Book vs Film: Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire is a 1994 American gothic horror film based on Anne Rice’s 1976 novel of the same name.

Featuring big names such as Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Kirsten Dunst, this movie is widely considered the most significant work of vampire literature since Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and one of the most popular and profitable of all time, having sold an upwards of around 80 million copies worldwide.

In brief, the story follows Spanish lord Louis de Pointe (Brad Pitt) and the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise), otherwise known as “The Brat Prince”, a title which he is very fond of and rightly lives up to over the course of the story.

After his father, wife and daughter’s death, the then mortal Louis spent his life caring for his younger brother, sister, and mother. When his brother suddenly passed away, Louis felt deeply responsible and struggled with the idea of forgiving himself. One night, to escape the horrifying reality of the situation, Louis drank himself into a stupor while wandering the waterfront of New Orleans, wanting to die.

It’s when Louis finds himself at the cemetery that the princely vampire Lestat came across him in mourning and was immediately enchanted by the young lord. Lestat decided to transform Louis into a vampire on a whim, nearly draining him of life in the process. Not knowing what to do with his newfound power, Louis decides to let Lestat guide him in the ways of vampirism.

As the story goes on, they move to New Orleans together, where Lestat resumes a life of merciless killing while Louis adamantly avoids draining the life of humans.

Unfortunately, Louis eventually fails to control his hunger and attacks a little girl, leaving her for dead. Lestat, however, knowing she didn’t actually die, took it upon himself to turn her into a vampire as well. The two name her Claudia and attempt to raise her.

It’s not all cheery, undead living as Lestat’s superiority complex drives Claudia to despise him. After asking him many times about how vampires function and how they die, she’s never given a straight answer. The way in which Lestat treats her and Louis is despicable enough that the two decide to leave together, but not before attempting to murder their maker, several times.

Being a vampire, Lestat, of course, doesn’t perish. In the book he instead flees to Paris in order to seek help from elder vampire, Armand, since his blood would have the capabilities to heal wounds. In desperation, Lestat reveals Claudia as the one responsible for attempting to kill her maker—a feat which, as explained in the lore, is forbidden among vampires; a coven or lesser vampire is never allowed to even attempt killing their creator. For this, she is sentenced to death by burning. In revenge, Louis kills all opposing vampires by burning but is to be reunited with Lestat at the end of the following novel, The Vampire Lestat in 1985.

So now that we are aware of the story, what are the actual differences between the book and film?

Louis is the character that changed the least in adaptation, aside from his personality and several minor plot points here and there.

In the book, it’s implied that Louis and Armand were in love. By contrast, film Louis showed interest in Armand but felt more of a kinship than anything further.

The book often made it a point that Louis and Lestat had so many arguments to the point they often stopped talking to each other for long periods of time. Obviously this wouldn’t work in a movie adaptation, so this overarching “hatred” for Lestat had to be present and obvious but was more controlled.

The only moment when we can tell that Louis doesn’t totally hate Lestat was when he transformed. Due to his feelings of being so drawn to this beautiful and mysterious creature standing before him, he felt no hatred.

Lestat, on the other hand, faces quite a few movie changes compared to the book.

Film Lestat is so much more animated, vibrant and child-like, whereas book Lestat is portrayed as cold, cruel, calloused and borderline emotionless.

Lestat constantly forces Louis into compromising positions, such as draining his blood and offering him the ultimatum of death or vampirism, just for his own amusement. Jealousy then rears its ugly head as soon as Claudia comes into the picture, further hammering home the “Brat Prince” title. In the book, Lestat played a key role in Claudia’s death, which isn’t shown during the film whatsoever.

Both the book and film are enjoyable mediums. The movie fully utilises its visuals to paint a perfect picture of locations during those time periods, while the book forces you to let your imagination take over and figure out what everything looks like. The settings in both mediums share the most similarities.

Overall, a good, well-developed novel and adaptation.