"...shall we begin when I was born to darkness, as I call it?"

Rating: 8/10 (1 November 2018)

The film almost makes me want to go out and read the Anne Rice novels. I say almost, because I don't know if I want to expend the effort it would take to read something I might not have a compelling interest in. But I do credit the picture for clearing up the meaning behind one of her titles, that being 'The Vampire Lestat'. That would have to be the Tom Cruise character in this story, the four hundred and some odd year old vampire who brought along Louis (Brad Pitt) from unwilling trainee to charter member of the undead. The film's most intriguing aspect was the way it managed to be so passionately erotic and creepy at the same time. I have to credit another reviewer for expounding a little bit on the whole notion of vampire love and sexual attraction. Apparently, author Rice's writings reveal that a vampire's ability to love is completely disengaged from a sex drive, so the hunger that burns in a vampire's heart has more to do with a taste for blood than any other consideration. Having watched and reviewed a fair amount of vampire films over the course of time, I'm always left amazed by the introduction of still another element of vampire lore I wasn't aware of. This picture introduces the idea that drinking 'dead blood' is a vampire no-no, a concept put to good use by the newly minted demon Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), with a little throat slitting thrown in for good measure. You would think with all this blood and gore the movie wouldn't have been that entertaining, but it had it's moments, with the period costumes adding a much appreciated vibrancy to the story. Cruise and Pitt perform well in their roles, though I didn't quite know how to react to some of their early scenes together until I got the skinny on vampire relationships. It's an entirely different take on the kind of vampire legend first introduced by "Nosferatu" and "Dracula".