The film that I chose to write about in this report was ‘ Queen of the Damned’, which is the sequel to ‘ Interview with a Vampire’. The open scene in the film has three main narrative hooks, the first of which is in the credits before the film starts. There is a statue of a person, the hook is to wonder who this person is? You find out later in the film that this person is the Queen of the Damned, Akasha. The second hook runs through most of the opening scene. This hook is a person talking, using off screen digetic sound, about vampires, which lead to the question, who is this person? Is he a vampire? The third narrative hook is when someone walks through the graveyard, who is this person? Why does he/she carry a violin?
The Opening scene also features binary opposites but there aren’t very many. Here are a few: –
Binary Opposite
Where/Why?
Old Vs. New
As Lestat wakens, you see a band playing then it switches back to Lestat carrying a violin. This shows the change of musical eras that Lestat had been waiting for.
Vampire Vs. Human
Used in most of the film. It shows that the film is concentrating on vampires and it also shows that Human are mostly unaware of Vampires
Immortality Vs. Mortality
This is used in link with the Vampire Vs. Human binary opposite, to show that vampires are strong than humans, and how they should not have to hide from the humans.
Past Vs. Present
This is used when Lestat wakes up, he is wearing very classical clothes so he changes into more modern clothes in order to fit in.
The basic plot of the film is that a vampire awakens to become a god, in attempting this he releases the queen vampire who wants to have, basically, hell on earth and it is the duty of the other vampires to kill her.
The story of the film is that the vampire Lestat has risen from decades of long slumber in order to rebuild himself as the closest thing to God on Earth: A Rock Star. In doing this, the intoxicating lure of his music snakes its way around the globe and has awakened the 6, 000-year-old Egyptian vampire, Akasha, queen of all vampires. Akasha has been resting and waiting for the right time to rise again and seize domination over the world. Lestat’s music is the revelation that she has been waiting for, and she desires that he rule beside her. It is then the job of the other ancient vampires, with the help of Lestat, to kill the queen.
Narrative devices were used quite frequently during this film; there is a lot of non-digetic text that appears almost every time the location changes. There is a rather large flashback, which explains how Lestat became a vampire, and who it was that created him. Also the opening scene uses voiceovers to explain why Lestat decided to sleep for 100 years.
Main Characters
Lestat = Victim Hero/ Victim – Lestat starts of as a hero but is then caught by Akasha making him the victim.
Akasha = Villain
Marius = Helper – Marius helps Lestat to fight off the vampires that are trying to kill him.
Jessie = Donor – Jessie give her blood to Lestat to break him away from the clutches of Akasha.
Todorov
Exposition – Lestat awakens from his 100 years of slumber in order to remake himself as a God on Earth by becoming a rock star. He joins a band that is playing in his old house and tells them that everything they dream of will be theirs.
Development – Jessie is introduced. She is a Talamascan, someone who looks into the paranormal of dark magic and alike. She reads about Lestat in his journal, and this is where Marius, Lestat’s maker is introduced. Marius teaches Lestat about the ways of the vampire but Lestat disagrees because he did not want to be alone. Whilst playing his violin Lestat happens to come across the living statue of Akasha
Complication – Back in the present day Lestat has become extremely famous but his music has woken the queen of the damned, Akasha, and she wants hell on Earth. Jessie has also meet Lestat and is trying to persuade him to turn her into a vampire.
Climax – During Lestat’s gig, Lestat is attacked by vampire angry at him for tell the human about them and their secrets, Marius steps in and helps Lestat kill a few but they become out numbered, however Akasha appears and kill the rest of the them and takes Lestat away with her. On a remote island Akasha turns Lestat to follow her as her king. They then travel to another island to settle the score between Marius and the other ancient vampires.
Resolution – Lestat drinks Jessie’s blood to the point of almost killing her, but her blood helps Lestat turn back to good. Lestat starts to feed from Akasha but she is too strong for him, the other vampires then start to feed from Akasha making her weak, Lestat decide to drink her last drop of blood in order to kill her but he is stopped from his sacrifice by Jessie’s aunt, one of the ancients, who then sacrifices herself to kill Akasha. Lestat then gives Jessie some of his blood, this bring her back to life but as a vampire. The film ends with Jessie and Lestat together.
Read also:
Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘ Psycho’
