Remember when Tom Cruise was good and in interesting films? Unless you’re a fan of Minority Report and Collateral (as I am), you may have to think back as far as 1994.
Interview with the Vampire is big, gothic, exciting, dark, fun and big. It’s perfect for fans of vampires, sex, homoeroticism, paedophilia and paedophobia. There really is something there for everyone.
In an age where vampires have been tarnished by Twilight, Neil Jordan’s film is worth watching again to reclaim them from the clammy, greedy, preachy hands of Stephenie Meyer. Vampires are not broody or angsty or annoying or celibate; they’re charismatic and sexy and cool and say things like, “God kills indiscriminately and so shall we.” Anne Rice’s screenplay captures all of that.
In a stand-out scene in Interview with the Vampire, a woman is eaten on stage in front of a theatre audience, who obliviously ignore her genuine cries for help, believing that it’s not real and just part of the play. That’s such a wonderfully scary idea, which is fantastically executed (and eaten).
This is a film in which Brad Pitt plays an immortal vampire with a mortal’s conscience, who at one point slays a load of vampires with a scythe. It’s a film in which a 12-year-old Kirsten Dunst plays a horrifically creepy child vampire, who we see brilliantly growing up over hundreds of years, all the time trapped in the form of a doll-like little girl. It’s a film in which Christian Slater interviews a vampire.
Best of all, it’s a film in which Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas and Stephen Rea play vampires.
Clacked by Dan Meier 
on Oct 18, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Couldn’t agree more with your article. Definitely one of the best vampire movies of the past three decades. Now if they had only decided NOT to make “Queen of the Damned”…