impact thereon, is also new. In the novel he lost his brother, in the feature his wife, but the family dynamics here are wider (though ultimately fleeting as they turn their back on him, which adds to his reliance on Lestat).
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| Bailey Bass as Claudia |
As in the books Louis does try to subsist on animal blood and they do create a daughter, Claudia (Bailey Bass). But where the Claudia of the book was five and older than that in the film (Kirsten Dunst, who played her, was 12 when the film was released) this Claudia (rescued from a fire, rather than plague) was fourteen and has more agency than in previous vehicles, including a want to have a boyfriend rather than the more amorphous feelings of the older women trapped in a child's body. We actually get one episode from her point of view as Molloy reads the diaries she kept. Again this is a departure from the book, which is entirely from Louis’ viewpoint.
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| a dysfunctional family |
I haven’t mentioned much about Lestat. Drawn in a book consistent way in many respects (certainly from Louis' point of view and not later books from his own), he is shown to be a manipulator and domestic abuser (mostly psychologically but also physically whilst his anger flares). He is drawn as narcissistic, though one moment of him killing a sub-optimum opera singer for crimes against music struck as lifting as much from Hannibal Lector as Anne Rice. The story goes as far as Claudia and Louis turning on him through the (unusually numbered) 7 episodes. The series is sumptuous and the primaries are all excellent in their roles but special mention (as per the head of the review) to Jacob Anderson on whose shoulders the show is carried.
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| Claudia attacks |
The lore sees vampires disintegrating in the sun (unless of great age), having great strength and speed, fire and decapitation will kill and the vampires can read minds (and speak telepathically) but not with those they create. There are moments where it looks like time has stopped around them, though that is likely a perception thing. Lestat is eventually shown to have the ability to fly, though he hides that from his progeny at first, just as he hides much about their kind. Claudia does meet another vampire, in a period away from the pair, but it does not go well. Ultimately this was a grand yarn that I enjoyed watching play out before me. Familiar and yet changed, with themes extended in some ways. I do think it captured the essence of Rice’s vampires. 7.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
3 comments:
Oddly enough I think True Blood did everything this show tried to do but better since it threw out nearly everything identifiable to the book for identity politics.
The only way you could even know this was meant to be IWTV is the names of the characters and the show. If you took away the names, you'd have no idea this show was related to the Anne Rice novels at all.
AMC's IWTV is to Anne Rice's novel what Rings of Power is to Tolkien's writings.
I felt physically ill watching that disaster of a show, it was an insult. Not to mention the digital effects were some of the worst I've seen to date.
7.5 is incredibly generous.
Epime, we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I felt it was very true to the spirit of the book and, as someone on FB said, it is similar to the case of Dracula and the endless changes that we accept and (in many cases) love.
That said, it would be boring if we all liked the same thing and your position is as valid as any.
That would be boring, I just wish Hollyweird was a bit more respectful to source material these days, more focused on entertaining the audience and less focused on ticking as many boxes on their list of approved themes and representations.
At least I still have the original 90's film with its imperfections to enjoy so there's that.
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