Michael Rymer stages high-tech sequences combining gore, romance, and gothy music, and he has enough conviction to make what could have been very silly strangely provocative.
The Queen of the Damned (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:127
Fresh:21
Rotten:106
Average Rating:3.9/10
Consensus: A muddled and campy MTV-styled vampire movie with lots of eye candy and bad accents.
Theatrical Release:Feb 22, 2002 Wide
Box Office: $30,257,994
Synopsis: A deep, dark, stylistic adaptation of the book by Anne Rice from her hugely popular series of vampire novels, THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED is like a Nine Inch Nails rock video. Undernourished goth club... A deep, dark, stylistic adaptation of the book by Anne Rice from her hugely popular series of vampire novels, THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED is like a Nine Inch Nails rock video. Undernourished goth club kids are the focus of the film and they all look great with piercings, net t-shirts, tattoos, dyed hair, and dour facial expressions. The film follows the celebrity rock star Vampire Lestat (Stuart Townsend), who has emerged from 200 years of solitude to show his face--and his vampire powers--to the world. He has assembled a goth band, makes regular media appearances, and has enchanted the world with his otherworldly mystique. In addition, he has planned one of the most controversial publicity stunts of all eternity: he is holding a one-night rock concert in California's Death Valley, inviting all vampires young and old (along with his extensive fan-base of mortals) to join him. As a side bar to this activity, the mortal Jesse, a young woman who works for the Talamasca society studying paranormal occurrences, has found a secret portal to the vampire world: a London pub where vamps hang out. There she meets Lestat and is instantly smitten with him, insisting on travelling to Death Valley to see his concert. Also en route to the show is the sleek and sexy Egyptian mother of all vampires Queen Akasha (Aaliyah), who has recently arisen from a 2,000-year nap in order to unleash hell on earth. From a distance, a wise band of vampires watch telepathically as Akasha, Lestat, and Jesse converge in Death Valley. But what nobody knows is that the headstrong Lestat, who is the most impulsive and irresponsible of immortal beings but practically a god in the eyes of mortals, is the only one who can defeat Akasha and save the world. [More]
Starring: Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Perez
Starring: Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Perez, Lena Olin
Director: Michael Rymer
Director: Michael Rymer
Screenwriter: Scott Abbott, Giulio Petroni
Producer: Jorge Saralegui
Composer: Richard Gibbs
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for The Queen of the Damned
It isn't great entertainment or camp, but pic sets its ambitions so low, it can't help partially delivering on them.
Aaliyah makes a brief but memorable posthumous appearance about an hour into the nearly incoherent proceedings, which are riddled with unintentional guffaws.
Perhaps the sole reason to see this film is to pay final tribute to Aaliyah. Too bad it isn’t a better movie.
Wishy-washy and hampered by cliche, sitting through this is like enduring a vampire life: it's one long wait for the end.
Overall this horror picture, based on Rice's novel, is no good, but lead stuart Townsend gives a far more compelling (and properly campy) performance than Tom Cruise did as Lestat in the high-profile companion piece, Interview With the Vampire.
Rice's complex, sprawling novel is rendered virtually incomprehensible by a combination of lacklustre direction, risible dialogue and shoddy effects.
Queen of the Damned is not a good film, but it's definitely a watchable one.
Tom Cruise had the good sense to stay away from reprising his role of Lestat in this film.
Aaliyah steals the show as a villainous vampiric vixen in an otherwise ludicrous waste of a story.
This film should have stayed in its coffin and never seen the light of day.
...the film's disjointed narrative makes it near impossible to ever become completely engrossed.
Anne Rice goes heavy metal in Hollywood's latest installment of bloodsucker cinema.
For a horror film that is supposed to have thrills and lots of gore, one is left feeling they went to see a comedy for all the nonsense there is.
Latest News for The Queen of the Damned
December 18, 2008:
Twilight and History's Coolest Vampires - An RT Guide
With the teenage nice guy vampire of Twilight catching the hearts of 12-16-year-old girls all over the world, it's time to cast a backward glance at style-leading vampire... More...
February 27, 2008:
Anne Rice Says Her Vampire Chronicles Aren't Finished
In 2005, Anne Rice told the world she was finished writing about vampires -- but fans who lamented the end of her Vampire Chronicles may have something to celebrate. More...
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