Queen of the Damned (2002)

August 26, 2024 4:39 PM

Lestat finds acceptance in a tattooed and pierced world, rekindling the desires of all-powerful Akasha.

Okay, first of all, ^that IMDB description^ is GOLD.

Anyway, this is very loosely based on the third book of the Vampires Chronicles by Anne Rice. And when I say loosely, it feels free to shimmy off the source material in weird ways. It is notable for the brief appearances of anicent vampires that went on to have their own separate novels.

As a lifelong Anne Rice fan, I confess I did see this in the theatre. The movie is best known as the acting swan song of R&B artist Aaliyah, who plays our titular Queen of the Damned. She died in a helicopter crash before release.

Stuart Townsend is a more credible Lestat in this than Tom Cruise, IMO, but honestly now that Sam Reid exists, that's faint praise.

Currently streaming on Tubi in Canada!

posted by Kitteh (8 comments total)

I was the co-watcher on this journey, and the thing that absolutely kills me is

The Vampire Lestat, a vampire of exquisite tastes and unerring instincts

Goes to sleep for a prolonged period, vowing only to awaken when the moment is right

And rises after a century to take his rightful place as a God among men

which consists of taking his shirt off and becoming the lead singer for, like, Coal Chamber.

Lestat is such a basic bitch that his entire conception of ruling the world is having his face on twelve TVs at once. He listens to his own music around his tacky-ass mansion. I am not an Anne Rice guy, so maybe this is the character? Maybe he's supposed to be the pierced-nipples male version of a rose gold wine mom? But holy shit, the whole premise had me howling for the entire length of the movie.
posted by Shepherd at 4:47 PM on August 26 [12 favorites]

Oh, our current Lestat's band will sound like this.
posted by Kitteh at 4:55 PM on August 26 [1 favorite]

I always thought The Vampire Lestat was supposed to sound like Christian Death or London After Midnight, somebody like that.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:45 PM on August 26 [2 favorites]

From reading the book, I mean.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:46 PM on August 26 [1 favorite]

I always thought The Vampire Lestat was supposed to sound like Christian Death or London After Midnight, somebody like that.

At the risk of outing myself as an absolute Anne Rice nerd, the lyrics in the book pretty much reflect this.

"I am the Vampire Lestat
You are here for the Grand Sabbat
But I pity you -your lot "

or

"Keep your secrets
Keep your silence
It is a better gift than truth"

I think what I love is that even if you take the Christian Death/London After Midnight angle, it is hilarious that it would become a global sensation.
posted by Kitteh at 6:43 AM on August 27 [4 favorites]

I think that it's always difficult to make up a fictitious rock band that's a) distinct from any real band, and yet b) doesn't come off as ridiculous. George R.R. Martin wrote a book titled The Armageddon Rag in the early eighties; it was about a band called The Nazgûl--no, wait, it gets worse--whose lead singer, Patrick Henry "Hobbit" Hobbins, is murdered on stage back in the late sixties; I think that GRRM was trying to evoke all those sixties rock legends who died young, but in parts it's a bit more like Spinal Tap, and he later said that the book nearly ended his career.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:38 AM on August 27 [7 favorites]

I also saw this movie in the theater and was so excited to finally see my favorite book come to life! Only....it didn't?!? I'm not a book-to-film purist, but WOW this is like when Peter Sagal wrote a screenplay based on one person's escape from Cuba and it was somehow morphed into the Dirty Dancing sequel. It's like the off-brand soda version of the Vampire Chronicles.

I remember taking a friend who hadn't read the books and needing to explain most of the film to her because it's edited into something incomprehensible, especially by the end when it's a random assortment of hissing vampires who are nameless unless you know. The omission of Devil's Minion aside, so many other parts and characters were left out!

Yet so many people recall this film in a positive way-- mostly because of the soundtrack. It really did capture the vibe of the early 2000s for a lot of people. I will put it on occasionally. But I never once thought "Oh! Hey! This is Lestat!"

I never understood why they skipped over The Vampire Lestat and rushed to make this film, other than they thought they could give it the CW treatment. Underworld, Dracula 2000- they all have the same look and feel. It's not solely responsible, but I think of this film as one that really seemed to contribute to the death of the vampire genre for a while. After this it was all zombies all the time.

With The Crow remake coming out this week, I was thinking about actors who died before their leading role came out, and Aaliyah, and I wonder if that's part of why this movie hasn't completely fallen into the stack of other forgotten 2000s vampire movies.
posted by haplesschild at 9:43 AM on August 28 [4 favorites]

I remember taking a friend who hadn't read the books and needing to explain most of the film to her because it's edited into something incomprehensible, especially by the end when it's a random assortment of hissing vampires who are nameless unless you know. The omission of Devil's Minion aside, so many other parts and characters were left out!

This was me trying desperately to form some sort of coherent narrative to tell Shepherd about what happened in the book and whatever was happening in the movie.
posted by Kitteh at 9:54 AM on August 28 [1 favorite]