Stars: Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Perez, Paul McGann, Lena Olin

Director: Michael Rymer

Summary: The vampire Lestat wakes after many years asleep in his coffin. He realises that the world has changed and he decides to become a rock star. His music stirs Queen Akasha and she is looking for a King...

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.

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Queen of the Damnedcombines the plot elements from the two disappointing novels Anne Rice cranked out as the sequels to Interview with the Vampireand contrives to be better than the book it is named after, but not by much. The vampire Lestat (a pale, pretty Stuart Townsend) awakens after a century-long nap and discovers flamboyant metal music, then irritates the vampire community by "coming out" and courting celebrities. His sub-Marilyn Manson songs interest paranormal-watching human librarian Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), who looks him up in a Mile End Goth club that caters for an undead clientele, but his tunes also awaken Akasha (Aaliyah), eponymous mother of all vampires, who makes him her number one disciple and sets about devastating the world, opposed by a cadre of conservative vampires who include Lestat's sire Marius (Vincent Perez) and Jesse's Aunt Maharet (Lena Olin).

The plot is of the "one-damn-thing-after-another" variety, zipping about the world from New Orleans to Glastonbury to a huge concert in Death Valley as broody characters exchange solemn but comical dialogue and indulge in fight scenes too swift for the camera to catch. Like Blade 2, it offers some spectacular vampire combustions, but its romance is strictly 15-certificate blood-nuzzling and it's hard to take Lestat himself seriously when Townsend plays him as such a feckless twit. --Kim Newman

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Audio Commentary By Director Editor And Producer, Aaliyah Remembered, Music Of Lestat, Creating Vampires, Three Feature Length Lestat Music Videos Including Forsaken And Redeemer And System, Static X Music Video Cold, Extended Concert Sequences, Additional Scene
Subtitles:	Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Year:	2002
Release Date:	October 28, 2002
Runtime:	97 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 022186
Keywords:	Queen, Damned, General, Wide, Screen, Horror, Occult, Sci, Fi
Genre:	Horror/Occult