Interview With The Vampire is able to take the ancient subject of vampires and tell it from a completely unique perspective, allowing for an entirely new experience in the genre.

Rating: 9/10 (3 February 2001)

Failed movie titles: Two Vampires and A Bloodsucking Little Lady.
Interview With the Vampire is a classic example of casting against type, and with great success. Both Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise take on very uncharacteristic roles in this film, in which they both prove their versatility as actors. Christian Slater plays a small role (as Daniel Malloy), in which he interviews Brad Pitt, from a skeptical point of view at first, but his opinion slowly but drastically changes as the film progresses.
(spoilers) The majority of the film is told in a series of flashbacks, as the tale told by Louis (Pitt) is unfolded. We are taken back to the year 1791, which is stunningly brought back to life with outstandingly built sets  the buildings, the costumes, the interiors of buildings, everything was as perfect as possible. This is the point where we are introduced to Lestat (Cruise), who is a character in the film who undergoes a tremendous transformation by the end of the film. Louis runs into Lestat having just lost his wife and daughter, and looking desperately for a release from the pain. It seemed to him that Lestat was the answer. After becoming a vampire, Louis does not want to take lives (his newfound need for blood causes him to feed on the blood of rats and other small rodents). He is sort of a `good' vampire, but Lestat soon tricks him into overcoming his fears and morals. It is these fears and morals that lead to the two vampires' adoption' of Claudia (played brilliantly by Kirsten Dunst), a small girl who they changed into a vampire and Louis did not want to leave on her own.

Oddly enough, even starring in a major film with at least two established and respected actors, Dunst steals the show. When we first meet her, she is a typical young girl, mischievous and slightly unkempt, but after she has been turned (in a breathtaking scene that briefly resembles moments with Regan from The Exorcist), she takes on a strikingly different appearance. Her hair is carefully done, she is made up, and she even takes on a much more mature, even wise, look. In fact, one of the reasons that her performance is so impressive is that she was able to portray maturity so effectively and accurately. She was much more mature here than she was years later in the childish film Bring It On. Dunst delivers an awesome performance, and is able to capture the audience with just three words, `I want more.' A morbidly amusing part of the film is when Claudia is receiving lessons on how to `feed,' learning to `stop when the heart stops.'

One of my favorite things in this film is really a trivial point, but I really liked it when Claudia is congratulated  `You've done very well. Not a drop spilled.' Clearly, this is a skill that nearly every vampire in film history has badly screwed up. In all of the Subspecies films, for example, that goofy vampire gets more blood on his face and all over himself than he gets in his mouth, in feeding scenes that are so overacted that they're comical. Interview With The Vampire is a very welcome diversion from such childish nonsense.
The end of the film is also very well-done. We get a stunning revenge scene which takes place in a theatre, and which presents some of the relatively little but extremely realistic gore in the film. Also, I have to mention that the death of Lestat was incredibly realistic! That guy turned from a vampire into a rotting corpse in seconds and all within the same shot, which was a very impressive scene, I thought. The ending overall may have been a little vague for some tastes, but as a whole, this is just an excellent vampire film, and it should definitely be remembered for that. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are especially effective here, as are Kirsten Dunst in her early film appearance as well as Antonio Banderas who plays a relatively small but effective role. The film has such an engaging story that it almost qualifies as a drama, a very unusual characteristic of horror films. This one shouldn't be missed.