Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

An impressive costume extravaganza for the big screen, with a solid performance by Brad Pitt and where Neil Jordan forced Cruise to give up his goofy gestures and made a proper actor of him, at least for this film. (21/07/2002)

Probably the best vampire movie I’ve ever seen. I thought it would be boring, but that wasn’t the case at all. The quality of the performances and the amazing narration drew me into the story in an almost unexpected way. And on top of that, the film has an interesting idea. (25/05/2008)

A remarkable vampire epic, which certainly does not rank amongst vampire horror movies, but rather, with surprising elegance, balances on the edge of drama and a relatively controversial love story. The quintessence of this spectacle is the convincing performances of Cruise and Pitt, whose homosexual relationship is hinted at throughout the film. In the end, in Interview with the Vampire, the relationships between the characters and the kind of "realistic" view of the vampire underworld play a much bigger role than any vampire props. Definitely an interesting film, which is not quite perfect perhaps only due to a lack of significant gradation and a slightly better built story. But these deficiencies are replaced by the atmosphere and some really great and powerful scenes that will stay with you. (22/08/2004)

A very well-made picture, brought down mainly by the actors. Not that their acting is bad, quite the opposite, most of the performances are above their usual standard, but the casting could certainly have been better. Mainly Lestat (but I have almost nothing against Cruise) completely lacks the aura of charisma that the book gives him. The only one who manages to get under your skin with her acting is “young" Claudia, played by the splendid Kirsten Dunst. The adaptation went well, but all that remains are nice illustrations of the book, because they left out its philosophical level. Absolutely completely. Which, considering the whole story, atmosphere and message is founded on it, is rather a serious shortcoming. (19/10/2006)

When I saw Interview with the Vampire a few years ago, I had mixed feelings about it, so I decided to revisit it and I had to lower my rating mercilessly because it served as a prelude to what Twilight would later become much more decisively. Vampire stories have their foundation in gothic novels and especially in romanticism, so those romantic motifs of torn souls and passions somehow belong there, but the story took a path of diminished romanticism, and listening to the pathetic dialogue is quite a suffering in some places. The philosophical plane about the immortal being struggling with the passage of time and its immutability is plainly superficial, even though it receives quite a bit of attention. Neil Jordan has an interesting experimental horror film with a special artistic poetics called The Company of Wolves, but here he fully subordinates his talent to the interests of the studio, and it's noticeable. The result is such an ambitious and grandiose adaptation that mainly sells itself by having Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and the youthful charm of future star Kirsten Dunst. There is nothing scary in it, though there is some tension, but the budget is quite noticeable in the production design. Overall impression: 45%. (14/02/2012)

A stellar, long haired duo in the lead roles of a vampire movie that’s entertaining at last. A convincing atmosphere and the passing of the ages is almost tangible (Superman roolzz). Even so, IWTV is a bit too slow for my taste, and at two o’clock at the morning my eyelids had were heavier than was practical. After all, I am not a vampire. At least I think not... (16/08/2010)

This is a film that shaped me like no other. It would be futile to count all the reruns I've seen, all the formats in which I've watched Interview with the Vampire, and to calculate how intimately the adaptation rooted my love for Anne Rice within me. Even twenty years later, the film hasn't aged and every little detail is still fascinating. The soundtrack comes from another world, and Lestat and his story never cease to inspire. Kirsten Dunst became a legend and Antonio Banderas has never forgotten his Parisian days at Theatres des Vampires... The new series Interview with the Vampire (2022) is also great. (03/02/2009)

So far, I haven't given an above-average rating to any of Neil Jordan's films, and this one is no exception, although it's probably the closest. Great actors, dense dark atmosphere, several excellent scenes... And that's where it ends, because the plot seemed rather empty to me most of the time, almost uninteresting and tedious. In the story of a vampire who retained the remnants of his humanity, I did not notice any added value. Sometimes it seemed to me that I was watching more of a parody (for example, sleeping in coffins seemed to me more like What We Do in the Shadows or Dracula: Dead and Loving It), and I was quite annoyed by how the film defined itself against almost everything that belongs to the genre, just to be different and interesting. (02/04/2021)

Rather than horror, this film is an unconventional and at times poignant tale of life and suffering in the grip of immortality, fortunately rendered engagingly enough that the viewer has no problem with its two-hour runtime. If anyone is expecting a chilling, uncompromising horror film with lots of scares, they've come to the wrong place. Interview with the Vampire has a very strange and at times gloomy atmosphere, but its main purpose is definitely not to scare you to death. Rather, the director takes a lot of chances with his idea, relying on the emotional expression of each actor, which is without exception amazing, be it the diabolical Tom Cruise, the suffering and sobbing Pitt or the small and incredibly convincing Kirsten Dunst, all of which make this film a classy and exceptional spectacle. (03/08/2011)