disclaimer: I did not read the book nor watch the 1994 movie. anne rice seems to be a bit much, according to book excerpts circulating on twitter.
one thing about me is that i love vampires. I wish i could be vampirella; it’s that serious. however, i was a little apprehensive to start because i was just heartbroken over netflix’s cancellation of first kill. they truly could not let a southern black sapphic win.
after twitter provided the initial nudges with seeing keyon tweet week after week, this was the final nail in the coffin.
there was a bit of confusion on my part when understanding the time period. the show primarily takes place in 1910. the novel takes place much earlier, and my lack of familiarity with new orleans and french fashion warranted a quick google search. a common media trope in this show gives us some context for Lestat before the episode’s end. being associated with france and wearing french fashion, despite Lestat claiming to immigrate to the US, is a symbol of high breeding, antiquity, and deep old money roots.
Lestat’s frenchness makes him different than everyone in New Orleans, but he acts as a perpendicular character to Louis. they are not parallel and not juxtaposed, but two people meeting before splitting onto separate paths.
Lestat is the white nobleman who settles into the city after scoping out Louis, a black man who has a dual life as a high profile pimp and as the head of his family. he is the substitution for his father, who has passed before the start of the show.
the show, like the aforementioned twitter thread mentioned, does not shy away from racism and the effects of gratuitous violence intersected by race, class, gender, and (eventually) humanity. I very much appreciate the perfect balance of realism. like its sapphic sister, the show does not focus on racism and its systemic violence against its black characters, which is an all too common trap for interracial black-white couples in the media. and yet the show also does not shy away from it. Louis is not a white man, and every interaction that he has with them serves as a reminder.
but interview with a vampire doesn’t leave it at that. for every scene with a racial power dynamic, there is a scene that accurately depicts black family life. my favorite from this episode is the black boy joy at grace’s wedding.
race relations is not the only thing this show does well- the depiction of vampirism in its true parasitic nature is the driving force behind the show and separates it from every other adaptation.
vampirism in literature is typically an older male preying on a young person. that older male especially siphons the youth and naivety until damnation for the other. the former is momentarily satisfied before coming across their next victim.
this dynamic is purposefully clear and defined. adult vampire Louis and the audience both know that young Louis is being hunted. this story employs un metacuento- a frame story. the present Louis describes himself a being hunted as we are watching his past self become a victim of said hunt. it’s interesting to note that the framing does not include an epic love story. there is passion, vigor, and sex, but that is not love. love is Louis confiding in Paul. love is the de pointe de lu lac’s eating dinner with each other every night despite momma lu lac’s complaining. love is grace and levi jumping over the broom. love is not insanity. it is not an incessant need to be desired, to be filled, to be used. it does not demand the cessation and replacement of grief. love grieves with you, as grief is love everlasting.
with Lestat and Louis, there is no love story. Louis says this himself, and we see the power dynamic. lestat supernaturally, financially, racially, socially, and physically has power over him. from twilight to vampire diaries, the romanticized version of two people in love lies in conflict with the nature of the beast. following the theory that monsters are the fears of a society, the vampire is one of the biggest evils humanity can face because it hides in pain sight. it’s not a hot sparkling man in our high school biology class! it’s the seven years older tinder match that praises your maturity for being far beyond your actual barely legal age, it’s the supreme court that overturns rights for reproductive healthcare, it’s elon musk killing the bird app that acts as a global connector. much like the other characters in interview with a vampire, almost everyone is affected by the siphon.
in the present, it seems that Louis is more human-like than lestat ever was. the morality that you must carry while black is the black codes that we carry today. if we want to survive, we must first recognize that we cannot walk through the world like white people do. even with seemingly unlimited power, he still cannot and will not be lestat’s carbon copy. although in time, im sure we will see his corruption and redemption. im sure the daughter, Claudia, acts as the catalyst for that.
this show truly deserves all its flowers. even outside of the storyline, the cinematography is fantastic. my favorite scene is at the very end when the priest is trying to get away from lestat but is running in slow motion, while lestat just walks up to him before delivering a lethal punch. while graphic, this violence isn’t game of thrones or the boys level of violence but is more than twilight. it sits at a violence level of cw’s supernatural. physical violence that is.
on the media reception, I noticed a lot of woobification of lestat like he isn’t literally a predator. justice for lestat’s victims lily and Paul. a black femme sex worker dying is not included in this show’s praises, but I understand why it was done. (im also relieved that she dies off screen)
this is an extension of lestat’s grooming as he isolates Louis by killing all of his confidantes: paul, lily, and the priest. with his remaining family, Louis is estranged. the show does imply that lestat killed Paul, but from the outside, it looks like a suicide. I do think that Paul’s character was a very needed piece of representation for how black ND and mentally ill people are treated. lestat’s voice, a symbol of aspiration, gets inside Paul’s head and refuses to leave him alone, compels him to perform to lestat’s wishes. like a suicide, all responsibility for the action is placed on one’s shoulders without much examination. Paul was murdered, and the symbol gets away. this is a perfect metaphor for beauty standards. people die and hurt themselves when they are forced to “beautify” themselves for jobs, friendships, romances and basic respect and those that enforce them are never held accountable.
i, for one, would like to see lestat with a stake through the heart.