History Film / InterviewWithTheVampire

A 1994 period horror film, based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Creator/AnneRice, the first in her ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' series. The film was directed by Neil Jordan, and stars Creator/TomCruise, Creator/BradPitt, Creator/AntonioBanderas, Creator/ChristianSlater, and Creator/KirstenDunst. It received a stand-alone sequel of sorts in the 2002 film, ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned'', though it plays quite a bit looser with the source material.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Louis is more tormented by his ageless existence than Lestat, while Armand confesses that the vast majority of vampires grow weary of immortality and decide to embrace death rather than go on, which is likely one of the reasons their numbers are not greater. Initially Claudia embraces her "dark gift" with a great amount of murderous zeal and loves being spoiled by her adopted vampire parents. However as she matures mentally she comes to realise the long-term implications of physically being a child forever and deeply resents she will never experience being a woman.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: goes on a doozy of one after [[spoiler:Claudia is [[ExecutionByExposure executed by sunlight]] by Armand's vampires. He (complete with a dead-eyed stare) pours a flammable liquid (likely kerosene, given the era) around them and onto the coffins while they sleep, then throws a lit candelabra stand down, lighting the Théâtre des Vampires up with flames. He then murders anyone who emerges alive with a scythe, starting by [[OffWithHisHead decapitating the first one]] when she screams for help and ending by [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bisecting Santiago]] before he escapes.]]

* TailorMadePrison: The planned punishment for Louis is "Eternity in a box". He's released by Armand in a few hours, but too late to prevent Claudia's death.

* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: See below. Lestat seems to think that making Claudia a vampire will result in them all being "one happy family". It works for a bit, before being deconstructed.

%% ** The pimp at the beginning who tried to mug Louis.

Although Lestat teaches his pupil the ways of vampires and how to hunt mortals for their blood, at first Louis resists his vampire urges, preferring to prey on rats and other animals rather than biting humans, but finally succumbs to his appetites, biting and killing his housemaid. Afterwards, Louis attempts to kill himself by burning down his estate, but Lestat drags him out and they escape to New Orleans, renting an apartment together.

* AbominableAuditorium: The Theatre des Vampires is a theatre troop composed almost entirely of vampires. Under Armand's leadership, it allows the vampires of his coven to murder human victims live on stage without the audience suspecting it to be anything other than a particularly lurid horror show. [[spoiler: The Theatre proves no more hospitable to their fellow vampires: once they discover that Louis and Claudia murdered Lestat, they have the former Buried Alive while the latter is executed by sunrise.]]

* AffablyEvil: Lestat, at least towards Louis and Claudia.

** In the book, Claudia has the physical appearance of a five-year-old. Creator/KirstenDunst was twelve upon the movie's release. Aside from narrowing down the inherent creepiness factor, this avoids the practical impossibility of a five-year-old actress playing a believable adult character.

* AlmostKiss: Between Louis and Armand.

** This may have happened to another vampire during the time that Louis and Claudia were traveling the world in search of their kin. So for several decades, Lestat was left barely alive in the old manor, seemingly killed for a SECOND time. Instead of dying, he survives as a charcoal covered corpse that feeds on rats, all alone and afraid of the changing outside world.

* ArtisticLicenseSpace: [[spoiler:Claudia and Madeleine are executed by being confined in]] a well open to the sun. We see the sun appear to pass directly over what appears to be a vertical well. However, the sun can never be directly overhead in Paris; that can only occur between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

** The French vampires.
** The pimp at the beginning who tried to mug Louis.
** Lestat (though in the end he's more sympathetic).

* BreakTheHaughty: Lestat by the end...only for it be subverted at the last moment.

** He also affirms to Louis, who for a time remains unwilling to kill humans and asks if a vampires diet composed solely of animal blood is possible, that it is, albeit one he'd find after just a week would be a very unappealing and unappetising. [[spoiler: When they reunite briefly at the end of the film, Louis sees this is exactly what Lestat has been reduced to doing, over a period of years, maybe even over a century no less.]]

* DiagonalCut: Louis slashes at Santiago with a scythe as the latter capers past. Santiago pauses for a few puzzled beats, as it appears Louis has missed — until a diagonal section of the rival's upper torso falls off.

** Claudia hides the naked body of a woman with her dolls, reflecting her inability to ever grow into an adult.

* IHateYouVampireDad: Louis has... mixed feelings towards Lestat, both loving him for giving him the "Dark Gift" and essentially saving him from despair and death, and hating him for condemning him to an un-life of sterility. Claudia takes this up a notch towards Lestat, though she states that, despite also holding Louis partially responsible for her condition, she cannot bring herself to hate him, as she is all too familiar with the hunger that drove him to kill her.

* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Averted with Claudia, who's 5 [[AgeLift (or 11)]] when she becomes a vampire and stays that way.

* {{Jerkass}}: Lestat. However, it could be argued that, by the end, he's become a JerkassWoobie.

* KillItWithFire: [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Louis burns the French vampires and their theatre for killing Claudia]].

* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Lestat seems to live the vampire life of living forever and indulging his sadistic impulses. Other vampires [[WhoWantsToLiveForever find it more of a burden]].
* LonelyDollGirl: Claudia has a whole bunch of dolls. Which, while she was growing up, she used to camouflage the fact that she'd kept the corpse of a woman she killed out of envy for the woman's adult body.

* MirrorRoutine: When Louis first encounters Santiago, who happens to be dressed similarly to Louis, the other vampire decides to tease him for a bit by engaging in this. [[spoiler:He does at the end again, where Louis confronts him armed with scythe. This time, however, Louis proves too fast for him.]]
* NeverGrewUp: Claudia, who is stuck permanently at the physical age of twelve, upped from six in the original book.

** All the "traditional" methods of dealing with vampires like wooden stakes through the heart, holy symbols, crosses, holy water, garlic, silver, etc. are dismissed by Louis as "nonsense," implying that they have no vulnerability to them. They find it necessary to sleep through the day in coffins, though are shown awake indoors during the day on occasion. Sunlight still burns them to a crisp and it is shown that [[OffWithHisHead decapitation]] or [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bisection]] will kill them, but it seems that only another vampire has the strength and speed to kill one. Fire will also (eventually) kill them, but not always, depending on how quickly they act to put out the flames.

* PragmaticAdaptation: In the book Claudia was about five or six when she was turned; in the film she's substantially older (Kirsten Dunst was around twelve when the film premiered) because there's ''no'' way you could get a five year old to pull off what was required for the role. Likewise, Armand was aged up from 17 to remove pedophilic overtones from his relationship with Louis.
* PragmaticVillainy: At one point Lestat scolds and berates Claudia for killing a seamstress after she pricked her finger... because now they will have to find someone else to finish the expensive dress she was making for Claudia, as well as his concern about never killing prey in their home( for fear of arousing suspicion). Lestat even asks her to show "a little more practicality."

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Claudia. This applies to all vampires in general because of the 'never aging past the point you were turned' thing, though Claudia is the most extreme example, still resembling a little girl despite being close to a hundred towards the end of the film.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Claudia wants to make Madeline a vampire to replace Louis who she fears will leave her for Armand. Madeline is fully willing to become a vampire so Claudia (who can never die) can replace her deceased daughter. It's almost a triple example. Claudia either can't grow, or is growing very slowly. She asks for Louis to make Madeline a vampire so she can do what Claudia cannot, since she ''is'' physically a child.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Louis goes on a doozy of one after Claudia is turned to ashes by Armand's vampires.
* RomanticVampireBoy: Or at least Lestat wants to be.

* YourVampiresSuck: A fantastic example of this occurs when Malloy starts asking Louis if he is affected by the usual vampire weaknesses, specifically mentioning crucifixes. Louis responds by saying he actually rather enjoys looking at crucifixes. He even describes such superstitions as the "ravings of a demented Irishman," a TakeThat at Creator/BramStoker. What makes this ironic is that one of the only bits of vampire lore that Creator/AnneRice's vampires abide by is death by sunlight, which is not only not part of real vampire lore, but entered into popular culture as a plot contrivance in ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'' — itself an adaption of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''.

* ArtisticlicenseSpace: [[spoiler:Claudia and Madeleine are executed by being confined in]] a well open to the sun. We see the sun appear to pass directly over what appears to be a vertical well. However, the sun can never be directly overhead in Paris; that can only occur between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

* CallBack: **Lestat once comments that all he needs to do to find Louis is to follow the trail of rat corpses. [[spoiler: When he finds Lestat at the end of the film, he follows a trail of dead rats into the house and up the stairs.]]

* CallBack: Lestat once comments that all he needs to do to find Louis is to follow the trail of rat corpses. [[spoiler: When he finds Lestat at the end of the film, he follows a trail of dead rats into the house and up the stairs.]]

** He also affirms to Louis, who for a time remains unwilling to kill humans and asks if a vampire lifestyle is possible by existing purely on animal blood, that it is, albeit he'd find after just a week it would be a very unappealing and unappetising one. [[spoiler: When he reunites briefly with Lestat at the end of the film, he sees this is exactly what the latter has been reduced to doing, over a period of years, maybe even over a century no less.]]

He also affirms to Louis, who for a time remains unwilling to kill humans and asks if a vampire lifestyle is possible by existing purely on animal blood, that it is, albeit he'd find after just a week it would be a very unappealing and unappetising one. [[spoiler: When he reunites briefly with Lestat at the end of the film, he sees this is exactly what the latter has been reduced to doing, over a period of years, maybe even over a century no less.]]

* RuleOfSymbolism: When Louis discovers cinema and is cherishing the ability to see colours and daytime again, there's a shot from Film/{{Superman}}. While colour film had been around long before it was made, it does provide a contrast for Louis, as Superman is a fantastical being that is a friend to the masses rather than a predator and gains power from the sun instead of being killed by it. Just as vampires are envied by mortals for their ability to stay young and cheat death, we see that vampires have their own personal envies.

* UndeadChild: The gleefully psychotic Claudia, perhaps the only actually evil vampire we meet. She is aged up from ~5 years old in the book to around 12 in the movie. This does not lessen the creepy murderous child vibe at all. Her condition also gets played for drama, once she realizes that she CantGrowUp, leading her to deeply resent Lestat for turning her.

** In the book, Claudia has the physical appearance of a five-year-old. Creator/KirstenDunst was twelve upon the movie's release. Aside from narrowing down the {{squick}} factor, this avoids the practical impossibility of a five-year-old actress playing a believable adult character.
** Armand, a cherubic seventeen-year-old in the book, is aged up to his mid thirties and played by Creator/AntonioBanderas, apparently to avoid the {{squick}} inherent in having two of the main character's three pseudo-love-interests be underage.

* DracoInLeatherPants: in-universe. Louis gives an interview to share his tragic story of being a monstrous creature of the night. His interviewer completely misses the point and all he hears is "vampires are awesome". Louis is equal parts pissed off and disappointed.

* HasTwoDaddies: Lestat and Louis become fathers to an orphaned little girl named Claudia after Louis, overcome with hunger, drains her and Lestat then turns her into a vampire. It's implied that Lestat turned Claudia partly to guilt-trip Louis into staying with him due to their strained relationship. They're a happy undead family for a few decades, until Claudia finally twigs that she CantGrowUp and begins resenting Lestat, after which everything goes pear-shaped.

** Armand is described as having auburn hair in the book. In film, he has exceptionally dark brown or black hair. The idea of costuming Creator/AntonioBanderas as a "Botticelli angel" would have been patently ridiculous.