Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles is a 1994 film based on the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. The film was directed by Neil Jordan, and stars Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Kirsten Dunst.

In modern-day San Francisco, reporter Daniel Malloy (Christian Slater), interviews a man named Louis (Brad Pitt), who claims to be a vampire and tells the story of his past. Louis' story begins in Louisiana in 1791, when he was 24 and suffering from a death wish after the loss of his wife and infant child. The vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise) offers him a chance to be reborn and proceeds to turn him into a vampire. Lestat teaches Louis how to live as a vampire. At first Louis rebels against hurting humans, drinking animal blood instead, but he finally succumbs and kills his faithful house slave. He tries to kill himself by setting fire to his house, but Lestat rescues him and they flee. In New Orleans, Louis gives in to his bloodlust again, and bites a young girl, Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), whom Lestat later transforms into a vampire "daughter", to discourage Louis from leaving him. Lestat begins to teach Claudia how to live like a vampire, making her copy his actions, as to killing. As thirty years pass, Claudia becomes a sadistic killer and closely bonded to Louis and Lestat. But when she realizes that she will live forever but never grow up, she becomes furious with Lestat. She tricks him into drinking the blood of the corpses of twin boys, whom she killed by overdosing them with Laudanum, with the knowledge that the blood from the body of a creature already dead is fatal to vampires. This weakens him and she then slits his throat. Claudia and Louis dump Lestat's body in a swamp but he later returns, having drained the blood of swamp creatures to survive. Lestat attacks them but Louis sets him on fire and flees to Paris with Claudia, assuming Lestat is dead. In 1870 Paris, Louis and Claudia live in perfect harmony but Louis is still bothered by the question of how vampires came to be and if there are any other vampires on earth. One night, while walking the streets, he meets vampires Santiago (Stephen Rea) and Armand (Antonio Banderas), who tell him that there are other vampires in Paris and that he knows the answers Louis has been searching for. Armand invites Louis and Claudia to his coven, the Theatre des Vampires, where they witness Armand and his coven dispatching a terrified human woman before an unsuspecting human audience. Armand later takes them to his lair and offers Louis a place by his side, while secretly telling Claudia to leave him. Louis refuses to leave his beloved Claudia, however, and leaves the lair. As he does, Santiago warns him that his vampire coven knows about Lestat's murder and that it is forbidden for vampires to kill another vampire. Louis returns alone to Armand's lair, where Armand proceeds to reveal that Louis is a unique vampire as he possesses a human soul and is connected to the "broken-hearted" spirit of the 19th Century. Louis becomes thoroughly smitten by Armand and resolves to leave Claudia at long last. Returning to his residence, Louis finds that Claudia has brought home a human woman, Madeleine, with the intent that Louis turn her into a vampire to serve as a companion and protector before he leaves. Louis reluctantly gives in and transforms Madeleine, forcing Claudia to admit that they are now even and can part on good terms. Immediately after, however, the Parisian vampires burst in and abduct all three of them. As punishment for Lestat's murder, they imprison Louis in a metal coffin and lock Claudia and Madeleine into an airshaft with an open roof. The next morning, the rising sun floods the airshaft and Claudia and Madeleine are burnt to ashes. Armand frees Louis, who searches for Claudia and is horrified and grief-stricken when he comes across her ashen remains. He returns that night to the Theatre and seeks revenge for Claudia by burning all the vampires alive in their own theatre as they sleep. Armand arrives in time to help him escape, and once again offers him a place by his side. Louis once again refuses, knowing that Armand choreographed Claudia's demise in an attempt to get Louis all to himself, and he leaves Armand for good. As decades pass, Louis explores the world alone, eventually returning to America. He returns to New Orleans in 1988 and finds Lestat, still alive but a mere shadow of his former self. Louis unwittingly gives Lestat some insight about modern technology; Lestat asks Louis to rejoin him, but Louis rejects him and leaves. At this point Louis concludes the interview, which Malloy, the interviewer, cannot accept. He asks Louis to transform him so he can see what it is truly like to be a vampire, but Louis throttles him in a fit of rage and vanishes. Malloy hurriedly runs to his car and drives away, feeling happy with his interview as he plays it through the cassette player. Just then, Lestat appears, attacks him and takes control of the car. Revived by Malloy's blood, he then offers a dying Malloy "the choice I never had" as they drive off into the San Francisco night, taking out the cassette and turning on the radio, which is playing "Sympathy for the Devil."