ThisInterview with the Vampirereview contains spoilers.
Interview with the Vampire Episode 1
Welcome to the world ofAnne Rices vampires.
The landscape has changed, but the emotional intent remains.
He sets the tone for how the narrative has changed in the almost-half-century since recording the tapes in 1973.
Molloy is teaching online journalism classes now, and can be canceled at any moment.
And there you have it.
AMCs adaptation of theVampire Chroniclesis exactly that, adapted and threatened with all manner of cancellation.
Mostly because of the changes to the book series.
It is to his credit the series lays it out at the outset.
Are these hanging offenses, as Sylvio Dante would ask Tony Soprano onThe Sopranos?
Not if the series works on its own.
And it does.Interview with the Vampireis recreating the mythology in a horror series which worksasa horror series.
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Louis introduction is far from menacing, he is concerned about Molloys Parkinsons Disease.
Molloy hasnt been doing well.
Between his failed marriages, addictions, and reputation, he is a ghost of his former self.
He believes the original 1973 tapes captured a fever dream told to an idiot.
His newly accepted vampire interview sessions often get deliciously heated to make up for it.
Louis has thrived, as is evidenced by his palatial apartment in Dubai.
He can even stay out of the sun while enjoying daylight.
Louis, as a young man, is also not what he was.
His former self is the ghost.
Pre-vampire Louis is an engaging and likable character, if not the books original.
You couldnt look weak on Liberty Street, he explains.
The slave-owner of the book is now a pimp.
Storyville is 20 blocks of drinking, gambling, and whoring, Louis says.
The historic red-light district is rendered beautifully.
The sets and design are uniformly magnificent.
Louis also maintains a very friendly relationship with his churchs priest.
Until death makes them part, cutting in unexpectedly from all sides.
The de Pointe du Lac family has more of a presence in the series than in the book.
Get used to them, the series wants to break your heart.
Pauls visions and unseen birds frighteningly take on a more human quality on screen than the page.
He tugs the tender strings with righteous rage, but he is a godsend for something slightly less deified.
Lestat is a shadow-like creature, trailing behind the figures, unidentifiable, but unmistakable.
Reid establishes Lestat as an understated sociopath in his introduction with Louis.
His stare is beyond vampiric as he pins the tough cathouse owner to his chair with it.
His highpoint really comes in a ocean between Christ and myself tirade.
Religious ambiguity regularly beats deep in the blessed heart of theVampire Chronicles.
Louis mother, played by Rae Dawn Chong, doles out the Catholic guilt with a devastating clarity.
The vampires reject it without apology.
The first seduction ends operatically, and the romance is an aria of arousal.
Louis speaks of the intimacy Lestat awakens with a tiny bite.
Then he comes down to the reality of his circumstances.
The second seduction is life-changing, a cliffhanger the audience always knew was coming.
It is the leap we have been waiting for since the theme music chord turned sour in ever-increasing dissonance.
The first clues to the vampire subplot come through in the same way as classic horror films.
Reports circulate of a group of unfortunates with small wounds who had been drained of blood.
The same was said of Bela Lugosis Dracula before he unveiled his cape.
As Louis tells his resistant profiler, let the tale seduce you.
The first episode is a hunt, and at the end, viewers will be trapped.
It opens a whole new vein.
Rating:
5 out of 5
