MovieHole.com Review



Story:


 

Queen of the Damned is based on the third book in the Vampire Chronicles series by Anne Rice. 

The Vampire Lestat has been sleeping for 100 years, quietly wallowing in loneliness and self-pity. Dimly aware of the world around him, he is awakened by a new sound – rock music. Lestat reawakens and decides to start a new life as a rock star. No longer hiding in the shadows, he flaunts his vampire nature as part of his on stage act. Little do the humans know that he’s the real deal. Lestat uses his stardom to stir up all the other vampires still in hiding. 

Meanwhile, Jesse Reeves catches on to the hidden messages in his songs. As part of a secret supernatural investigation society called the Talamasca, she knows that vampires are real. As she researches the origins of Lestat, she begins to become enamored with him. Jesse also discovers Lestat’s connections with the first vampire, Akasha, who has been sleeping for thousands of years. 

As Jesse comes closer to the mysterious Lestat, his music begins to stir up the long sleeping Akasha. She finds the time right to reawaken and reclaim the human world as her own. She intends to have the rebellious Lestat as her new king. It’s up to Jesse and a small band of ancient vampires to stop her. 

Queen of the Damned is rated R for vampire violence. 

What Worked:


 

There were a lot of rumors about just how bad Queen of the Damned was. Plagued with problems and nasty rumors, this film looked like it was going to be a real stinker. Luckily, it doesn’t suck as bad as you might think. (I had to throw in the bad pun somewhere.) It doesn’t compare at all to the Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise version of Interview with the Vampire and the novel was much better, but it still makes a decent movie. I read the book many years ago and while I don’t remember all the details, the heart of the story is still there. 

The concept of the 18th Century French noble vampire becoming a rock star is a bit hard to swallow, but this film takes a good shot at making it work. Eccentric performers like Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, and Marylin Manson make it believable that a real vampire could sneak in undetected as a singer. In fact, those guys are probably weirder than Lestat. However, the film is at its best when it gets away from the goth band nonsense. 

Highlights of the film include seeing the origins of Lestat and how Marius created him and trained him. The film also introduces the intriguing Talamasca, a kind of ancient X-Files society that keeps track of the supernatural. (You could probably make a TV series on them alone.) The film also introduces Maharet. She’s a vampire who had a daughter before she was transformed. Maharet spends eternity looking after her ancestors and specifically her granddaughters. She’s kind of an undead guardian angel. Though only briefly touched on, it is a powerful concept that probably merited more screentime. So though Queen of the Damned is mired with blaring music, there are some new twists on the old vampire legend. 

Most of the cast is bland and uninteresting, especially when compared to the cast of Interview with the Vampire which included Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, Kirsten Dunst, and Christian Slater. However, I did like the performance of Marguerite Moreau as Jesse Reeves. She could convincingly switch between looking scholarly and seductive. Her final transformation at the end is sufficiently creepy. 

Finally, this film was the last performance of rising star Aaliyah who was killed while the movie was still in post-production. Her appearance on screen drew cheers from some members of the audience. If you’re going to this movie to specifically see her, you may be disappointed. She is in less than half the movie and she spends most of the time mugging for the camera, talking in an annoying accent, and sucking blood from Lestat. However, she does have a couple of scenes where you can see her potential shine through. Given a better role, she probably could have become a great actress. But as it is, she does a good enough job as Queen of the Damned. 



What Didn't Work:


 

First of all, I have to complain about the music. I don’t want to sound like an old fuddy duddy, but it really wasn’t very good. The filmmakers made a special point to blare it at you as loud as the speakers would go. This might appeal to some people, but it really was painful. This was especially the case in a scene where Akasha busts up a bar. They cranked the music incredibly loud and showed like 20 seconds of Aaliyah walking in slow motion in her glued on outfit. As appealing as it sounds, it was a bad experience. 

Almost all of the vampire effects were horrible. The vampires would jump around and you’d see a stuttered image of them with a sound effect like it came from the Six Million Dollar Man. It was really sad. And apparently all that is required for vampire makeup is some fake teeth, dark eye shadow, and a stoned look. Not only was it unimaginative, but it didn’t distinguish them from the Goth kids at your local mall. 

As I already mentioned, this cast is for the most part unmemorable. Claudia Black, who was cool in Pitch Black, looks horrible in vampire attire and is reduced to a background extra role. Townsend simply looks stoned throughout the film and is a poor substitute for Tom Cruise as Lestat (who’d have thought that??). Marius doesn’t look imposing at all. He looks like a gay man in a bathrobe rather than a menacing vampire. Overall the cast was rather unimpressive. 

The film tried to pack too much into one movie while at the same time skipping a lot. You could have made a whole movie on the origin of Lestat alone. Same with the Talamasca, Maharet, or many of the other concepts. It also totally skipped the origin of Akasha. Where was she from? How did she become a vampire? Why is she so mad at the world? Why did she turn to stone? Why was Marius taking care of her? This is addressed in the book but almost totally ignored in the movie. Queen of the Damned also left out appearances of some of the characters from the first film such as the reporter or Louis. 

Queen of the Damned was a good concept that could have made a great vampire movie. However, in the end, it is only a decent effort. 

Added: February 20th 2002
Reviewer: Scott Chitwood
Score: 
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Language: english