INTERVIEW
WITH THE VAMPIRE
Adapted by Neil Jordan
From the novel by Anne Rice
INT. ROOM. NIGHT (SAN FRANCISCO)
A small bare room, illuminated only
by the streetlight coming through the
window.
A hand presses a cassette into a recorder
and fiddles with a small microphone.
Malloy sits over a table fiddling with
the tape. He is young, half-shaven, dressed
in T shirt and jeans. He looks too --
LOUIS, who stands by the window,
looking out on the street, with his back
to Mallowy. Louis is dressed in an old-fashioned
suit.
LOUIS
So you want me to tell you the story
of my life...
MALLOY
That's what I do. I interview people.
I collect lives. F.M. radio. F.F.R.C.
I just interviewed a genuine hero, a cop
who -
LOUIS
(quietly interrupting)
You'd have to have a lot of tape for
my story. I've had a very unusual life.
MALLOY
So much the better. I've got a pocket
full of tapes.
LOUIS
You followed me here, didn't you?
MALLOY
Saw you in the street outside. You seemed
interesting. Is this where you live?
LOUIS
It's just a room...
MALLOY
So shall we begin?
(Playfully, almost teasing)
What do yo do?
LOUIS
I'm a vampire.
Malloy laughs.
MALLOY
See? I knew you were interesting. You
mean this literally, I take it?
LOUIS
Absolutely. I was watching you watching
me. I was waiting for you in that alleyway.
And then you began to speak.
MALLOY
Well, what a lucky break for me.
LOUIS
Perhaps lucky for both of us.
Still in shadow he turns from the window
and approaches the table.
LOUIS
I'll tell you my story. All of it. I'd
like to do that very much.
Malloy is uneasy as he studies the
shadowy figure, fascinated but afraid.
MALLOY
You were going to kill me? Drink my blood?
LOUIS
Yes but you needn't worry about that
now. Things change.
Louis stands opposite, hand on the
chair. Malloy is riveted.
MALLOY
You believe this, don't you? That you're
a vampire? You really think...
LOUIS
We can't begin this way. Let me turn
on the light.
MALLOY
But I thought vampires didn't like the
light.
LOUIS
We love it. I only wanted to prepare
you.
Louis pulls the chord of the overhead
naked light bulb.
LOUIS' FACE
appears inhumanly white, eyes glittering.
Inhuman or not alive. the effect is subtle,
beautiful and ghastly.
MALLOY
Good God!
He struggles to suppress fear and understand.
LOUIS
Don't be frightened. I want this opportunity.
The light appears to go out by itself
and suddenly Louis is in the chair, dimly
lit by the street-light from the window.
The cassette is turning.
MALLOY
How did you do that?
LOUIS
The same way you do it. A series of simple
gestures. Only I moved too fast for you
to see. I'm flesh and blood, you see.
But not human. I haven't been human for
two hundred years.
Malloy is speechless, frightened yet
enthralled.
LOUIS
What can I do to put you at ease? Shall
we begin like David Copperfield? I am
born, I grow up. Or shall we begin when
I was born to darkness, as I call it.
That's really where we should start, don't
you think?
MALLOY
You're not lying to me, are you?
LOUIS
Why should I lie? 1791 was the year it
happened. I was twenty-four - younger
than you are now.
MALLOY
Yes.
LOUIS
But times were different then. I was
a man at that age. The master of a large
plantation just south of New Orleans...
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. LOUISIANA. DAY. (1791)
A dishevelled Louis, hair in pigtail,
in deep pocket frock coat, rides his horse
through the fields of indigo, passing
an overseer and slaves at work.
He passes slave quarters and the distant
colonial mansion of Pointe du Lac.
He comes to a small parish church and
a graveyard. he dismounts and walks through
the tombs to an elaborate one in Greek
Style.
LOUIS (V.O.)
I had just lost my wife in childbirth.
She and the infant had been buried less
than half a year.
There is a marble angel above the tomb,
feminine, with a tiny cherub angel in
her arms. Louis looks from the angel,
down to the inscriptions on the tomb:
DIANNE DE POINTE DU LAC
1763 - 1791
INFANT JEAN MARIE - 1791
Louis rps away the vines already covering
the inscription, then drinks from a pocket-flask.
His face is ashen.
LOUIS (VO)
I was twenty-four and life seemed finished.
I couldn't bear the pain of thier loss.
I longed for a release from it.
INT. WATERFRONT TAVERN. NIGHT.
Louis in ragged lace and dirty brocade
sitting between two whores at a gaming
table, drinking absinthe. All around him
flatboatmen, whores, gamblers, black african
freedmen.
LOUIS (VO)
I wanted to lose everything. My wealth,
my estate, my sanity. But Lady Luck didn't
oblige.
Louis dsiplays a hand of four aces.
A gambler at the table stands in fury,
over turning money, cards, drinks.
LOUIS
You're calling me a cheat?
GAMBLER I'm calling you
a piece of shit -
The gambler pulls out a pearl-handled
pistol and points it at Louis. The crowd
hushes and draws back. Louis smiles drunkenly
and stands. he rips open his lace shirt,
exposing his chest.
LOUIS
Then do me a favour. Get rid of this
piece of shit...
The gambler's finger on the trigger.
His hand shakes.
LOUIS
You lack the courage of your convictions,
sir. Do it.
LESTAT, a hooded figure in the corner,
smiles from beneath the shadow of his
hood. Gleaming blue eyes.
LOUIS (VO)
Most of all I longed for death. I know
that now. I invited it, a release from
the pain of living...
The gambler lowers his gun, scowling.
Louis pockets the fistfulls of coins he
has won.
EXT. WATERFRONT. NIGHT.
Loud, crowded riverfront taverns full
of ruffians. Louis staggers down, an arm
around a whore, drinking from a bottle.
A pockmarked pimp follows behind.
LOUIS
My invitation was open to anyone. Sailors,
thieves, whores and slaves...
EXT. WHARF. NIGHT.
Louis, quite insensible, being propped
up against a wall by the whore in a dank
wharf over the water. The pimp rifles
his pockets, then pulss a knife, about
to slice his throat, when a shadow falls
over him. He turns, and we see the face
of Lestat, who lifts him into the air
by his throat, breaking his neck. the
whore screams and Lestat's other hand
clamps over her mouth. Lestat drags her
towards him. Louis falls to the ground,
supported no more, insensible. Close on
his face, as we hear the last breaths
of life of the whore, off.
LOUIS (VO)
But it was a vampire that accepted.
IN THE WATER -
The bodies of the thief and whore float
by. Above on the wharf, Louis, now awake,
stares down at them. He turns, to see
Lestat, towering above him.
LESTAT
They would have killed you -
LOUIS
Then my luck would have changed.
LESTAT
You want death? Is it death you want?
LOUIS
Yes...
Lestat floats down on top of him, then
lifts him in the air, draws his head back
by the hair and sinks his teeth in his
neck.
ON LOUIS' FACE - every muscle rigid,
teeth clenched, as the blood is drained
from him.
ON THIER FEET - hovering above
the ground, like two quivering dancers.
THE WIND - billows through the
ghostly white sails and rigging of the
boats around the wharf.
LESTAT - floats higher, with Louis
in his arms, draining his blood. One hand
reaches out and grips a rope, hanging
from a shipmast. The other holds Louis.
He withdraws his teeth, and looks into
Louis' drained face.
LESTAT
You still want death? Or have you tasted
it enough?
Louis can barely get the words out.
LOUIS
Enough...
Lestat smiles and lets him go. Louis
falls and plummets into the water below.
LOUIS' FACE - coming to the surface,
in the water lapping by the wharf. The
bodies of the whore and thief float beside
him. He looks up and sees Lestat way above
him, dangling from the rope of the shipmast.
INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO.
ON MALLOY'S FACE
captivated, terrified, enthralled.
MALLOY
That's how it happened?
LOUIS
No. The Gift of Darkness requires more
than that, as you'll see.
EXT. WATERFRONT. DAY.
Louis floating by mudflats, surrounded
by dead fish, the carcases of animals,
eighteenth century rubbish. He gets to
his feet and walks weakly through the
mudflats. The sun is coming up over the
sea behind him.
LOUIS (VO)
He left me half dead that morning. he
wanted something from me. He came back
the following night.
INT. LAVISH FRENCH-FURNISHED BEDROOM AT
POINT DU LAC.
Louis is delerious in a four-poster
bed, shrouded with mosquito netting. A
female slave, YVETTE, bathes his
face with a rag. She is crying. Other
slave women hover in the shadows. Yvette
puts out all candles save one by the bed,
and withdraws, with the others.
Candlelight flickers on the face of the
bisque virgin.
Louis tosses and turns, dreaming, murmuring
incoherently. Then he opens his eyes.
LESTAT, exquisitely dressed in
French clothing, stands by the bed smiling.
In the light of the candle we see that
he is not human; skin too white; eyes
too bright. Lestat looks amiable, even
mischevious, but impossible - and angel
or monster.
Louis grabs his pistol from the table
and cocks it.
LOUIS
Who the hell are you? What are you doing
in my house?
LESTAT
And a beautiful house it is too. Yours
is a good life, isn't it?
Louis takes aim. Lestat puts his hand
over the barrel. Louis fires. The bullet
tears a hole in Lestat's hand. Lestat
is unfazed. He takes the gun from Louis'
hand and throws it away. His hand begins
to heal.
LESTAT
You're not afraid of anything, are you?
LOUIS
Why should I be?
Louis reaches for his sword, hanging
by the bed, and point it. Lestat laughs
indulgently. He draws closer.
LESTAT
Are you going to put that through me
too? Ruin my beautiful clothes?
He comes closer to Louis, right up
to his face, so the sword passes through
his waistcoat.
LESTAT
Were all last night's promises for nothing?
He reaches out with his now-healed
hand and plucks out the sword.
LOUIS
What do you want from me?
LESTAT
I've come to answer your prayers. You
want to die, don't you? Life has no meaning
anymore, does it?
Lestat sits down on the bed, drawing
up one knee. Louis is becoming spellbound.
LESTAT
The wine has no taste. The food sickens
you. There seems no reason for any of
it, does there? But what if I could give
it back to you? Pluck out the pain and
give you another life? And it would be
for all time? And sickeness and death
could never touch you again?
The vampire theme rises, with the sound
of a heartbeat. Dissolve to:
EXT. GRAVEYARD. NIGHT.
The camera drifts through the graveyard
where Louis' wife is buring. Everything
is lit with an eery glow, as if seen through
some unearthly eye.
LESTAT
Vampires, that's what we are. Creatures
of darkness, only we see it that darkness
more clearly than any mortal has ever
seen...
Louis and Lestat drifting, dreamlike,
through the overhanging vines, comes to
the grave of his wife and child. Above
the crypt, the statue of angel, mother
and child.
LESTAT
Wouldn't it be sweet to bid pain goodbye?
To wave away anguish and grief? To embrace
the peace of the unending night?
The marble fingers of the child on
the statue move. The angel raises her
head and has the face of Louis wife, Diane.
she raises her hand and touches Louis
tear-streamed face. The child speaks.
MARBLE CHILD
Papa...
Louis reaches out to embrace them and
finds himself touching cold marble. He
cries out in anguish-
LOUIS
Diane!!!!
LESTAT
They are gone, Louis. Death took them.
Death which you can now destroy...
LOUIS
NO!!!!!
INT. LOUIS BEDROOM. NIGHT.
Louis, thrashing on the bed in a delerium.
Lestat places a hand on his forehead and
soothes him.
LESTAT
You have to ask me for this. You have
to want it, do you hear me?
LOUIS
Give it to me!!!
LESTAT
Vampires. We thrive on blood.
LOUIS
I want it!
Lestat bends close as if to drink Louis'
blood. Louis does not shrink back, but
stares into his eyes. Lestat draws back,
then stands up and goes to the French
doors.
LESTAT
Tomorrow night. You must prove yourself.
I will give you the choice I never had.
He looks outside.
LESTAT
The sun's coming up. Watch it carefully.
If you come with me tomorrow, you'll never
see it again.
He leaves. Louis sits dazed, staring
at the empty French window. The sun rises
with unnatural beauty, over the swamplands
and the plantation, filling the room,
striking water-pitcher, glass, mirror,
and the picture of his dead wife.
LOUIS (VO)
My last sunrise. That morning I was not
yet a vampire, and I saw my last sunrise.
I remember it completely, yet I don't
remember any sunrise before it. I watched
the whole magnificence of the dawn for
the last time, as if it were the first.
And the I said goodbye to sunlight and
went out to become what I became.
EXT. PLANTATION. NIGHT.
Lestat and Louis walk through the slave
quarters, huddles groups around fires,
music, singing. The sound of whipping
is heard.
LESTAT
Your grief has unhinged you. You've let
your estate rot.
In the woods beyond the quarters, the
white overseer is whipping a black slave,
with horrifying savagery.
LESTAT
You let your overseer run riot, work
your slaves to the bone. We'll start with
him.
LOUIS
How do you mean, start?
LESTAT
Call him.
Louis calls.
LOUIS
Carlos!!!
The overseer turns and comes towards
them, with the bloodied whip.
LESTAT
Why the bloody whip, Carlos?
The overseer looks into his eyes, shivers
with terror, drops the whip and runs for
the trees. Lestat is on him in an instant.
He sinks is teeth in his neck. Louis runs
to him, tries to pull him off. But Lestat
turns to Louis and smiles, with his bloodied
mouth.
LESTAT
Let's call that a start.
LOUIS
I can't do it.
LESTAT
You've just done it -
LOUIS
Kill me if you will, but I can't do this...
He flees, as Lestat ends to finish
off the overseer.
EXT. POINTE DU LAC. NIGHT.
Louis running up the steps leading
to the gallery. He is crazed with guilt.
He looks up and sees -
LESTAT --
Sitting collected at the head of the
steps.
LOUIS
Backs away as Lestat rises and descends
the steps so fluidly he hardly seems to
move.
LESTAT
Don't worry. He was white trash, they
come at two a penny. I dumped him in the
swamp and untied the slave, licked his
wounds clean.
LOUIS
You're the devil, aren't you? That's
who you are.
LESTAT (GENTLY)
I wish I were. But if I were, what would
I want with you?
LOUIS
I can't go through with it, I tell you.
LESTAT
Your perfect. Your bitter and you're
strong.
LOUIS
But why do you want me?
LESTAT
Because you're as strong as I was when
I was alive.
Louis takes out his flask and drinks.
Drunkely, he turns and heads for a nearby
swamp.
EXT. CEMETERY. NIGHT.
Louis stops again in front of the crypt.
Drinks from the flask, leans his forehead
against the stone.
Lestat appears beside him, radiant, beautiful.
LESTAT
You really want to be with them?
LOUIS
Yes. Kill me. Kill me like you promised
-
LESTAT
You asked for death. I didn't promise
it -
In a quiet rage, Lestat raise his fist
and shatters the marble face stone, revealing
a coffin below. His fist shatters that
in turn, revealing the half-rotted body
of a women, holding an infant, no longer
recognisable as individuals, a tangle
of gruesome rotted hair, flesh, eaten
away lace, insects and worms crawling
over it.
Louis gasps.
LESTAT
It's not your wife and child my friend.
It's death. Just that simple. Think and
choose. It happens to everyone. Except
us.
Lestat stares at him, smiling, becoming
a hazy dreamlike vision, then hyperclear.
Louis again is spellbound. He drops the
flask, which shatters on the stones.
Lestat appears angelic in his radiance.
LESTAT
We shall be this way always, my friend.
Young as we are now. I'm lonely for a
companion, lonely for your strength. But
I'm not that lonely. Do you want to come
or not?
Louis capitulates in one long sigh.
LOUIS
Yes...
Lestat comes closer, smiling.
LESTAT
Did I hear a yes?
LOUIS
Yes...
Lestat embraces Louis, obscuring his
face. He drinks his blood. We hear two
heartbeats, out of sync, coming together.
We see Louis' face, growing paler, paler,
as his blood is drained. His eyes stare
upwards, losing thier focus.
LOUIS POV --
The moon, through hanging vines. The
marble statue of his wife and child smile
at him, as if come alive. Her hair blows
in the breeze, wonderful gold tresses,
the child's fingers reach out...
BACK TO SCENE
Lestat lets Louis fall down beside
the broken crypt. Louis looks from the
rotting bodies to Lestat above him. radiant.
Lestat speaks gently.
LESTAT
I've drained you to the point of death.
If you drink from me you live for ever.
If I leave you here you die.
Lestat lifts his hand to his lips and
blows Louis a kiss.
LOUIS
No. Don't leave me here. Give it to me.
Lestat lifts his own right wrist to
his teeth. Fangs slash his own flesh,
blood falls.
LESTAT
You're sure?
LOUIS
Sure...
Louis rises to accept the first drops
with his open mouth. Lestat gathers him
up, as Louis clamps his hand on Lestat's
arm and drinks from the wrist.
The VAMPIRE THEME swells.
Lestat watches him drink his wrist with
wry amusement. Louis finishes, staggers
away from him as if drunk.
LOUIS' POV -
Vampire vision. The world is transformed,
the swamp, the moon, the clouds, the cry
of the night birds all come to him with
unnatural clarity. He looks down with
pity at the corpses of his wife and child
who appear beautiful in death now rather
than repulsive. He closes the lid of the
coffin and replaces it in the ground,
astonished at the ease of it.
He turns and stares at Lestat whom he
sees now with vampire's vision. Lestat's
eyes are brighter, his buttons are glimmering
in the light. Everything is clearer, brighter,
containing more facets of light and colour.
LESTAT
Stop staring at my buttons. Didn't I
tell you it was going to be fun?
Lestat leads him into the swamp. Everything
astonished Louis, as if he's never seen
it before. Louis is suddenly racked by
shudders of pain.
LESTAT
You're body's dying. Pay no attention.
It will take twenty minutes at most.
LOUIS
Dying?
Louis dry-retches.
LESTAT
It happens to us all.
Lestat wipes Louis' brow.
LESTAT
Come, you're going to feed now.
LOUIS
I want a woman.
Lestat laughs and his laughter echoes
like bells in Louis' ears.
LESTAT
That doesn't matter anymore, Louis. You'll
see. Come...
LOUIS' VAMPIRE POV - SWAMP
Small high ground. Camp of runaway
slaves. Several share a bottle of rum
around the fire. A male slave rises. A
gorgeous hunk of flesh in the moonlight
and goes into the swamp to relieve his
bladder.
LESTAT
They're all beautiful now. Men, women,
the old, the young...simply because they
are alive. -
The slave walks towards them in the
darkness. A crucifix gleams round his
neck.
LESTAT
Take him.
LOUIS
The crucifix -
LESTAT
Forget the crucifix. Take him.
Louis hesitates.
LESTAT
Resist no more Louis. Feed...
The slave looks up and sees them. Two
gleaming white beings standing before
him with devil's eyes. The he runs.
Louis can resist him no more. He swoops
on him with a vampire's rapid movement,
brings him to the ground and sinks his
teeth in his neck.
Close on Louis feeding on the slave, the
magnificent body shuddering in its death-throes.
Lestat stands above, laughing.
The slave dies. Louis rises from him,
drunkenly, engorged with blood.
LOUIS
What have I done?
LESTAT
You have fed. You were made for this...
Louis looks down at the body of the
slave. Lestat's laughter echoes around
him.
LOUIS
Dear God, what have I done?
LESTAT
You've killed Louis. And enjoyed it.
Lestat laughs harder. Louis runs from
him, screaming in anguish.
EXT. GRAVEYARD. NIGHT.
Louis reaches his wife's grave. He
falls to his knees, throws back his head
and bares his new fangs to the moon.
LOUIS
Dear God, what have I become????
INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO. NIGHT.
Malloy stares at Louis, terrified and
enthralled.
MALLOY
You said the slave had a crucifix...
LOUIS
Oh, that rumour about crosses?
MALLOY
You can't look at them...
LOUIS
Nonsense, my friend. I can look on anything
I like. And I am particularly fond of
looking on crucifixes.
MALLOY
The story about stakes through the heart?
LOUIS
The same. As you would say today... Bull
shit.
MALLOY
What about coffins?
LOUIS
Coffins... coffins unfortunately are
a necessity...
EXT. MANSION. NIGHT.
Louis walks up the steps to the mansion.
He looks now like a fully-fledged vampire.
Yvette, the slave girl stares at him from
the open doorway. Cascades of harpsichord
music come from the interior.
LOUIS (VO)
Killing is no ordinary act. It is the
experience of another's life for certain.
That night I had lost my own life and
taken another's. I was drowning in a sea
of human guilt and regret, with all the
heightened senses of a vampire...
Louis enters the mansion, following
the harpsichord music, as if in a dream.
Yvette draws back as he approaches.
INT. MANSION. NIGHT.
Louis wanders into the parlour, where
Lestat is playing the harpsichord rapidly
and exuberantly. Louis goes to a full-length
mirror and sees his own reflection there
- quite the perfect vampire.
LESTAT
Yes, that's you, my handsome friend.
And you'll look that way till the stars
fall from heaven.
LOUIS
It can't be...
LESTAT
Give it time. You're like a man who loses
a limb and still imagines he feels pain.
It will pass. And we must sleep now. I
can feel the sun approaching.
EXT. POINTE DU LAC.
Dawn spreading over the plantation.
INT. BASEMENT. POINTE DU LAC.
A brick walled storage room. Two coffins
stand on the floor. Lestat enters with
a lantern, Louis behind. Lestat is apprehensive
and protective of Louis. He pulls back
one lid ot reveal a satin interior.
LESTAT
You must get into it. It's the only safe
place for you when the light comes.
LOUIS
And if I don't?
LESTAT
The sun will destroy the blood I've given
you. Every tissue, every vein. The fire
in this lantern could do that too.
Louis approaches the coffin, hands
trembling as he peers into it.
LESTAT
Don't be afraid. In moments you'll be
sleeping as soundly as you ever slept.
And when you awake I'll be waiting for
you, and so will all the world.
Louis crawls into the coffin, fearful
yet fascinated.
LOUIS
You told me something earlier. You said
you didn't have a choice. Was that true?
Lestat smiles bitterly and nods.
LESTAT
Someday I'll tell you. We have a lot
of time to talk to each other. You might
say... we have all the time we shall ever
need.
He closes the lid.
Total darkness. Sounds of Louis' panicked
breathing. Of his prayer again.
LOUIS
Dear God, what have I done?
INT. DINING ROOM. NIGHT.
Louis and Lestat sitting at a sumptuous
table, piled with uneaten food. Lestat
is going through sheafs of documents.
LOUIS (VO)
I awoke the next evening to a different
world. And I realized there are as profound
differences between vampires as between
human beings...
Lestat, totting up figures on a piece
of paper.
LESTAT
Your wealth, dear Louis, is inestimable.
Your income from cotton alone will keep
us in comfort for a century.
Louis just stares at him.
LOUIS (VO)
I sat there staring at him with contempt.
He had the soul of a shopkeeper, he was
the sow's ear out of which nothing fine
could be made. I felt sadly cheated in
having him as a teacher...
Lestat looks up at him and grins.
LESTAT
You'll get used to killing. Just forget
about that mortal coil. You'll become
accustomed to things all too quickly.
LOUIS
Do you think so?
Yvette enters, stands behind him, staring
at Lestat with loathing.
YVETTE
You are not hungry, sir...
LESTAT
Au contraire, my dear. He could eat a
horse...
Lestat laughs loudly. Louis turns and
looks at Yvette. Her beautiful forehead
in the candlelight, the veins pulsing
on her neck and her hands.
LOUIS (VO)
I looked at anything mortal and saw all
life as precious, condemning all fruitless
guilt and passion that would let it slip
through the fingers like sand...
Yvette returns his stare, troubled.
LOUIS (VO)
It was only as a vampire that I could
see Yvette's beauty. Her fear of me increased
my desire.
Yvette reaches for his uneaten plate.
Louis stops her hand. Holds it for a beat
too long, looking at the veins in her
wrist.
LOUIS
I will finish it, Yvette. Now leave us.
She turns and runs from the table.
Lestat leans towards him.
LESTAT
Can't you pretend, you fool? Don't give
the game away. We're lucky to have such
a home.
His hand snakes out under the table.
It comes up holding a large grey rat.
LESTAT
Pretend to drink, at least.
He bares his fangs and slices the rat's
throat. He pours the blood into a crystal
glass.
LESTAT
Such fine crystal shouldn't go to waste...
He hands the glass to Louis. Louis
drinks the blood and stares at it in surprise,
then at the dead rat on the fine lace
tablecloth.
LESTAT
I know. It gets cold so fast.
LOUIS
We can live like this? Off the blood
of animals?
Lestat shrugs.
LESTAT
I wouldn't call it living. I'd call it
surviving. A useful trick if you're caught
for a month on a ship at sea.
Lestat strokes the belly of the dead
rat, studying it sadly.
LESTAT
There's nothing in the world now that
doesn't hold some...
LOUIS
Fascination...
LESTAT
Yes. And I'm bored with this prattle
--
He throws the rat away.
LOUIS
But we can live without taking human
life. It's possible.
LESTAT
Anything is possible. But just try it
for a week. Come into New Orleans and
let me show you some real sport!
He rises. Louis follows.
EXT. NEW ORLEANS. NIGHT.
A big, lavish drinking place with a
raised stage.
Italian actors in buffoonish costumes
act crude commedia dell'arte on the stage.
Plantation owners in soiled brocade, lace,
crooked wigs watch the show as tavern
wenches move about.
LOUIS (VO)
This was New Orleans, a magical and magnificent
place to live. In which a vampire, richly
dressed might attract no more notice in
the evening than hundreds of other exotic
creatures.
Louis and Lestat by a table, in the
shadow of a tree. Teresa, a tavern wench,
sits on Lestat's lap, pouring drinks for
the two of them. She lifts a fresh glass
to Lestat's lips as he flirts with her.
TERESA
Come on, mon cher. The best in the colony.
Once you touch this you'll never go to
any other tavern again.
LESTAT
You think so, cherie? But what if I'd
rather taste your lips?
TERESA
My lips are even sweeter still...
She kisses him. He lets his tongue
play with hers, then runs it down her
neck. She swoons with pleasure. Then he
sinks his teeth gently in her neck, looking
playfully behind at Louis, who if apalled
and fascinated.
ANTICS ON THE STAGE
Laughter rocks the tavern.
Lestat slips the pale and dead Teresa
into a chair beside him and folds her
hands on the table. No one notices. He
lays gold coins on the table and touches
Louis' knee.
LESTAT
Let's get out of here!
Lestat rushes out, thrilled with himself.
EXT. TAVERN. NIGHT.
A crowded street. Louis and Lestat
emerge from the tavern. Louis looks up
at the moon.
LOUIS
Have you ever been caught?
LESTAT
Of course not. It's so easy you almost
feel sorry for them.
They walk down the crowded night street,
full of ladies in their finery, freed
slaves, whores, sailors etc.
LOUIS (VO)
Lestat killed two, sometimes three a
night. A fresh young girl, that was his
favourite for the first of the evening.
INT. FRENCH QUARTER MANSION -- BALLROOM
Small orchestra plays for colonial
couples in fine wig and garb prancing
to a French minuet. Young women sit in
chairs along the walls with their chaperones.
Young men stand opposite.
LOUIS (VO)
But the triumphant kill of Lestat was
a young man. They represented the greatest
loss to Lestat because they stood on the
threshold of the maximum possibility of
life.
A youth of preternatural beauty, sillhouetted
against French windows. He is talking
to an elegan widow, seated, holding two
manicured poodles. Lestat stares at the
youth with longing.
LESTAT
The trick is not to think about it. See
that one? The widow St. Clair? she had
that gorgeous young fop murder her husband.
She's perfect for you. Go ahead.
LOUIS
But how do you know?
LESTAT
Read her thoughts.
LOUIS
I can't.
LESTAT
The dark gift is different for each of
us. But one thing is true of everyone.
We grow stronger as we go along.
He leads Louis closer to them.
LESTAT
Take my word for it. She blamed a slave
for his murder. And do you know what they
did to him?
He smiles at the young man, who smiles
in return.
LESTAT
The evildoers are easier. And they taste
better...
EXT. LAWNS. NIGHT.
Lestat walks the youth towards a copse
of trees. He looks back at Louis, who
holds both poodles on a delicate leash,
walking with the widow. The minuet spills
from the french windows.
WIDOW ST. CLAIR
Now, young man, you really amaze me!
I'm old enough to be your grandmother.
She leans towards him concquettishly.
Louis, crazed with hunger, sees her as
beautiful in the moonlight. He allows
her lips reach his. He takes her in his
arms, gently, romantically, and sinks
in his teeth. She swoons.
WIDOW ST. CLAIR
Yes, that's the melody, I remember it.
Oh yes...
Louis draws his lips away. She is weak
in his arms, but still alive. He can't
do it. The poodles growl. He shotts out
an arm and grabs one, then the other.
EXT. TREES. NIGHT.
Lestat, bending over the body of the
dead youth. A scream pierces the night.
WIDOW ST CLAIR
Murder!!! Murderer!!
EXT. LAWNS. NIGHT
The widow on the grass, her poodles
dead beside her. Louis is trying to quiet
her.
WIDOW ST CLAIR
My little papillions! My butterflies!!!
He killed them!!!
Lestat comes from nowhere, claps a
hand over her mouth and breaks her neck.
He spits in fury at Louis.
LESTAT
You whining coward of a vampire who prowls
the night killing rats and poodles. You
could have finished us both!
Louis throws himself on Lestat with
extraordinary force, pummelling him towards
the trees.
LOUIS
What have you done to me? You've condemned
me to hell.
LESTAT
I don't know any hell -
Louis hurls him against tree after
tree with a strength he never knew he
had.
LOUIS
You want to see me kill? Watch me kill
you then -
He drags him to the ground an throttles
him. Lestat looks up at him, amazed and
amused at the same time.
LESTAT
What strength, my friend, what strength.
I remember why I chose you now.
Lestat squirms from his grip, seemingly
effortlessly.
LESTAT
But you can't kill me, Louis. Nor I you.
He ruffles Louis' hair, with wry affection.
LESTAT
Feed on what you want, mon cherie. Rats,
chickens, doves, goats. I'll leave you
to it and watch you come round. Just remember,
life without me would be even more unbearable...
He smiles. A sly, pleasureable secret
secret smile.
EXT. POINTE DU LAC. NIGHT.
Their carriage draws up to the mansion
as the first fingers of light spread across
the sky.
LOUIS (VO)
Being a vampire to him meant revenge.
Revenge against life-itself. Every time
he took a life it was revenge. and the
slaves with a wisdom that was denied their
masters, began to notice...
INT. SLAVE-HUT. NIGHT.
In a tiny cabin, a slave family. Kids
sleeping on the floor, in cribs and cots.
The parents sleep on the bed, young, beautiful,
naked. Beside them is Lestat, who is drinking
the husband's blood, his hand playing
across the breast of the wife as he does
so. She murmurs in her sleep.
WIFE
Yes... please...
She grabs his fingers and kisses them,
thinking him to be her husband. Lestat
gently disengages himself and leaves.
EXT. SLAVE-HUT. NIGHT.
The woman's scream pierces the sky,
as Lestat walks into the night.
EXT. CHICKEN-COOP. NIGHT.
Every chicken is dead, bloodies necks
hanging down from the cribs. Louis emerges
from the entrance, blood on his lips.
He hears the scream.
EXT. SLAVE QUARTER. NIGHT.
The sound of drumming is heard, african,
primal. The woman runs through the quarters,
screaming grief. Others gather at doorways,
restrain and console her.
EXT. DOVE-COTE. DAY.
A beautiful, elaborate eighteenth century
dove-cote. Every dove inside is dead,
pierced at the neck. A balck hand throws
in a flaming torch and it bursts into
flame.
INT. CABIN. NIGHT.
A doll, made in the image of Lestat,
is pierced with needles.
EXT. SWAMP BY FIELDS. DAY.
Bodies of slaves floating in the swamp,
with the bodies of goats. Slaves at the
edge throw ropes around the bodies, pull
them towards the shore. The drumming grows
louder.
EXT. SLAVE-QUARTERS. NIGHT.
Louis walking through. The slaves hush
as he appraoches, gather in doorways and
whipser. He turns and looks at them, sorrowfully.
He looks truly like a ghost. Their eyes
turn away when they meet his. He walks
on.
INT. DINING ROOM IN MANSION. NIGHT.
Lestat and Louis sit at the table,
the untouched food between them.
LESTAT
Consider yourself lucky. In Paris a vampire
has to be clever for many reasons. Here
all one needs is a pair of fangs.
LOUIS
Paris? You came from Paris?
LESTAT
As did the one who made me.
LOUIS
Tell me about him. You must have lernt
something from him! It had to happen for
you as it did for me!
LESTAT
I learnt absolutely nothing. I wasn't
give a choice, remember?
LOUIS
But you must know something about the
meaning of it all, you must know where
we come from, why we...
Lestat spits out in anger.
LESTAT
Why? Why should I know these things?
Do you know them?
The drumming grows outside.
LESTAT (gripping his
temples)
That noise! It's driving me mad! We've
been in the country for weeks, with nothing
but that noise!!!
LOUIS
They know about us. They see us dine
on empty plates and drink from empty glasses.
LESTAT
Come the New Orleans then. There's an
opera on tonight. A real french opera!
We can dine in splendour!
LOUIS
I respect life, don't you see? For each
and every human life I have respect.
LESTAT
Respect me a little then. I'm the only
life you know.
Louis stares. Lestat turns childishly,
petulantly.
LESTAT
You'll soon run out of chickens, Louis...
He walks out, humming a French aria.
Louis stares at his plate.
EXT. SLAVE QUARTERS. NIGHT.
The slaves, gathered on mass around
fires. Frenzied drumming, dancing. Lestat
rides through, scattering the flames.
The drumming stops. The slaves look towards
the house. Slowly, they begin to move
towards it.
INT. POINTE DU LAC DINING ROOM. NIGHT.
Louis, sitting in despair by the table.
Yvette, the slave girl enters.
YVETTE
Michi Louis? You don't want any supper?
Louis laughs harshly.
LOUIS
No, ma cher. I need no supper. Is all
well at Pointe Du Lac tonight?
Yvette draws closer. Light reveals
her beauty.
YVETTE
We worry about you master. When do you
ride about the fields? How long since
you've been to the slave quarters? Everywhere
there is death. Animals, men. Are you
our master still at all?
Louis watches her sadly. He's getting
hungry. Her throat is long and slender,
her breasts are gorgeous.
LOUIS (dazed)
Leave me alone now, Yvette.
YVETTE
I will not go unless you listen to me.
Send away this new friend of yours. The
slaves are frightenend of him. They are
frightenend of you.
She comes closer, and he can hear her
beating heart. She touches his hair. He
takes her hand and brings it to his lips.
LOUIS
I am frightened of myself, Yvette.
He kisses her wrist. She suddenly gasps,
sharply, withdraws her hand. She sees
her wrist is red with blood. She sees
the blood on his lips. She screams.
Louis stands.
LOUIS
Hush, Yvette -
She screams even louder. Louis clamps
his hand over her mouth. Her hand grips
the table-cloth, pulls, bringing the empty
glasses and crockery to the floor.
In horror, Louis realises he has broken
her neck. He brings her cut wrist to his
lips, then drops it, revolted. He carries
her body outside, grief-stricken.
The drumming grows louder.
EXT. MANSION. NIGHT.
Fires burning in the distance, round
the slave-cabins. The slaves are gathered
at the foot of the mansion steps. They
see Louis come out, holding the body of
Yvette. He is deranged with grief.
LOUIS
This place is cursed. Damned, do you
hear me? And your master is the devil.
He places the body of Yvette in a rocking
chair on the varanda.
LOUIS
Get out while you can. You're free men.
They don't move. They stare at him
blankly.
LOUIS
Unlike me, you are no free men...
He turns behind him, and looks at the
mansion, all candleabra and chandeliers
lighted, all windows open.
LOUIS
Do I have to convince you?
He rushed up the stairs, snatches up
the candleabra and sets fire to the drapes.
He goes from window to window, lighting
drapes, lace curtains, everything.
SLAVES POV -- MASTER
Setting fire to the house.
They rush up the stairs with shouts of
"STOP HIM, HE'S MAD". A wall of flame
gushes out from the interior, blocking
their way.
INT. BURNING MANSION. NIGHT.
Louis, wandering from room to room
of the burning mansion. he sees paintings
of his wife consumed by the flames. He
is weakening with the fumes, the heat.
We can see this in his face, the texture
of his skin.
Suddenly a large french window cascades
inwards and Lestat stands there, whip
in hand. Behind him we can see the morning
sky.
LESTAT
You fool, what have you done?
LOUIS
What you wouldn't do. It's almost sunrise.
It will be the sun or the fire. You said
they can kill me. The sun or the fire!
Louis stands there, weakened, then
collapses onto the floor. Lestat darts
