The vampire style is stuffed with icons courting again tons of of years. They arrive in all sizes and styles, in just about very context, from glittering YA protagonists to wretched shambling creatures. And whereas we’re completely not right here to choose favorites or measure the unquantifiable, it could be tough to overstate simply how necessary the work of Anne Rice is on this explicit cultural phenomena. Anne Rice’s vampires aren’t the primary, nor are they the final, to enter into the style and turn into archetypes all their very own, however the endurance of creatures of the evening like Lestat, Louis, and Armand is tough to overstate–especially for followers of horror and gothic romance.
So, there was understandably some trepidation within the air when AMC introduced their plans to revisit Rice’s iconic 1976 novel, Interview with the Vampire, as a TV present. Not solely did Interview, the novel, exist atop a pedestal for a lot of style followers, however the 1994 movie adaptation (which starred a completely iconic Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as Lestat and Louis, respectively) grew to become deeply entrenched in cult standing virtually instantly upon its launch. Why revisit one thing that was already achieved so properly the primary time round?
Fortunately, the present isn’t solely conscious of those questions and anxieties–it embraces them head on and instantly. Episode 1 establishes a canon–Interview with the Vampire, the novel, occurred, again within the ’70s. Tortured vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) has already spilled his guts to disaffected journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) a number of many years in the past about his expertise along with his maker Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) and now needs a do-over, right here in current day 2022, to set the file straight on some issues he wasn’t fairly able to delve into as a youthful immortal. This framework additionally makes room for a few of Interview’s larger adjustments to the supply material–namely that Louis, who was so famously performed by Brad Pitt within the ’90s, is now a Black man.
It will have been straightforward for Interview’s creators to easily swap Louis’s race and depart it at that like so many different properties and variations have achieved previously, however it confronts this new dynamic head-on as properly. The context of Louis and Lestat’s relationship adjustments dramatically when the facility dynamic contains not solely immortal expertise and wealth however race as properly, and Interview by no means blinks or appears away from the ripples this creates within the narrative. This, in fact, is aided by present stopping performances from each Anderson and Reid. Whereas the novel and film ostensibly use Louis as a point-of-view character to focus the narrative on Lestat and his antics, this new and up to date take zeroes in on Louis as a totally realized character on his personal, beginning properly earlier than he is given the Darkish Present by Lestat and diving into his household life, his human ambitions, and his sluggish downward spiral as he succumbs to Lestat’s seduction.
And seduction could be very literal right here. Along with confronting the realities and complexities of the racial energy dynamic at play, Interview by no means shies away from acknowledging what each the novels and the movie usually left as subtext. There may be completely no subtext in Lestat and Louis’ romance right here. They’re lovers, explicitly so, and that is one more avenue the present makes use of to bolster and replace these acquainted characters. Lestat’s flamboyant pansexuality affords him an much more privilege to maneuver on the planet in comparison with Louis’s fraught homosexuality, and the ensuing conflicts ceaselessly come to a head because the couple turns into an increasing number of entwined in each other.
It is an unimaginable case research in an adaptation updating each the context and the content material of a supply materials with out altering the unique themes–and it works, extremely. Just about each new thought Interview tosses into every episode completely works, because of Anderson and Reid’s chemistry and the framing machine of Bogosian’s aged and cynical Molloy, who’s refusing to be swept up within the thriller and mayhem of Louis’s re-told story. Bogosian appears to be channeling somebody just like the late, nice Anthony Bordain in his performance–fearless to the purpose of self destruction, disaffected however compassionate, with worldly knowledge chopped up between scathingly humorous barbs.
If there’s something that does not fairly work as properly within the first half of the primary season, it is the present’s up to date tackle Claudia, the kid vampire who represents one of many largest factors of battle in Lestat and Louis’s lives (deaths?) Within the novel, Claudia is a 5-year-old and later, within the ’90s film she’s performed by a 12-year-old Kirten Dunst. Right here, nevertheless, Claudia has been aged as much as 14, performed by 19-year-old Bailey Bass. Bass’s efficiency is great–she completely sells the turmoil and battle of an adolescent’s mounting frustration and alienation–but she’s by no means actually styled in a approach that sells the affect of her everlasting youth, and characters usually deal with her as if she’s a lot, a lot youthful than she truly appears. At one level, she telepathically overhears a bunch of ladies sneering at her for trying like a toddler who stole her mom’s jewellery on the road, however Bass herself appears simply as put collectively and mature in that second as they do. The battle and the affect simply by no means actually rises to the highest and it looks like some minor changes to make issues really feel much less like they had been nonetheless aimed toward an adolescent Claudia and extra at a teenage Claudia may have gone a great distance.
So far as missteps go, nevertheless, this one is minor–while Claudia’s story could journey over itself whereas she’s alone, it completely nonetheless works when she’s bouncing off of each Lestat and Louis. With their relationship being made explicitly romantic, Interview is supplied ample house to discover the trio with out subtext or allusion–they’re a dysfunctional household, spiraling uncontrolled, fairly than three immortals who occur to be on-again-off-again buddies and rivals with unspecified or unstated stress.
Visually, Interview with the Vampire is not utterly divorced from the ’90s romantic horror material it is spun from. The set pieces–1900s New Orleans–are lovely however the visible results can skew a bit corny at occasions, particularly in struggle scenes or at any time when anybody makes use of their vampiric magic. It is achieved with a kind of self-awareness, nevertheless, that is not fairly tongue-in-cheek however definitely does not strive too arduous for realism. The fights, the blood-sucking, the hypnosis, the uncanny vampire eyes–they’ve all received a skinny veneer of camp over them, which in the end works to stability the tone. Interview definitely is not a horror comedy–this isn’t a run for What We Do In The Shadows place within the horror pantheon by any means–but it lacks the dourness or self-seriousness of one thing like The Strolling Useless. There may be extravagance right here, and the large thrives lean into the truth that the sophistication of the VFXs may not be blockbuster stage.
All informed, the present is a rousing success on just about each stage, with an astronomical quantity of potential baked into its stellar solid. Its fearless adaptation and renewal of the supply materials supplies sufficient fuel within the tank to hold its characters by way of conflicts each new and familiar–all we’ve to do now could be hope that Season 1 sticks the touchdown and retains the power up into the longer term.
AMC’s Interview with the Vampire premieres on Sunday, October 2.
