In the AMC series Interview with the Vampire, journalist Daniel Molloy is shocked when Louis compares his appetite for blood to his sexual orientation. “You accepted your homosexuality at the same time as killing,” he comments. “What would the theory say? queer about that?” he adds. This is a pertinent question, since a good part of the plot is based on the love between Louis and Lestat.
This time, unlike the book – and also the film version of Neil Jordan -, the homoerotic context is completely explicit. Which makes the script go through complicated places and, especially, through uncomfortable questions in the way various topics are analyzed. In particular, the sexuality of his characters.
Is there some homophobic substratum in the fact that death or, in any case, murder is compared to sexual self-discovery? In reality, what might seem like a hint about reprehensible impulses becomes an allegory for freedom.
Interview with the Vampire: love, desire and blood
In fact, the main premise of the series places considerable emphasis on its characters being outside of any human norm. But, at the same time, closely linked by multiple feelings that converge in love.
If in the literary version of Interview with the Vampire the latent erotic tension between Lestat and Louis developed as a repressed instinct and a form of guilt, in the series it takes on another aspect. The script allows itself the freedom to carefully delve into how desire and appetite for blood are confused and mixed in a single satisfaction..
However, Louis’s need for Lestat isn’t just that of a pupil for his mentor or awe of a seductive creature. The production explores their story until both sustain a deep, singular and, without a doubt, violent connection. So strong that it involves from the carnal to the mental and spiritual until sustaining a complex and overwhelming whole.
Love for all eternity and in the midst of shadows
One of the strong points of the script Interview with the Vampire it is his ability to extrapolate the appetite for blood to other strata of the personality. But, also, to manage to separate the mere physical longing —and according to the story, relentless— from the gaze of an adult gay love relationship.
At the first meeting between Louis and Lestat, the latter drinks the blood of his future ward. Not enough to kill him, but yes, in the words of the character: “To leave an indelible mark on him.” The next thing that happens is a scene that is rarely shown in productions. mainstream.
Both remain lying, one next to the other, while they catch their breath. But the production ensures that the atmosphere is one of deep intimacy. Very far from a scene of violence, there is a well-constructed substratum on mutual need. A newborn link that becomes more meaningful and real as the narrative progresses.
Sex, blood and bites on Interview with the Vampire
Interview with the Vampirewhich comes from a pioneering work on themes and points of view queer, analyzes his characters from the emotional. Louis does not hesitate to express the fear that the mere possibility of attraction to a man produces in him. Little by little, the script gives layers of depth to its protagonists’ need for physical and romantic connection. He does so with a delicacy and respect that transforms long conversations, and even violent scenes, into symbols of more complex points.
The Serie Interview with the Vampire from AMC is the essence of Rice’s novel — and its entire universe — taken to a new level. Perhaps it does not meet the parameters of setting and specific details of the narrative, but it does meet the spirit of it. More importantly, it is the elaborate and careful construction of the psychology of the characters in it. Adding an explicit mention of their sexual orientation allows the plot to cut through more complex elements about their characters’ psyches.. At the same time, an increasingly eloquent journey on how the idea of sexuality can be shown queer without resorting to hackneyed twists or clichés.
A story that reinvents itself for the new millennium
Of course, the relationship between Lestat and Louis is marked by a complicated inequality of power and the imprint of violence. It is not an example to follow, much less a healthy idea in general. Even so, the approach of Interview with the Vampire departs from the idea of building characters that are limited by their sexuality.
Homophobia, the fear of discovering love that contravenes culture and society, is shown as a painful fact. Little by little, the argument takes the space and time to tell a gay relationship that does not obey the idea of stigma or inherent evil. A frequent stereotype on television and that the series subtly diverts towards its supernatural topics.
Actually, in several of the most significant moments of Interview with the Vampire, the love between its characters is a powerful physical and natural force. There are moments of tenderness, small gestures of shared intimacy that enhance what happens between the protagonists. Beyond the monstrous condition they share, Louis and Lestat, this time, are spiritual companions. A full-fledged couple, who share pain, suffering and the slow way of understanding the nature that unites them through a real bond.
physical love in Interview with the Vampire
The series is not at all shy about showing desire and physical love between its characters. But her sexual scenes are not gratuitous and each one of them is full of a delicacy of approach that is new. From the bites — which in Rice’s mythology are equated to sex — to hugs, knowing looks and kisses. Interview with the Vampire shows his characters in a private world that they build with difficulty but with patience.
It is surprising how the script reflects on the maturity of adult love between two men without resorting to the easy recourse of desperate need. Lestat and Louis are united by mere physical attraction and, later, by the fact that they are inexplicable creatures. However, the romantic bond is real, full of nuances and in a way that both characters can be understood.
Unlike the restrained distance of the Neil Jordan film, the series Interview with the Vampire pays tribute to sexuality, to love in all its rarity. In the end, also to a relationship queer that it does not need to justify its existence beyond mutual attraction. “Many accidents happen in the world and in history. Love is one of them,” Lestat tells Louis after letting him drink his blood. Perhaps the best definition in the way that the AMC production captures how erotic the plot can be.