Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on February 21, 2002, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
Gotta love the Internet rumor-mongerers—now that Queen of the Damned is hitting theaters and Jason X has a set release date in April, you have to wonder if any of those people feel chagrined for insisting the movies were going direct to video. Queen certainly doesn’t feel like something that warrants small-screen consignment, especially on a visual level, as this is one of the lushest-looking horror films in recent memory. It’s pretty lush in the dramatic department, too, at least in its first and more enjoyable half.
As most anyone who’s been paying attention to the film’s development knows, Queen is based not just on the novel of the title but also author Anne Rice’s previous installment, The Vampire Lestat (onscreen, the film is credited as being “Based on The Vampire Chronicles”). And despite the moniker, the movie’s star is really Stuart Townsend as Lestat, who is first seen waking up after a decades-long sleep to the sounds of rock ’n’ roll. Charged by the music, he joins a fledgling band and is soon leading them to worldwide success, both fitting in perfectly with the vampire/Goth subculture and taking it to new heights of popularity. Townsend is terrific in the role; Tom Cruise in the previous Interview With the Vampire film may have successfully integrated his cocky screen persona into Lestat’s sardonic demeanor, but Townsend makes the part his own. This Lestat is “younger,” more vital and more fully enjoys his creature-of-the-night persona, and Townsend attacks the role with a palpable relish.
The movie also takes us back to Lestat’s bloodsucking origins, as he is transformed by the vampire Marius (Vincent Perez), who then becomes his mentor and companion. Centuries later, as Lestat begins integrating the secrets of his breed into his lyrics, Marius turns up again to advise him that others of their kind are none too happy about it. Perez demonstrates a vitality here that was largely lacking in his turn in The Crow: City of Angels, and the seductive/combative relationship Lestat and Marius share is a real hoot. Amorphous sexuality has always been one of the underpinnings of the vampire myth, and as the two preen and posture and have “relationship” issues amidst Graham “Grace” Walker’s fabulous sets, you could be forgiven for wondering which of them the title refers to.
Another reason for that is the long absence of the actual Queen, Akasha (Aaliyah). The “mother of all vampires” in more ways than one, she is stirred out of thousands of years of entombment (an event that sadly plays offscreen) by Lestat’s music halfway through the film. But rather than kill Lestat off for exposing their mysteries to the world, as the other bloodsuckers would like to do, she desires to merge their powers to take over humanity. Despite her comparatively limited screen time and an electronically altered voice, Aaliyah makes a ravishing impression, and should silence those who criticized the movie sight unseen based on her presence. The late singer demonstrates here that she could have gone on to bigger things, and the tragedy of her untimely death lends her scenes additional resonance.
She and Townsend and Perez are so much fun to watch together that it’s a shame the rest of the film doesn’t entirely live up to them. Another key character is Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), a young member of the Talamasca, an ancient order devoted to investigating the paranormal. She becomes obsessed and eventually involved with Lestat, but their relationship gets short shrift, apparently from prerelease editing; by the end of only their second scene together, Lestat and Jesse are professing their undying devotion to each other. Similarly, a subplot involving Jesse’s aunt (Lena Olin), who’s got undead blood in her veins, seems truncated, and that’s a particular problem since it leads directly to the movie’s climax. As a result, the movie ultimately feels like less than the sum of its parts, and since so many of the best parts are in the first hour, it leaves one with the sense of having enjoyed the movie but wanting more.
While we may never know (or at least until the DVD release) how much got deleted, director Michael Rymer graces what’s there with considerable polish and a sense of go-for-broke fun. Without either taking the material too seriously or condescending to it, he rarely allows the pace to flag, and between Ian Baker’s lustrous cinematography and the fine-looking cast, there’s always something great to watch on screen. The season’s standout vampire-movie experience may have to wait (we hope) for Blade II, but with its sex-blood-and-rock-’n’-roll attitude, Queen of the Damned seems likely to at least become a cult-video and midnight-movie staple for years.
