Wednesday, April 15, 2015

(Spoilers) Interview with the Vampire: Book vs Movie Differences

***SPOILER WARNING: Spoilers may be found in the post below about VARIOUS ITEMS. And I'm going to add in a bit of filler text here to limit how much of the main article gets shown in a preview. That should take care of most of it. Hopefully. And away we go. SPOILER WARNING. ***

Woho, this is an old movie from 1994 that I haven't seen in a while. It has Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in it. It used to be on television a lot and I watched it a ton of times. The book by Anne Rice was my grade 9 choice for one of my book reports. It actually became my sort of hipster accessory that I kept in my backpack all the time in high school. No one was ever impressed... A decade has probably passed since I read it. Doing the book report tattooed a lot of the details into my head though.

Anyway, like most book to movie or TV show adaptations, there are differences between the Interview with the Vampire book and movie. I still consider the movie timeless and so well done that I wouldn't have trouble watching it 20 years later. Great acting, excellent story, and special effects that hold up well. Much love towards the book too.

Let me TRY to summarize some of the differences off the top of my head between the book and movie. Again, I'm going to reiterate that it's been a long time since I've read or seen either, so some details may be off. And obviously, there are plenty of SPOILERS concerning both the Interview with the Vampire book and movie. I would recommend both versions in either order if you haven't had the pleasure of experiencing them.

Possible Book and Movie Differences
1. There's a part early in the book, just after Louis is sired when he is told by Lestat to expel his body of all waste products. In the movie, I think Lestat just sires him and there are some special effects showing his skin and hair change. If there is a scene where Louis goes into the garden to do both number one and twos, I missed it.

2. Louis goes to Europe to find vampires with Claudia, but they don't find anything like them initially in both the book and movie. In the book, they do stumble across a sort of ghoul stirring up trouble in a town. I think Louis takes it out? He's disappointed that the first sort of vampire he finds isn't on his level. This scene's missing in the movie.

3. Lestat shows up in Europe when Louis and Claudia are confronted by the vampires at the climax in the book. There isn't another appearance by Lestat (Tom Cruise) until near the end of the movie in the modern day. This one makes a lot of sense because it makes it perfectly clear how the Paris vampires found out about Lestat and Claudia's crime.

4. Revenge is a lot more detailed in the book. I read this major "action scene" in the book over and over again because I thought it was so cool way back when. The book details exactly what Louis does before arriving at the theatre to take revenge on the Parisian vampires. Something about sleeping in a grave at a farm and finding a scythe. I loved what they did with it in the movie and Brad Pitt's numbness and quiet rage just blew me away.

Those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. Great movie and great book.

P.S. I can't believe this movie hasn't been remade yet.

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