The ultimate twist to a vampire story

In the horror genre, vampire stories are the easiest to mount on the big screen. You just get a tall and lean actor, make him look pale through the magic of makeup and fit a pair of fangs into his teeth and you have your vampire.

The only problem is how to make your vampire story different from those that were already produced before – because there are already so many.

Philippine cinema alone has dozens and dozens of them. The one that is most vivid in my mind is Dugo ng Vampira, which was produced in 1970 by Sampaguita Pictures’ VP Productions. Done in black and white, it starts with Myrna Delgado getting disowned by her family after her vampire lover, Charlie Davao, gets her pregnant. Myrna eventually gives birth to twins Rosario and Rosenda who, unfortunately, are separated at birth. Rosario is given to a foster family and grows up to be a good Catholic girl. Rosenda, on the other hand, is raised by Myrna herself and–though taught the proper values – eventually still becomes a vampire like her father. Gina Pareño plays both Rosario and Rosenda in the movie based on a komiks serial.

In early ’90s, one of the Shake, Rattle & Roll series had an episode called Madre wherein Aiko Melendez is cast as a vampire who disguises herself at daytime as a nun.

A few years later – in 1994 – Maricel Soriano played a vampire in Vampira, which had a rather trite story, but had some really scary scenes in it.

The most awful local vampire movie I’ve seen, however, is the one with Anjanette Abayari in it. It’s so forgettable that I don’t even remember its title.

Hollywood, of course, has had hundreds of vampire movies – the most famous of which are the Dracula series, starting with those made by Bela Lugosi.

My all-time favorite Hollywood vampire movie, however, is Interview With the Vampire – based on the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles series. Although the book was better (and more scary) than the movie, the film wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I thought it was an excellent horror film.

After the success of Interview With the Vampire comes another screen version of another one of the Vampire Chronicles series, Queen of the Damned.

Directed by Michael Rymer, Queen of the Damned has the vampire Lestat (played by Stuart Townsend) returning to life after years and years of slumber. But this time, Lestat reinvents himself (who says only Madonna can reinvent herself?) as a – hold your breath – rock star bigger than Elvis Presley. At some point, his music awakens Akasha (played by the late singer-actress Aaliyah), who is supposed to be the mother of all vampires. Their team-up frightens the other vampires because Akasha is ruthless and can banish them all.

Given the fact that Lestat is made to play a rock star here, you can already surmise that Queen of the Damned is a totally different vampire story. At the start – and since I didn’t know the fact that Queen of the Damned also came from the Vampire Chronicles series of Anne Rice – I thought it was really just some cheap B-movie. To my relief, I was wrong. Based on what I saw, it looks like an expensive production – shot in London and in Los Angeles.

The movie also has very good production values – from the costumes to the sets. I also like the fact that the prosthetics and visual effects–though very impressive – do not call attention to themselves.

Stuart Townsend was also the perfect choice to play rock star vampire Lestat. To begin with, I’ve always thought of Townsend to be a very good actor. The last time I saw him was in About Adam, which was shown as an Art Film feature in one of the cinemas in Glorietta.

Aaliyah was equally impressive in her role as the evil Akasha. For one thing, she really had perfect control of her body movements and, as a result, moved very well. It was really unfortunate that she had to die so young. She really could have turned out to be an outstanding actress.

The story of Queen of the Damned, of course, is already the ultimate when it comes to twisting conflicts and situations in vampire stories. Although I salute its makers for their very fertile imagination, I still thought it could have been written better – with the flow of the story more fluid. Since I didn’t get to read the book, I have no idea how Anne Rice wrote this one. But the way it unfolded on the screen, the story really needed more layers to the characters of both Lestat and Akasha.

And since the setting of Queen of the Damned is mostly contemporary, there is nothing really very scary in this supposedly horror movie.

Overall, Queen of the Damned is still a well-made film. But it comes out on screen like a damned sequel to Interview With the Vampire.