Queen of the Damned film review

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QUEEN OF THE DAMNED

It's ironic that Akasha, Queen of the Undead, is played by someone who's dead. Aaliyah's premature death is only one of several tragedies befalling this camp rock horror movie that takes itself more seriously than anyone else could. Dracula must be turning in his grave. Anne Rice has often moaned that her books rarely make a successful transition from the page to the screen and this latest example is unlikely to change her mind.

Irishman Stuart Townsend is the latest incarnation of Lestat de Lioncourt, hero of Rice's Vampire Chronicles. His relative anonymity makes him easier to accept in the role of the flamboyant vampire than Tom Cruise before him, but no amount of obscurity could make the sight of a shirtless, leather-trousered vampire fronting a Spinal Tap-esque group any less ridiculous. Things have come a long way since Bela Lugosi, but not necessarily for the better. There's nothing scary about a vampire who looks like Jim Morrison.

Throughout, Townsend's Lestat utters breathy pearls of blood sucking wisdom like, "Immortality seems like a good idea until you realise you're going to spend it on your own". Or, "Vampires don't settle old scores, we harbour them". It's difficult to gauge what tone director Michael Rymer is aiming for with Queen Of The Damned. It's too funny to be a horror movie, but not funny enough to be a comedy. I suspect that on the whole the humour is unintentional because when it is intended, as in the moment Lestat mocks the dated outfit of his old mentor Marius (Vincent Perez) by asking, "How did you slip through the 50's in red velvet?", the result is more awkward than amusing.

In this latest episode of Lestat's adventures, he is disillusioned with the low profile vampires are expected to maintain. He becomes the singer in a goth group whose music is described as "sex, blood and rock and roll", and urges his fellow creatures of the night to "come out, come out, wherever you are", and join him in the spotlight. His celebrity brings him to the attention of Jesse Reeves (Marguerite Moreau), a member of a London-based paranormal study group, who finds herself irresistibly drawn to the handsome and rebellious vampire.