"Follows the legendary vampire Lestat (Stuart Townsend), who has reinvented himself as a rock star in the contemporary American music scene. His music wakes Akasha (Aaliyah), the queen of all vampires, and inspires her desire to make Lestat her king. Akasha's malevolent power is so great that all the immortal vampires must stand against her if they want to survive. Meanwhile, a young London woman with a fascination for the dark side (Marguerite Moreau) falls in love with Lestat."
It's been 17 years since this film was released, and I learned yesterday that Queen of the Damned is technically a sequel to Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise's Interview With The Vampire, and both are part of The Vampire Chronicles, a set of books started written by Anne Rice from the 1970s. The Chronicles now have thirteen books in the series, and that is a rich trove of character history from the woman that is also well known for her contributions to erotic literature. It is concerning to think that this film adaptation of Queen of the Damned could have been what influenced Stephenie Meyer to create the Twilight Saga. But here we are.
Personally, I love the nu-metal music scene so hearing Jonathan Davis (the lead singer of Korn) was involved with the musical score and soundtrack, I knew that I was going to be supporting this film no matter how bad it was, purely because of the lack of representation that the genre gets in mainstream media. Knowing that Wayne Static (singer of Static-X), David Draiman (singer of Disturbed), Chester Bennington (singer from Linkin Park), and Marilyn Manson were all brought in to contribute to the vocals did nothing but pique my interest further.
The soundtrack is, unfortunately, the best part of the film. Queen of the Damned uses nothing from the source material apart from the names of some of the characters and creates its own story. So while the source material is technically a sequel to Interview With The Vampire, the films are not actually related.
If you aren't aware of the books (as is the case when I first saw this film), the film has an intriguing premise. While many critics have found it laughable that a vampire would use a nu-metal/gothic band to gain popularity, in reality, the '90s were when grunge and nu-metal were on top. Korn has currently sold over 35 million albums worldwide with six Grammy nominations (winning two of them), so to downplay the popularity of nu-metal is rather elitist. This film was clearly targeting a certain demographic and it did so pretty well, the film often glorifying rebellious nature.
The story still manages to develop the character of Lestat, providing a great introduction to the character and an origin story that shows a surprisingly relatable fight within Lestat as he tries to be accepted but misses the simplicities and passions of human life, hating what he sees in himself. The ethical and moral dilemmas, while not always consistent throughout the film, are open enough to get the audience thinking about how they would deal with a similar situation; dealing with the possibility of immortality.
Where the film does struggle, is with Queen Akasha. While she is the titular character, her role is very minimal, and her position as the films primary antagonist is never properly established. It feels like the film needed another 30 minutes of runtime to develop Akasha before the climax of the film can really be considered a climax. As it stands, the film was pruned before it had a chance to bloom. On a side-note, I can't help but watch Aaliyah dance/move in her role of Akasha and think that she must have been a major influence for Cara Delevingne's Enchantress in Suicide Squad.
The film is full of cheesy moments, and the romantic element of the plot is rather nonsensical and overly dramatic. But to hear some of my favourite artists' music being played in a major motion picture, it was enough to make me buy the DVD and is one of the few films that made me go out and purchase the soundtrack.