Queen of the Damned - Fun for the casual viewer

It says on the front cover of the DVD of ‘Queen of the Damned’ that it is the sequel to ‘Interview With a Vampire’ – you remember that – the smash hit movie, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.  Everyone loved that.  It was a hit!  Unfortunately, ‘Queen of the Damned’ is only a sequel as it’s using some of the same characters (characters, not actors – there’s a difference) and set in the same universe, so to speak.  Basically, it’s not really a sequel.  It’s another vampire story written by Anne Rice following some of the characters who you might have seen before.  Don’t expect to see Tom or Brad in this one.

However, just because it doesn’t really follow on, doesn’t make it a bad thing – a disjointed thing, but not a bad thing.  But, in some ways, it’s not really the film’s fault.  It’s about a vampire who has got disillusioned with drinking people’s blood over the centuries and has gone to sleep for hundreds of years.  Now he’s woken in the modern age and decided to ‘out’ all the other vampires and their blood-sucking ways.  It goes without saying that the rest of the vamps don’t take kindly to his outspoken ways and decide to take him out.  So where does the Queen come into it?

She doesn’t.  That much.  Unfortunately she’s only in it for two scenes because the young actress playing her tragically died while the film was being made, leaving the story lacking what should have been a big part of its central element.

Plus it doesn’t really do the book justice.  I haven’t read the book.  I’m one of the many who just watches the film, but I’ve generally browsed through enough internet message boards to realise that a lot of die-hard fans of the source material didn’t appreciate the transition to film.

So, it’s got its fair amount of negative points.  And yet it’s actually quite good.  Not great, but somehow highly watchable (if you’re into vampires in general).  It should all be quite campy and yet Stuart Townsend plays the lead vamp pretty well and is actually fun to watch.  Aaliyah, for the few scenes she’s in, sizzles as the Queen of the undead.  It would have been pretty good if she’d have been able to show what she can do all the way through the film.

It’s probably not a film you’re going to want to see again and again, but if you’re not totally bored with vampires after binge-watching box sets of ‘True Blood’ then take a look at vampires rocking out on stage and fighting each other in the chorus.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that