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Queen of the Damned is a fantasy horror film directed by Michael Rymerloosely based on the third The Queen of the Damned of Anne Rice 's The Vampire Chronicles series, The Queen of the Damnedalthough the film contains many plot elements from the novel's predecessor The Vampire Lestat. It stars Aaliyah in the title role as the vampire queen Akasha and Stuart Townsend as the vampire Lestat. This was Aaliyah's final film completed before her death on August 25, It received generally negative reviews from critics but was a moderate box office success. The vampire Lestat is awakened from decades of slumber by the sound of a hard rock band, and proceeds to take over as their lead singer. Achieving international success, Lestat, having revealed the existence of vampires, taunts the others of his kind during an interview for promoting his first and only live concert. Jesse Reevesa researcher for the paranormal studies group Talamascais intrigued by Lestat's lyrics after hearing one of his songs play on TV and tells the rest of the group her theory that he really is a vampire. Her mentor, David Talbottakes her aside and tells her they know what he is and that a vampire called Marius made him. David also shows her Lestat's journal that he recovered and gives it to Jesse for her to read. In the journal, Lestat recalls how he was turned into a vampire by Marius and how he awoke Akashathe first vampire, with his music. Unsatisfied with what she read, Jesse tracks Lestat down to a London vampire The Queen of the Damned called The Admiral's Arms, where he saves her from three vampires and confronts her about Marius. In Los Angeles, Lestat is visited by Marius, who warns him that the other vampires will The Queen of the Damned tolerate his flamboyant public profile. Marius also reveals that Akasha has awakened due to Lestat's new music and begs him to cancel his concert, which he refuses. After the vampires reveal their plan to kill Lestat at his concert, Akasha torches the club and kills all the vampires inside. Jesse arrives at Los Angeles and gives Lestat his journal back. She then asks him to show her what being a vampire is like. Lestat scoffs at the idea, but Jesse convinces him to spend his last moments before the concert The Queen of the Damned her. The two spend some time together and Jesse later asks Lestat to turn her, telling him she wants to be with him and that she wants to know everything he The Queen of the Damned. Lestat angrily refuses, showing her what it's like for a vampire to feed on a human, then leaves. While performing at his concert in Death Valleya group of vampires attack Lestat. With Marius' help, they both fend off The Queen of the Damned of the vampires until Akasha bursts through the stage and takes Lestat with her. Akasha brings Lestat to her new home, where the two vampires mutually feed on one another, during which time Lestat becomes spellbound by Akasha and is forced to obey her, and Akasha proclaims Lestat her new king. After the concert, Jesse is taken to the home of her aunt, Maharetwho later reveals herself to be one of the Ancient Vampires. Knowing Akasha's plan to take over the world, the Ancient Vampires discuss their plans to destroy the Queen by drinking from her and draining her of her blood. However, they believe that whoever drinks the Queen's last drop will not survive. When they refuse to join her, Akasha then commands The Queen of the Damned to kill Jesse, as The Queen sees her both as an enemy, due to being Maharet's descendant, and as food, with Akasha making an example out of her for those who dare disobey her command. Lestat ostensibly obeys, but after drinking Jesse's blood, comes to his senses and is released from Akasha's power. He angrily requests for his "crown" and Akasha openly gives him her arm to feed on. Lestat then turns on her and begins to drain Akasha's blood. With the help of the Ancients, Akasha's power diminishes. Maharet is the last to drink Akasha's blood, killing Akasha. Lestat goes to Jesse and, cradling her in his arms, gives her his blood as Maharet turns into a marble statue and "sleeps", becoming the new Queen of the Damned. Lestat and Jesse, who is now a vampire, visit David and return Lestat's journal. When asked by David what it is like, Jesse jokingly offers to turn him into a vampire to which he replies he's too old for immortality. Jesse then bids David goodbye and leaves with Lestat. A few moments later, The Queen of the Damned is greeted by Marius. Warner Bros. An eventual adaptation of Interview with the Vampire directed by Neil Jordan and produced by David Geffen was released inalthough not without controversy, particularly over fan reaction to the casting of Tom The Queen of the Damned as Lestatan objection initially shared by Anne Rice, which she recanted after seeing the finished film. After the commercial and critical success of InterviewNeil Jordan began initial development of the novel's sequel, The Vampire Lestatalthough this went nowhere. As the rights to the novels would revert to Anne Rice at the end of[5] initial story meetings to adapt one or both of the remaining Vampire Chronicles began in The decision was made early to substantially rewrite the plot, and to base most of the movie on the third book: The Vampire Lestat was considered too broad and episodic for a two-hour feature film, although the novel's setup of Lestat's awakening and career as a rock star was used. It was also decided to focus on Lestat as the primary character, and the back story of Akasha and the Story of the Twins were omitted, despite these being virtually central to The Queen of the Damned plot of the novel. Displeased with the lack of progress, and more particularly with the studio's lack of consultation with her over the script development, author Anne Rice wrote a critical reply to a fan's question about the film in [7]. The key factor is that the entire vampire contract terminates in the year All the properties revert to me at that time, unless production commences —principal photography that is—before then. I don't think it is possible for Warner Bros. They simply weren't interested. It was very painful for me, as I had been talking to a new director they'd hired and we were both excited about the idea. I felt snubbed and hurt and have not bothered to approach them since. I'm not too surprised. I think any respectable script writer would be crazy to tackle that novel without having fully developed the background story of Lestat. Anyway, that is where it is. Another Australian, Michael Rymerwas confirmed to direct. Rymer suggested the film be shot in his home city of Melbournewhich would save considerably on production costs. The search The Queen of the Damned an actor to play Lestat took much longer—the idea of Tom Cruise reprising the role was considered but dismissed—although front runners included Wes BentleyJosh Hartnett and Heath Ledger. With a large cast of international and Australian actors, Queen of the Damned began principal photography on October 2, and ended on February 27,in a former biscuit factory, converted into a studio in the Melbourne suburb of St. Location filming took place around the city of Melbourne, although some filming was done in Los Angeles. For the scenes of Lestat's concert in Death Valleyover goths were recruited from Melbourne nightclubs and on the Internet, then driven on a fleet of buses to a quarry in Werribee to act as extras. The songs for Lestat's band were written and performed by Jonathan Davis of the nu metal band Kornand Richard Gibbsalthough Davis's contractual commitments to Sony BMG meant that his vocals could not appear on the soundtrack album. It is Jonathan Davis' version although the credits list it as the Wayne Static version from the album. Davis also made a small cameo in the film. The score for the film was also composed by Gibbs and Davis. Both the main soundtrack album and score album were released in Frank Fitzpatrick and Rich Dickerson The Queen of the Damned the Music Supervisors for the film and the soundtrack album. The original studio recording of "Careless Akasha's Lament " was written and produced by Davis and Gibbs, during the Queen of the Damned sessions. Davis released the song in downloadable form via Amazon and iTunes on November 16, Plans to record a duet between Aaliyah and Davis never materialised, due to Aaliyah's death. By Julyauthor Anne Rice had mellowed her previous stance on the film, much as she had with Interview. When asked about the film's progress, she answered: [15]. Everything I hear about the movie is good. They are working very hard to make it perfect. I have no real news. Let me repeat The Queen of the Damned I mentioned in a recent message. I met Stuart Townsend, the young man who is playing Lestat and he was absolutely charming. He had Lestat's excellent speaking voice and his feline grace. I cannot wait to see him in the film. By lateRice had seen the completed film and was sufficiently satisfied to allow her name to be used on promotional material, [16] although she later became disillusioned about it and dismissed the film instating that a television series format would be more suited to the source material. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, with The Queen of the Damned reviewers such as Roger Ebert describing it as "goofy" or "damned". He claimed in court that it was Aaliyah's character Queen Akasha from the film that told him to do it. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the film. For the novel on which the film is based, see The Queen of The Queen of the Damned Damned. Theatrical release poster. Scott Abbott Michael Petroni. Richard Gibbs Jonathan Davis. Release date. Running time. Main article: Queen of the Damned soundtrack. Retrieved The Atlantic. Retrieved 26 March Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 26, The Age. MTV News. Sputnik The Queen of the Damned. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 September Rotten Tomatoes. The Queen of the Damned - Wikipedia

Bram Stoker may The Queen of the Damned the king of the vampire novel, but its undisputed queen is Anne Rice. For close to 45 years, the American author has wholly redefined the genre and influenced generations of pop culture thanks to her overwhelmingly sensual and historically dense tales featuring a vibrant ensemble of charismatic blood drinkers, each in search of the answers to life, the universe, and their respective existences. If you've read a vampire novel published in the past four decades then the chances are it The Queen of the Damned hugely inspired by Rice's work, explicitly or otherwise. We have Rice to thank in large part for our cultural image of vampires as lascivious intellectuals who transcend societal notions of gender and sexuality, embracing the philosophical and sensual over the horrific. The metaphor of the vampire has endured for centuries, and Rice's interpretation has remained particularly timeless. Read her first vampire novel, 's Interview With the Vampiretoday and you will find that it is as fresh and relevant as it was upon publication. Despite its oversized impact on pop culture as a whole, The Vampire Chronicles has been rather hesitantly embraced by the entertainment industry. The adaptation of Interview With the Vampirestarring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, was popular and acclaimed in its day, but it didn't exactly spark a whole new age of vampire cinema. Elton John and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin wrote a notoriously bad musical adaptation of the first three novels, titled Lestatwhich closed after 39 performances. And then there's Queen of the Damnedthe cinematic flop that most The Queen of the Damned of the novel like to pretend never happened. There's a reason for that. To put it bluntly, Queen of the Damned is bad. It's the sort of bad movie that is too inept to even be interestingly inept. For novices to the world of The Vampire Chronicles, the film is just another bad horror title that they'll forget watching once the credits roll, but for fans, it's a painful desecration of the source material. The novel of Interview With the Vampire didn't get a sequel until nine years after its release, because Rice had never initially intended the story to be more than a standalone piece. The Vampire Lestatreleased inis a very different beast from its predecessor. Where Interview took the form of an extended interview with Louis, The Vampire Lestat is essentially the memoirs of Louis' old friend-slash-foe, Lestat de Lioncourt. Louis portrayed Lestat as a spoiled brat deviant with no qualms about manipulating everyone around him, something that Lestat was very pissed off about. His own memoir is an attempt to set the record straight by telling his own origin story and letting The Queen of the Damned world in on all of the vampires' most treasured secrets. He doesn't just want to reveal the truth of vampires to humans through a mere book, however. He wants to take over the world as a rock star. Over a combined total of around a thousand pages, Rice creates a lush history that spans generations and continents, tackling themes of queerness, faith, celebrity, and power. She may have written thousands of pages since then, but the original Vampire Chronicles trilogy is still The Queen of the Damned masterpiece. The major issue with 's Queen of The Queen of the Damned Damned note the lack of "the" at the beginning is that it was made very quickly to meet a deadline. Warner Bros. It was decided by the producers and initial story meetings that, rather than adapt one title, Queen of the Damned would take on both the novel from which it gets its title and the preceding The Vampire Lestatalthough the finished product has very little in common with either book. We see almost nothing of Lestat's origins, the story of the creation of all vampires is totally omitted, and The Queen of the Damned main focus instead is Lestat as a rock star. It's understandable why the studio would want this version of the story, even if it has very little to do with its source material. There probably wouldn't have been a wide audience for a deeply introspective historical drama with an episodic structure. The Queen of the Damned things that make Rice's work so intoxicating on the page are tough to translate to the screen although director Neil Jordan did it extremely well with Interview With the Vampire. A story about an undead rock musician trying to start a war with his fellow vampires by revealing their millennia-old secrets to humanity through song is one hell of a hook. This dramatic condensing of the narrative means that the movie cannot help but feel painfully unfinished. Aspects of the novels that are pivotal to the plot just don't exist here, such as the story of the Twins and how they helped to create the first vampires. A bunch of key characters, such as Louis and Daniel the interviewer from the first bookare gone, while others are either rewritten in ways that make no sense or shoved to the margins and made inconsequential. Even Lestat, the story's wildly charismatic protagonist, is made boring through this act of adaptation. Even if you're familiar with the source material, watching Queen of the Damned kind of makes you wonder why anyone involved even bothered. The timing of the adaptation is also a major issue. Making a vampire movie in was a very different task from doing so inin large part because Anne Rice changed the genre so radically. Rice's work helped to make that image of the sensuous aristocratic beauty driven by emotional turmoil and philosophical understanding the default image of the vampire in pop culture, one of romance more than horror. When The Vampire Lestat dropped in '85, it was radical and refreshing to see vampires like that. Byit was well-worn, overdone, and kind of silly. Queen of the Damned as a movie is extremely silly, taking itself incredibly seriously without embracing The Queen of the Damned of the melodramatic camp of the source material or understanding the specific genre context it's now operating in. All of a sudden, Lestat just seems pathetically uncool. Said lack of The Queen of the Damned is exacerbated by the movie's decision to focus on Lestat's time as a rock star. Once again, the setting changes everything. When Rice wrote this plotline in the '80s, it was the age of the music megastars, from Freddie Mercury to Prince to David Bowie. It made sense to imagine why Lestat would awaken from a decades-long slumber, hear the music of the time, and decide to use it as his vehicle to spread a worldwide message about the vampire lore. It was the era of MTV and Live Aid and yuppie-era consumerism, so of course Lestat would see rock The Queen of the Damned roll as the ideal means The Queen of the Damned grab everyone's attention and to be worshipped by the masses. That doesn't really work inespecially with the film desperately trying to chase trends and focusing on the flash-in-the-pan musical fad of the time: nu-metal. Jonathan Davis of Korn fame was hired to write and perform the music for Lestat's band, and the soundtrack was filled with songs by bands like Disturbed, Papa Roach, and Marilyn Manson. It's all so painfully early s in a way that hasn't aged well, but it didn't feel especially current or radical in Even during the height of its popularity, nu- metal was criticized for sounding too whiny and immature. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails said the sound was "really insincere" and came across "as being comical, as being a parody of itself. A article from NME called nu-metal the worst music genre of all time. It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to use nu-metal as the creative foundations for their centuries-old plan of supernatural domination that has the power to change the face of the earth as we know it. Would you want to join a vampire cult if the guy leading it sang like Fred Durst? Anne Rice said that her main inspiration for Lestat's sound and musical persona was Jim Morrison, which makes The Queen of the Damned more sense than Korn or Limp Bizkit. The frontman for The Doors possessed a truly otherworldly personality and felt genuinely dangerous when he sang songs inspired by Brecht and asked you to light The Queen of the Damned fire. It doesn't seem, however, that a Morrison-esque rocker would have worked as Lestat does in the '80s. Perhaps that genre of rock that Lestat would need to be simply doesn't exist. Personally, the thing about Queen of the Damned that really sticks in my unfanged teeth is the straight- washing. Rice's vampires are all queer, eschewing societal ideas of gender and sexuality in exchange for a more fluid approach to both. They love who they love, obsessively so, the rest of the world be damned. It was bad enough that Interview With the Vampire removed the most explicit aspects of this queerness from the movie, although they at least had the common sense to keep all the obvious homoerotic tension between the characters. Queen of the Damned doesn't just remove all references to Lestat's fluid sexuality as well as that of everyone else in the ensemble ; it forces a new female love interest onto him. In the novel, the character of Jesse Reeves is crucial because she provides a familial connection to the Twins and their backstory. She is a descendant of Maharet, one of the The Queen of the Damned vampires, and through her love for this woman who helped to raise her, we see Jesse's own eagerness to discover the secrets of her past and the truth of vampires. Her connection to Lestat in the book is minimal as she sees him merely as a means to an end, a way for her to confirm her suspicions about her own connection to vampires. In the movie, all of that fascinating backstory and motivation is gone and she becomes just another chick who's, The Queen of the Damned, totally into the hot vampire Lestat and wants to help save him from his sorrows. Jesse goes from being her own person to a love interest who sees a man as a project. It's insulting for various reasons, even before we take into consideration how she is used as a full-on "no homo" shield for Lestat in this adaptation. On top of that, the forced love story with Jesse and Lestat wipes out the romantic and emotional connection he forms with the Queen of the Damned herself, Akasha, played by the late, great Aaliyah. This The Queen of the Damned doesn't even give us the good straight romance, the one where Lestat comes to the horrifying realization of his own amorality through his attachment to the mother of all vampires and her own evil intentions. That adaptation choice really sums up the movie: a series of choices made to turn interesting ideas into derivative mush. A lavish TV adaptation courtesy of Hulu was planned for several years, with Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller briefly attached, but it has since been dropped and the rights have reverted to Rice's control. It's not unlikely that we'll eventually get some sort of adaptation of The Vampire Chronicles beyond stand-alone movies, but the material itself, as richly developed and engrossing as it is, comes with various challenges that may scare off many safe-playing network executives. A true adaptation of this series will require a show — there's no way this can be a movie, sorry — willing to commit to languid pacing, baroque melodrama, lots of historical flashbacks, and a distinct lack of action. Rice's best books are often compiled of hundreds of pages of alternate histories or retellings of biblical lore, and TV tends to want at least a few more dramatic beats than that. As evidenced by Queen of the Damnedwe know what happens when Hollywood gets impatient. Here's hoping we can avoid that mess once more. At the very least, let's all pretend that nu-metal didn't happen. Update your browser for more security and the best experience on this site. Skip to main content. Credit: Warner Bros. Tag: Fangrrls. Tag: Movies. Kayleigh Donaldson Ceilidhann. Tag: The Vampire Chronicles. Tag: Anne Rice. Tag: Queen of the Damned. Top stories. When Vision and Scarlet Witch got married. Video of Queen of the Damned - Trailer F1. More The Vampire Chronicles. The ultimate primer on the works of Anne Rice. Except every week in your inbox. Your email. Your browser is out of date. Close Browser Update Message. Queen of the Damned - Wikipedia

This novel is a continuation of the story that ends in a cliffhanger in The Vampire Lestat and explores the rich history and mythology of the origin of the vampireswhich dates back to Ancient Egypt. The plot of The Queen of the Damned is extensive and complex. The first part of the book tracks several different people over the same period of several days. We also see several characters from the earlier The Queen of the Damned ArmandDaniel the "boy reporter" of Interview with the VampireMariusLouisGabrielle and Santino. Each of the six chapters of the first part tells a The Queen of the Damned story about a different person or group of people. Two things unify these chapters: a series of dreams about red-haired twin sisters who live in ancient times and are witches, and the fact that some powerful being is killing vampires around the world by making them spontaneously combust. Pandora and Santino go to rescue Marius, who has been telepathically calling for help and trying to warn others of some great approaching danger. As they arrive at his home in the far north, they find him buried under ice. They learn that Akasha has been awakened by Lestat's rock music. She has destroyed her husband The Queen of the Damned and hatched a plot to rule the world. It is Akasha who has been killing the other vampires, trying to reduce the undead to a small number of vampires totally loyal to her. The second part of the book takes place at Lestat's The Queen of the Damned. Jesse is mortally injured and is taken to Maharet's Sonoma compound, where she is made into a vampire and where the The Queen of the Damned of the vampires from the first part congregate. The only missing ones are Akasha and Lestat. She has kidnapped him and takes him on a whirlwind tour of the world, inciting women to rise up and kill the men who have oppressed them and trying to convince him to be her consort. The third portion of the book takes place at Maharet's home in Sonoma, in the middle The Queen of the Damned a giant forest. Also present are Mael and Khayman, both of whom already know the story. In the fourth part of the book, Akasha confronts the gathering of vampires at The Queen of the Damned compound. There she lays down her plans and offers the gathering of vampires a chance to be her 'angels' in her New World Order. If they refuse, she says, she will kill them. The others state that they will not join her, and before she can make The Queen of the Damned on her promise to destroy them, Mekare bursts in and kills her, severing her head with a swift movement of her hand. Mekare then extracts Akasha's brain and heart and devours them, the only way to save the remaining vampires, becoming the new Queen of The Damned and destroying Akasha for good. Shaken, the vampires leave Maharet's compound to gather at Armand's resort, called "Night Island," according to Anne Rice, inspired by Fire Island in Florida and recover. Over time they disband, various vampires going their separate ways. After a brief visit they take off into the night, an incensed Louis and his angry words filling Lestat with glee. The film deviated from much of this storyline and killed off some of the characters, including Pandora. In the novel, none of those gathered at Sonoma died apart from Akasha. However, this backstory is also significantly altered. For instance, Marius, not Magnus, is Lestat's maker in the movie. The Queen of the Damnedthe novel, deals with the origins of vampires themselves. The mother of all vampires, Akasha, begins as an Egyptian queen many thousands of years ago. During this time two powerful witches Maharet and Mekare live in the mountains of an unnamed region. Their village is destroyed and they are taken hostage by the king and queen, who desire their knowledge. All the while, there is a bloodthirsty spirit called Amel who continually comes to the witches to ask if they need help, although they prudently decline the offer. When they tell Akasha something that she does not want to hear, she is horrified, and condemns the twins. Enkil then orders Khayman to rape the twins in his stead The Queen of the Damned prove they hold no power, in front of the court. Afterward they are cast out into the desert. While making her way back home with a pregnant Maharet, Mekare curses the king and queen secretly with the bloodthirsty spirit. Eventually this spirit inflicts such torment on Akasha and Enkil that they call the sisters back and beg for their The Queen of the Damned. However, a number of conspirators have been plotting against the young king. Planning to say that the spirit killed the The Queen of the Damned, the conspirators assassinate the royal couple in their possessed house. When Akasha dies, the evil spirit sees her soul starting to leave the body, but before it does, the evil spirit wraps itself around her soul and pulls it back into her body. The newly arisen Akasha gives her king the Dark Gift to save his life; she also turns Khayman into a vampire. She orders the witches to be mutilated -- Maharet loses her eyes and Mekare her tongue. Afterward, Khayman comes to them and makes them into vampires as well. The three flee, but are caught by Akasha's soldiers. Khayman escapes but Maharet and Mekare are put in two separate coffins which are then set afloat on two separate bodies of water. They do not see each other again until the events of The Queen of the Damned. Mekare has gone into the ground for these many centuries, while Maharet goes back to her daughter to watch over her, and her descendants. Maharet's daughter's children become what is known as the Great Family, the progeny of the Daughters of Maharet. They are traced maternally, and there are members belonging to every culture, religion, ethnicity, and race. The Great Family represents all humanity and shows the vampires what, exactly, Akasha would be destroying by creating her New World Order. It becomes clear that as the source of all vampires, Akasha and Enkil are connected to all of the undead by the blood and spirit that all vampires share. In an experiment by the first Keeper, Akasha and Enkil are The Queen of the Damned to sunlight when they are several thousand years old. This merely gives them a tan. However, all other vampires are wounded, and many of the weakest die, thus confirming the legend that anything that harms Akasha will also directly affect all The Queen of the Damned her progeny. This wiki. This wiki All wikis. Sign In Don't have an account? Start a Wiki. Plot summary [ edit edit source ] The plot of The Queen of the Damned is extensive and complex. The Origin of The Queen of the Damned [ edit edit source ] The Queen of the Damnedthe novel, deals with the origins of vampires themselves. Categories :. Cancel Save. Universal Conquest Wiki.