“Queen of the Damned,” the long-awaited sequel to Anne Rice’s “Interview with a Vampire,” managed to suck $23.8 million out of moviegoers’ wallets in its first two weeks — and it sucked hard.
The horror movie genre has become a casualty of corporate control, and this high-budget Warner Brothers release reeks of it. Without much of a pulse, “Queen” lacked character development, plot coherence, stand-out acting and originality. Much of this movie’s audience comes from two groups: vampire-genre-junkie Rice fans, and those who want to see late R&B singer Aaliyah in her final role. Both groups will be disappointed. Rice fans will be disgusted at how cliché and inaccurate the movie is compared to her 1988 novel. Director Michael Rymer and screenwriters Scott Abbott and Michael Petroni took it upon themselves to rearrange, condense and basically hack the book. As for Aaliyah, she has the title role as Queen Akasha, the 6,000-year-old Egyptian mother of all vampires, but she doesn’t show up until nearly an hour into the movie and only has about 15 minutes on screen.
This convoluted film, like so many before it, falls victim to the “we tried to pack a long, complicated novel into two hours on screen” trap. Since “Interview” in 1994, Tom Cruise managed to morph into Irish actor Stuart Townsend, who stars as 18th-century French nobleman-turned-vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. Lestat wakes from a century-long nap and decides to reveal his identity to humans by becoming a rock star. This angers the world’s vampires, who have sworn to hide their identities from mortals. Lestat intentionally baits his fellow undead to attend his one and only Death Valley concert. Meanwhile, young mortal Jesse Reeves, played by Marguerite Moreau (from “The Mighty Ducks”), is a member of a dark-forces record-keeping group who becomes a vampire groupie after discovering Lestat’s diary.
After an ages-long slumber, blood-crazed Akasha decides it’s time to reclaim her throne and to make Lestat her king — she likes his style. Aaliyah’s super-hyped role provides the real tragedy of the film. The 22-year-old, who made her film debut in 2000’s “Romeo Must Die,” was killed in an August 2001 plane crash in the Bahamas. In “Queen,” her metal breastplate, elaborate headdress and bronze body paint are pleasant on the eyes, and her immense power is impressive. With a smooth hand motion, she charbroils other vampires, and she can even venture into the daylight. But the script is mediocre. Akasha has drab lines such as “Kill her,” “See how he obeys,” and “You are bold, like your music,” all spoken in an electronic, supernatural voice with an eerie, yet cheesy Transylvanian accent. If people really want to honor Aaliyah’s accomplishments, they should focus on her original medium.
The cinematography has its ups at times, including some interesting “Matrix”-style effects, beautiful goth scenery and combusting vampires. But the movie was unnecessarily gory in a Hollywood-marketed way. The highlight of “Queen” definitely lies in the music, written by Richard Gibbs and Korn frontman Jonathan Davis. Davis sings Lestat’s songs for him in the movie. However, Davis does not appear on the soundtrack, but other big names in the hard rock/metal scene play his songs on it. Some contributors include Static-X, Disturbed, Deftones and Marilyn Manson . The music, dark and pain-filled, is a perfect fit for a modern vampire flick.
However, it’s still not enough to save the movie from damnation.