The Vampire Lestat

It’s sex & gore & rock ’n’ roll in this latest instalment of The Vampire Chronicles based on Anne Rice’s horror novels. THE VAMPIRE LESTAT follows our titular bloodsucker re-emerging in modern-day America as a bona fide rockstar, while flashback sequences shed light on Lestat’s traumatising childhood. Once again, Sam Reid, Jacob Anderson, Eric Bogosian and Assad Zaman are at the core of the action, which sees our anti-hero forming a rock band and embarking on a global tour, albeit not as we know it!

What’s interesting here is that unlike in Seasons 1 & 2 of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, in ‘Season 3’ the narrative is told from Lestat’s viewpoint as opposed to from Louis’ viewpoint. During the course of seven episodes, we come to learn why Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid in top form) has chosen to form a rock band and call his recordings and his albums The Failures… On the one hand, because by doing so he confronts his own demons while on the other hand, he plans on setting the record straight by exacting revenge of journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) and his former lover Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) who both portrayed Lestat as ultimate Bogeyman (with fangs).

At the start of the first episode, we find ourselves in an auction room, with Armand (Assad Zaman) and Louis present. Inside two massive glass cages are the recordings of Lestat, including a song cycle set to the poetry of Charles Baudelaire. Seconds later, the glass cage complete with its contents goes up in flames, with the second glass cage including a music box collection named ‘The Failures’ plus several bottles of precious liquids…Cut, and the story then continues in Detroit 2025, with Lestat forming his band while taking issue with a book that’s particularly hurtful to him. The rock band sequences and Lestat’s gradual beginnings before he reaches global superstardom is a definite detour from the previous styles of Seasons 1 & 2 in so far that for the most time, it feels like a frenzied and feverish rockumentary, as we follow the characters on the road and backstage, where Lestat and his entourage, foremost Dee Pharma (Amaka Umeh) turn mainly female fans into the undead. Also joining the tour on and off is Molloy.

In another detour, the story goes back to 18th century France, where we get insight into Lestat’s childhood, forever bullied by his two brothers due to his stammering while his sympathetic and consumptive mother Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle), who suffers at the hands of her cold-hearted husband, is saved from death by Lestat though this is such a powerful (not to mention gory) sequence of event, we won’t spoil things here. In the present day, Gabriella returns and takes on the role as Lestat’s ‘manager’ (not to mention on/off lover) while it takes a while for everyone, including a constantly probing Molloy, trying to figure out who Lestat’s mother is and where she is… Some might find the incestuous relationship between Lestat and Gabrielle (who speaks with an Italian accent throughout) a trifle disturbing but it is part of the complex picture that makes Lestat complete.

The series constantly glides between past and present, with tormented 18th century violinist Nicolas de Lenfent (Joseph Potter) declaring his eternal love for Lestat while his transformation into a vampire has tragic consequences. The constant presence of Lestat’s ‘maker’ Magnus (Damien Atkins), whose grotesque visage creeps up both in the past and the present, is enough to give everyone nightmares, never mind Lestat!  In a dual plot, Armand now seems to be in cahoots with Louis while attempting to make his peace with a still furious Daniel Molley. In turn, when Lestat feels irritated by Armand’s apologies for so many wrongs, he invites him to one of his concerts after Armand mentions that he wants Lestat to quit his music business. Nonetheless, while amidst a cheering crowd during one of Lestat’s concerts, Armand is spotted by him and publicly humiliated with the equally witty and toxic ‘Song for Armand’ - one of the highlights (and gosh, there are many in the series). In case you didn’t know it: Sam Reid performs all the songs himself and none of them sound like a failure! 

Then, there’s the very interesting plot line concerning Louis discovering a young girl working in a Brooklyn diner named Regina (Delainey Hayles) who is the spitting image of Claudia, with the difference that Regina hails from Hackney, London, and has a seriously dodgy crime record. Nonetheless, Louis is so taken aback by her that he offers to help her financially and even hires her to play the part of Claudia in the hope that this bizarre scenario would somehow help him with overcoming his grief of having lost the real vampire daughter Claudia. Later on, it transpires that this doppelgänger scenario was a cunning set-up planned by Armand who, by doing so, hoped to turn Louis into his puppet if you will, while gradually inflicting psychological torment onto Regina. When Lestat visits the diner to check out the apparent Claudia-lookalike, he too ends up traumatised. We also get a first glimpse of the Queen of the Damned Akasha (Sheila Atim) in a truly disturbing scene taking place in a catacomb, with Marius de Romanus (Christopher Heyerdahl) watching over the dead and stone-like Akasha but wait… 

The big climax of the series, well… In order to explain it in detail, one would need to  mention what’s happening towards the end of Episode 6, the penultimate episode of The Vampire Lestat. And we simply cannot do it! Let’s just say it’s a tale cut in two halves…As for the final episode, Lestat is forced to dissect his entire existence in what can only be described as one hell of a hallucinatory, surreal trip which is so overloaded with frenzied snippets, you may need to watch it numerous times to take it all in! There’s a twist as well but we won’t give that one away either. 

While distinctly different in tone and vibe from Interview with… The Vampire Lestat is nothing short of excellent (that also goes for the performances) even though occasionally, it borders on subplot/flashback overload. Sam Reid in particular is worth every drop of his precious blood and what a performer - he has rockstar written all over him. 

The 3-Disc Blu-ray set comes with a plethora of Bonus material including previews, podcast interviews with the stars and production team, videos, panel at Comic-Con 2025 and more. On that note, Anne Rice’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Collection has just been released, including all three seasons in on3 Blu-ray Boxset. Time to sink your fangs into these truly incredible releases!