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Interview with the Vampire

EMAILPRINTWarner Bros.

Interview with the Vampire reviews
59
8.3 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 6 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Fantasy  |  Horror

Written by: Anne Rice (also novel)

Directed by: Neil Jordan

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 11, 1994
DVD: June 6, 2000

Running Time: 123 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R

Starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Stephen Rea, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Virginia McCollam, and Thandie Newton

The undead are among us and livelier than ever when Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and a talented group of young-bloods star in Interview with the Vampire, the spellbinding screen adaptation of Anne Rice's best seller. (Warner Bros.)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Empire Adam Smith

Bold, gruesome and melancholic, this Gothic horrorfest offers us much to sink our teeth into: Cruise - who effectively disappears from the screen for half the film's duration - is terrific, Dunst eerily compelling, Banderas hypnotic.

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100

USA Today Mike Clark

The generally faithful script is by Anne Rice herself, the director is "The Crying Game"'s Neil Jordan, and both seem true to themselves and as true as they can be to artistic and visceral expectations. [11Nov1994 Pg. 01.D]

90

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

His sumptuous film is as strange and mesmerizing as it is imaginatively ghastly. It's a sophisticated, spookily intense rendering of Ms. Rice's story.

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80

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

But if you can get swept up in the story, the movie is imaginative and compelling.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A stronger plot engine might have drawn us more quickly to the end, but on a scene by scene basis, Interview with the Vampire is a skillful exercise in macabre imagination.

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75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

When Interview with the Vampire works, it's as compelling and engrossing a piece of entertainment as is available on film today. When it falters, the weaknesses seem magnified.

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75

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

But for all its visionary brilliance, the movie version of Interview never lets us close enough to see ourselves in Louis. We're dazzled but unmoved.

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75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The look is fine, the effects are special, the cast is solid, and Jordan (in company with Rice) makes a commendable effort to add a cerebral dimension to a visceral genre.

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75

TV Guide Staff(not credited)

This darkly effective horror drama holds plenty of interest, even for those who find Anne Rice's gothic cult novels unreadable.

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67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It is, however, a very satisfying film, and surely the first in a long franchise (it does, after all, bear the subtitle The Vampire Chronicles).

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60

Variety Todd McCarthy

But the film also has its turgid, dialogue-heavy stretches, and the leading performances, if acceptable, are not everything they needed to be to fully flesh out these elegant immortals.

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60

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Unfortunately, the story, adapted by Anne Rice from her best-selling novel, sucks at the neck a little too long. A 23-minute snipping from this 123-minute movie would have done wonders.

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50

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Although he works his hardest at the part and doesn't embarrass himself, even with the help of Stan Winston's vampire makeup Tom Cruise is plainly miscast as Lestat. [11Nov1994 Pg. F1]

50

The New Yorker Terrence Rafferty

The director, Neil Jordan, and his cinematographer, the great Philippe Rousselot, have given the movie an extraordinary seductive look, but Rice (who wrote the screenplay) doesn't provide enough narrative to keep the audience satisfied.

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42

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Dramatically, though, the film is torpid.

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40

Dallas Observer Matt Zoller Seitz

Lestat, like all vampires, is a bad boy frozen in time; because the role is emotionally static and one-note, it can't hold our attention unless it's played by an actor with deep reserves of mystery, elegance, and sexual power. Cruise has no such qualities.

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40

Time Richard Corliss

A vampire story needs vampires, sure, but it also needs a human victim to lead the audience into the vortex and help them escape it. Otherwise, the fear factor evaporates, and you get this mishmash: an interview in a void, a vampire movie with underbite.

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40

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Literal-minded to the last, I felt nothing but pity for Tom Cruise, fanged, wigged and costumed, trying hard with his considerable talent to make his sanguinary appetite real. [12Dec1994 Pg. 24]

30

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Passionately anticipated and much ballyhooed, the film, alas, is little more than a foppish, fang de siecle costume drama. Its pulse barely registers.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Troy P. gave it a10:
I have never read the book, and a lot of the disappointment from critics seems to stem from the fact that some of the characters (especially Lestat played by Tom Cruise) didn't live up to the characters portraited in the book. But since I didn't read the book, I had no expectations coming in and found the characters to be very interesting. Their interactions are amusing and complex. I think all the characters were very well done and that the movie had a great atmosphere. A great movie that all must see.

Danni W. gave it a10:
Awesome!!!

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