Without Anne Rice, vampires might have quit European and American pop culture long ago.
In 1975, Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire was published, injecting new blood into the genre, which had lasted for more than two hundred years.
The first edition of "Night Interview with Vampires"
"Twilight", "True Blood", "The Vampire Diaries", "The First Vampire", "Blood Family"... The vampire-themed film and television works that have been counted over the years are all derived from the Anne Rice series.
In 1819, the novel "The Vampyre" (The Vampyre) under the name of Byron came out, marking the entry of the "Vampire" theme into people's vision, but in the early days, vampires were often similar to zombies, although even the French literary hero Alexandre Dumas participated in the creation, but vampires were still only rural monsters. It wasn't until British (now Irish) novelist Bram Stoke published Dracula in 1897 that the image of the vampire was finally finalized - bloodthirsty, cold, fanged, outliers.
While much of the 20th century was repeating Stoker's Dracula, Anne Rice made vampires sexy, fatalistic, and even human.
"Night Interview with Vampires" deeply influenced contemporary Gothic culture, and the book created a new pattern of vampire fiction with its despair of life and boredom with immortality.
In Dracula-style vampire stories, they are evil, murderous, inhuman freaks, but in Anne Rice's writing, vampires themselves are tormented, often self-doubting, self-reflective, self-denying, and their relationship with brothers, lovers, and former lovers is becoming increasingly complicated.
Stills from the movie "Night Visit to Vampires"
The movie "Night Visit Vampire" released in 1994 not only had Anne Rice personally participate in the screenplay, but also because of the "prosperous beauty" contributed by Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and others, it was praised as an unsurpassable and unrepeatable classic.
It is precisely for this reason that the drama version of "Night Visit Vampire" has been questioned by both the original party and movie fans since the casting was announced, and the death of Anne Rice in December 2021 has made many people worry that the plot will be uncontrollable.
Drama version of "Night Visit to Vampires" poster
In October this year, the drama version of "Night Visit to Vampires" was launched, four episodes were broadcast, and on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics' rating was still firmly at 99%, while the rating of the general audience has always hovered at the beginning of the seventh, which is currently 73%.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the drama version of "Night Visit Vampire" has a high critic rating of 99%.
What most critics value is precisely what is unacceptable to the general audience, namely the protagonist Louis played by black actor Jacob Anderson. The "magic reform" here is an important reason for the polarization of the show's reviews.
Jacob Anderson plays Louie, who is best known to audiences for his role as the unsullied "Grey Bug" in Game of Thrones
In recent years, Hollywood's politically correct culture has often achieved so-called "balance" by cramming in non-existent black characters, such as black mermaids and black elves. But in the author's opinion, the appearance of black vampires in "Night Interview with Vampires" is not a raw fabrication.
Going back to Anne Rice's novel "Visiting Vampires at Night" itself, the book has a strong fatalism, a cycle of cause and effect, and the dragon slayer eventually becomes the dragon. Lessat, Louis and Claudia have complex relationships with each other such as lovers, family members, and enemies. But whether they like it or not, they have to face the fact that they are no longer human, but just vampires.
Stills from the drama version of "Night Visit Vampire"
Vampires are frightening, vampires are hateful, vampires feed on human blood. In other words, mainstream society is ordinary people, and vampires are marginalized people.
At that time, Anne Rice had already keenly introduced queer culture into her novels, and the drama version of "Night Interview with Vampires" was nothing more than expanding the boundaries of minorities.
The superposition of rich black people, queer people in front of pimps, vampires, in the author's opinion, does not make the core of the story of "Night Visit Vampire" have a sense of discord, it still explores what life is and what human nature is.
Of course, if you have to cling to the vampire image of "whitening miserable", it is better to directly rewatch the movie "Night Visit Vampire".