One of the main reasons why a film based on Anne Rice’s novel “Interview With The Vampire” had such a huge impact on the audience in the 1990s was because of its stellar casting. Two of the most handsome men of that time, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, worked in collaboration with Antonio Banderas, another top-notch actor in Hollywood. How was the movie? The opinions are divided. Nevertheless, the same text has once again been adapted into an AMC series of the same name, and probably the structure of a long series may be able to do justice to the original text. The series is created by Rolin Jones and stars Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson in the lead roles. Let’s explore further what happens in the first episode of “Interview With The Vampire.”
Spoilers Ahead
“Interview With The Vampire” Episode 1 Recap
We see an eminent journalist, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), counting his days as he suffers from Parkinson’s disease. He receives a box of recorded tapes and a letter from an old friend. The sender, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), wishes to continue the interview he conducted with Daniel some 50 years earlier. Daniel leaves for Du Lac’s place, and on his arrival, he finds out that Louis hasn’t aged a day in these 50 years. Soon, Louis de Pointe du Lac makes it clear to the viewers that he is a vampire and, like most typical vampires, cannot survive sunlight. For the same reason, he has converted his abode into some kind of shelter. Louis finally begins his story about how his life was before he turned into a vampire.
Louis’s story begins in 1910, when he inherited his father’s money and opened several brothels. It was a time when racism was deeply prevalent in the country. However, Louis, made friends with influential men, provoking them with lust, which in turn helped him to socialize, even though he was a person of color. Louis’s brother Paul was mentally unstable, and the brothers lived with their mother and sister in a very fancy house. Soon, Louis met a foreigner named Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid). Lestat had seen Louis earlier when he was fighting with Paul, and he drew his sword to threaten him. Lestat grew to like Louis and started making appointments with him in almost every place Louis went.
We soon learn that Lestat was a vampire whose main goal was to make Louis his accomplice.Lestat was bisexual, but he mostly fantasized about being involved with Louis. Louis tried every possible way to ignore him initially, but Lestat had an aura that attracted him. He did not let anyone know that he was homosexual. One day, when Lestat became intimate with him, he bit his neck and drank a very small amount of blood. He called this “un petit coup” (a little drink), not a lot to kill Louis, but just enough to keep himself fit. However, Louis was concerned that his attraction to men would be rejected by his family and community, so he began ignoring Lestat.Later, after Louis’s sister’s marriage, his brother Paul committed suicide in front of his eyes. His mother thought Louis had said something to Paul or might have scolded him, which pushed Paul to make such an extreme decision.
Later, Lestat again came to meet with Louis but was completely ignored by him. Louis did not want to go back to the house; he just wanted to mourn alone. But, Lestat had completely filled Louis’s mind with his presence. Louis was always aware of his presence.Louis went to the church to seek help and confessed every sin he had ever committed in front of “the priest.” But, Lestat came to the church and killed the priest and another church worker in front of him Later, Lestat convinced Louis that he could make him a vampire like himself and that he wouldn’t have to worry about his place in society anymore. For the first time in his life, Louis felt loved and understood the significance of that feeling.”Interview With The Vampire” Episode 1 ends with Louis drinking Lestat’s blood, which finally transforms him into a vampire.
‘Interview With The Vampire’ Ending Explained: Why Did Lestat Want Louis To Turn Into A Vampire? Why Could Louis Not Resist?
When Lestat first saw Louis in the town in 1910, he saw a man who could kill his own blood to continue upholding his societal position. Being a black person at that time, it was tough for Louis to even walk among the white men. But, with the help of his talent, he had managed to make a name for himself with which he could proudly walk through the front doors where black men were not even welcomed. Louis understood that in order to maintain his status, he needed to continue to be the stud that he had always been. So, when his brother Paul, whose mind was filled with thoughts like Gods talking to him through little birds, asked one of the prostitutes to switch professions, Louis was very adamant about it. He first softly asked Paul to leave the premises and go home, but when Paul threw a punch at him, he brought his sword out and threatened him. Everybody saw a mere fight between brothers, but Lestat saw the underlined truth. He saw a man fighting hard every day for his place in society. He saw someone who would stop at nothing to grab onto something very precious to him; of course, it was not a liability like Paul’s; it was his stature in society. Lestat understood at that very moment that Louis wanted to be loved and respected by all. So, he concluded that Louis had all the potential to be a vampire.
When Lestat revealed his desire to turn Louis into a vampire, he told Louis the possibilities he could explore just by being like him. Lestat told Louis that he never had to bow before a god or submit in fear in front of any superior creature. Being a person of color in a white society, Louis had to face racial discrimination on a daily basis. The white folks around him always treated him like an inferior, and thus there was a burning desire hidden inside him to tell the world that he was equal to them, if not superior. Lestat happened to be the devil or the genie who had come to fulfill Louis’s hidden desire, and when he offered him an opportunity to get everything he had dreamt of, Louis couldn’t reject it.
But every evil comes with a huge price. We can speculate that in the upcoming episodes, Lestat is going to manipulate Louis through his powers. In “Interview With The Vampire” Episode 1, Lestat has revealed his powers to control a person’s mind. Even Paul, before walking off the roof, had told Louis that Lestat telepathically connected with him and further added that Lestat was a devil who had come for souls. So, one way or another, we can assume that Paul’s suicide had something to do with Lestat. Even Louis could not restrain himself much longer; he submitted his will to Lestat, who turned him into a vampire. It will be really interesting to find out what role Lestat is going to play in Louis’s life and how he is going to change it completely thereafter.
“Interview WIth The Vampire” is a horror thriller series created by Rolin Jones.
