Week Two: Vampires

This week I read Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice and watched the films Only Lovers Left Alive and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.  While reading the novel I will admit it was hard to not imagine Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise from the film adaptation, but the book was far more enjoyable than the movie. I appreciated the use of the actual interview as a framing device for the story similar to what I mentioned in the previous post on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. This novel gives an atypical perspective on vampires depicting them not as monsters but just immortal beings with problems of their own. Sure some of them do have more animalistic qualities but they are far more relatable than the classic vampire. Only Lovers Left Alive does a good job at showing the more human side of vampires too. This film is also similar to the book in other ways too; for example, while Lestat and Louis are teaching Claudia, Louis focuses more on books and art while Lestat wants to show her how to kill. The same appreciation for art can be found in the characters of the film especially with Tom Hiddleston’s character Adam with his collection of analog equipment. In the film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the girl is first depicted as more of a monster but as the movie progresses her more human qualities are revealed.