Interview With the Vampire

Excellent, transfixing new series adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1976 vampire classic. ... The show alters specifics of the novel’s story line in ways that wind up working spectacularly well, and that will surprise fans of the book, even while they may frustrate purists. I couldn’t get enough of the five episodes AMC made available for review (there are seven in all), relieved that Rice’s complex, sensual creatures have survived the transition to series TV intact, and delighted by the superb acting and rich production design.

The road to a new adaptation has been a winding one, but AMC's lush and enthralling series proves that Rice's vampires are in the right hands.

AMC’s Interview is a novel thing; it does for bloodsucker drama what HBO’s Watchmen did for the superhero genre, reclaiming an old story for a new, more enlightened generation.

Built on a foundation that embraces different eras, “Interview with the Vampire” doesn’t feel constrained to a particular time or place.

It embraces both the intellectual and the carnal in ways that aren’t often seen on TV and were arguably even lacking from Jordan’s version.

It’s a startlingly good adaptation of Rice’s book but stands on its own two feet, bring new dimensions to a classic story and having genuine fun delving into parts that were only hinted at in the novel and prior film versions. The competition may be tough this season, but Interview with the Vampire stakes out a serious claim as one of the best TV shows of the year.

Among my favorite TV shows of the year so far. ... AMC’s Interview With the Vampire is lush and operatic. It is gross and disturbing, opening the dam for the sanguine river of blood to flow the way that a show like this should: so that it is as gorgeous as it is upsetting. There are provocative ideas about race and power dynamics filtered through the identity politics of bloodsuckers that, remarkably, work.

There’s a sense of lush fullness, a sprawling, specifically Southern sensibility that lets the show grow into the tale it’s telling, embracing the eccentricities of these characters and giving the complex layers of their relationships with one another the sort of depth they simply could never be allowed in a feature film.

The introduction of child vampire Claudia (Bailey Bass, eerily convincing in the role that made Kirsten Dunst famous) slows things down a bit with overwrought metaphors about nontraditional parents. Yet the show never lapses into the preachy generalizations of Ryan Murphy’s genre spectacles. Indeed, it works so well because Louis and Lestat are distinct characters who quickly arrive at a heartbreaking impasse. ... After months of misplaced hype, Interview with the Vampire is finally the real thing.

Interview with the Vampire is exactly what it needs to be, in all of its bloody, ridiculous, gay glory.

The series is vibrantly written, tonally self-assured and unexpectedly funny.

This is a show that knows what viewers want and gives it to them. “Interview” is not precious about its subject matter. ... Through the first five (of eight) episodes, it’s got all the makings of a deserving cult hit.

Interview with the Vampire is a toothsome, moreish drama that proves there’s life in the undead yet.

It’s a credit to the scripts that the testy conversations between journalist and subject are as engaging as the scenes of Louis’s transformation from mortal to (self-loathing) monster.

Rice's soulful ghouls defy horror-movie cliche. [10 - 23 Oct 2022, p.5]

More of a historical romantic melodrama than a profound tragedy — not a sin and more likely to draw viewers back — it’s well-made with some fine performances and evocative locations. There is as much domestic drama as there is vampire business, and the series has a welcome comic edge, especially once Claudia joins the family.

Interview With The Vampire is still a bit melodramatic in its manner and baroque in its language, despite the time shift from the novels and film. But it reestablishes its story so well that we can see it continuing for a number of seasons.

There’s a confidence to this “Interview With the Vampire” that makes it worth the while even when it’s straining itself to hit all the biggest Gothic notes.

I appreciated the way this Interview solidified the source material’s central relationship, refined some of its more humorous aspects and plunged thoroughly into the campiness of others. It isn’t quite scary, but it’s at least unsettling at times. ... Overall, it’s a promising start with many appealing elements to chew on in the meantime.

Not since Mads Mikkelsen’s Hannibal Lecter has a fictional character killed with such purpose and artistry. ... Jacob Anderson has the harder job: as Louis, the note he most often has to play is tortured anguish. ... Present-day Louis is less active but shows more emotional depth.

Significantly improving upon the 1994 film, “Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire” does more than just add the late author’s name to the title, ambitiously updating the story, introducing a racial component and serving up plenty of sex and gore. Desperate to replace “The Walking Dead,” AMC might have completed an improbable baton pass from zombies to another kind of undead.

Thanks in part to the cunning charm of the period story, balanced by its present-day sections, Interview with the Vampire meaningfully comments on identity, intersectionality, and abuse, while still managing to be an intoxicating series about guys with gigantic incisors who sleep in coffins.

The evolution mostly works. Interview blends swoony Southern Gothic with cadaverous relationship farce, though it struggles when it shifts its gaze from the intriguing main characters.

AMC’s beautiful new take on Interview With the Vampire is certainly bold and seductive, but it too often tips over into camp.

Neck-biting has its limits, plot-wise, and seven episodes may be too many, but be assured there's plenty here to sink your teeth into.

This new Interview is far more faithful to Rice than was the movie – and nowhere near as much fun.

While all of the billowing resentment and struggle between our vampires has to go somewhere, it comes out from Louis and Lestat in sometimes overly melodramatic bursts of screaming dialogue. ... “Interview with the Vampire” jumps on this whenever it can, revealing how the series can only break its growing monotony with either showy dramatic displays or (albeit staggering) moments of gory violence, like a turbo vampire-punch that impales someone’s face.

There’s something lost in the mission to destroy the innuendo for the sake of fully overt representation. ... The decision to recast Louis with a Black actor proves the most fruitful break from the source material, the leads’ interracial dynamic layered on top of their intricate mix of lust and hostility.