Amy Reviews THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED

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Mar 22, 2002

Departing from his mundane track record (Angel Baby and In Too Deep for example), helmer Michael Rymer finally gets to try his hand at his beloved horror genre with reasonably successful results in his latest project. Queen of the Damned is loosely based on the third volume of the widely popular books The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.

No one can deny that the greatest fascination factors in this production are the tragically ironic circumstances surrounding the performance of its star, Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash shortly after shooting was completed. Here we have a very dead actress on screen portraying a ruler of the undead!

Queen of the Damned's plot, title notwithstanding, actually concentrates on Lestat (Stuart Townsend), a centuries-old vampire of musical inclinations who yearns for fame and public adulation and sees his path to fulfillment as attainable by revealing his true nature and using this sensational information to promote himself in the world of heavy-metal rock 'n roll. Due to the fortunate combination of talent and the phenomenal appeal of what most critics and media pundits believe to be a clever gimmick, Lestat (urging others of his kind to "come out wherever they are"), achieves superstardom and public notoriety that arouses the ire of the rest of his ilk. They prefer to retain their shadowy anonymity, away from the all-too-frequently hostile attentions of their mortal prey.

Thanks to Lestat's publicity machine, an orphaned psychic investigator, Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), becomes intrigued with him, knowing that he's for real because of her heightened awareness due to her upbringing by her benign vampire Aunt Maharet (Lena Olin). By being a member of the Talamasca, an esoteric occult organization of researchers, Jesse gains access to their prized possession, Lestat's journals of his transformation. This unique tome contains information that enables Jesse to get closely and romantically involved with the object of her fascination.

Jesse's reading of these memoirs leads to an extended and interesting flashback sequence: the 18th century encounter with the 2000-year-old vampire Marius (Vincent Perez) responsible for Lestat's becoming one of the undead. Marius, now mentor to Lestat, shows him the ropes and reveals that he, in turn, looks up to the multi-millennia old "Mother of all Vampires." Queen Akasha (Aaliyah), of ancient Egyptian origin, is now so powerful that she can withstand the sunlight and fire that normally destroys her kind.

Back in the present day, awakened from a kind of hibernation by the power of Lestat's music, Queen Akasha senses that she can use this energy to achieve her long-held plans of world domination. With consort Lestat by her side, their combined mesmerizing abilities would turn mortals into helpless sheep, ripe for the picking.

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