Halloween - with Michael Myers!
This one is sure to scare the HELL out of you! I have always had horrible nightmares of my ex-boyfriend, Mike. Ugh. don’t get me started.

Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers. In the original Halloween, the adult Michael Myers, referred to as The Shape in the closing credits, was portrayed by Nick Castle for most of the film, with Tony Moran and Tommy Lee Wallace substituting in during the final scenes. He was created by Debra Hill and John Carpenter. Michael Myers has appeared in eight films, as well as novels, a video game and several comic books.

 

The character is the primary antagonist in the Halloween film series, except Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which is not connected in continuity to the rest of the films. Since Castle, Moran, and Wallace put on the mask in the original film, six people have stepped into the role. Tyler Mane is the only actor to have portrayed Michael Myers in consecutive films, and one of only two actors to portray the character more than once. Michael Myers is characterized as pure evil, whether directly in the films, by the filmmakers who created and developed the character over eight films, or random participants in a survey.

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The original slasher film about Michael Myers, the psychotic killer who dons a mask and terrorizes his hometown, is re-imagined by edgy director Rob Zombie.

 

Nightmare on Elm Street - Part 1
I don’t know anyone that did’t get their sheets ripped by Freddy Krueger! Bastard tore 4 nice sized shreds through my 400 count sheets.

 

1408 with John Cusack
I left Michael Myers for John a few years back. But he’s just too clean for me. I like a dirty man.

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(Thriller) Based on a short story by Stephen King, a man who specializes in debunking the paranormal checks into the infamous room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel, only to discover… the terror is real.

 

Bram Stoker’s Dracula
I thought that Winona Ryder was excellent in this movie. I really wanted to see more of her and Drac getting it on… but, oh well. And Keanu could not have been sexier with gray hair! De-lish-ous!

In 1992 Francis Ford Coppola, the brilliant director who brought us the Godfather films and who now puts fine dinner wines on our table, took a stab at Stoker’s novel. The result was his film adaptation “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”

 

DRACULA - Gary Oldman

Coppola chose the amazing Gary Oldman to portray Count Dracula as a more sympathetic and sadly romantic figure that was at once similar to but different from every previous interpretation. Coppola made the book’s count into a Prince and added to or expanded on many of the folkloric aspects of the book’s vampire, including his power to control animals and to affect the weather. Coppola’s version also gives Dracula a love interest in the form of Johnathan Harker’s wife, Mina, whom we discover to be the reincarnation of the princess who leapt to her death from the top of Poenari Castle. This plot addition makes Dracula immediately more tragic and his demise more poignant. In most other regards, Coppola adheres to the book as written by Stoker and the adaptation works surprisingly well, giving us ultimately a Count whose horrible acts can be judged against a backdrop of tragedy and loss.

Besides this, Coppola’s version gives us three of the most beautiful and seductive Vampire Brides ever put on screen; sexy, clad in stained, decaying shrouds, they appear to have stepped directly out of Eastern European folklore and into the film. Add to this Coppola’s attention to traditional details in creating a realistically creepy and foreign atmosphere and this 1992 adaptation far outranks anything that came before it.

As a footnote, this film single-handedly caused the clip-on spectacle and monocle markets to soar as hundreds of Gary Oldman wanna-be’s sought to recreate his vampire look. After this everything from broody Goths to failed, fire-eating magicians just HAD to have a pair of those “cool” glasses …

The Exorcist
Holy Crap, this movie had me laughing my butt off when she whipped her head around in circles! I wonder if I can do that…? AH!!!!!! No. The answer is no.

 

THE EXORCIST

The Exorcist is an Academy Award-winning 1973 American horror and thriller film, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl, and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her daughter through an exorcism conducted by several priests. The film features Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, Kitty Winn, Lee J. Cobb and Jason Miller. Both the film and novel took inspirations from a documented exorcism in 1949, performed on a 12 year old boy.

The film became one of the most profitable horror films of all time and has had significant impact on viewers, grossing $402,500,000 worldwide. The film earned ten Academy Award nominations—winning two, one for Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay. Considered the scariest movie of all time, "The Exorcist" won two Acadamy Awards after it's release in 1973.

Based on the 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist marries three different scenarios into one plot.

The movie starts with Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) on an archaeological dig near Nineveh. He is then brought to a nearby hole where a small stone head is found, resembling some sort of creature. After talking to one of his supervisors, he then travels to a spot where a strange statue stands, specifically Pazuzu, with a head similar to the one he found earlier. He sees an ominous man up a bit away, and two dogs fight loudly nearby, setting the tone for the rest of the film.

A visiting actress, Chris McNeill (Ellen Burstyn) in Washington, D.C., notices dramatic and dangerous changes in the behavior and physical make-up of her 12-year-old daughter Regan McNeill (Linda Blair), first believing her rapid change physically and mentally are due to trauma from her recent break-up with Regan's biological father. During this time, several supernatural occurrences plague the household of the McNeill's along with the sudden change in her daughter, including violently shaking beds, strange noises and unexplained movement.

Meanwhile, Father Damian Karras, a young priest at nearby Georgetown University, begins to doubt his faith while dealing with his mother's terminal sickness. Regan exhibits strange, unnatural powers, including levitation and great strength. When all medical possibilities are exhausted, her mother is sent to a priest who is also a psychiatrist. He becomes convinced that Regan is possessed.

Father Merrin, who in addition to being an archeologist is also experienced in exorcism, is summoned to Washington. He and Father Karras try to drive the spirit from Regan before she dies. Regan, or rather the spirit, claims she is not possessed by a simple demon, but the Devil himself.

At the climax of the lengthy exorcism, Father Merrin dies of heart failure and Father Karras shouts at the demon to enter himself. After this, the priest immediately throws himself outside of Regan's bedroom window in order to stop the spirit from continuing its cycle in possession. Regan is restored to her normal self, and according to Chris, claims she does not remember any of the experience. The film ends as the McNeill mother and daughter move to a different city to move on from their ordeal.

Cast
Jason Miller as Father Damien Karras
Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil
Max von Sydow as Father Lankester Merrin
Lee J. Cobb as Detective Lieutenant William F. Kinderman
Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil
Kitty Winn as Sharon Spencer
Jack MacGowran as Burke Dennings
Mercedes McCambridge as Voice of 'the demon'
Rev. William O'Malley as Father Joe Dyer

Was it haunted? Urban Legends and On-Set Incidents
An apocryphal story has Friedkin supposedly asking technical adviser Rev. Thomas Bermingham to exorcise the set. He refused, saying an exorcism might increase anxiety. This probably did not happen. According to Catholic doctrine, an exorcism has to be applied for and approved by Church authorities -- this is part of the story, so Friedkin would have known it. A blessing with holy water is all that is necessary. Rev. Bermingham reportedly visited the set, gave a blessing, and spoke briefly to reassure the cast and crew.

Other tales about ominous events surrounding the year-long shoot, including the deaths of nine people associated with the production and stories about a mysterious fire that destroyed the set one weekend, are probably fakelore and were either deliberately released by the studio for publicity, or concocted by tabloid writers as no evidence exists for any freakish occurrences. These stories are the source of the rumor that the film was cursed. Blatty, Schrader and von Sydow have all discounted such tales as nonsense. However, Ellen Burstyn has indicated that some of these rumors are true in her 2006 autobiography Lessons In Becoming Myself.

There were also strange happenins at screenings for the film. They were filled with people vomiting, fainting, and breaking into hysterics. "The Exorcist" has proven to have some of the strangest audience reactions of all time. For some reason, the death tolls rose in the areas surrounding Georgetown after the movie was released. Heart attacks were recorded all over the world during premiers. There was even a lightning strike that destroyed a 400-year-old cross during the Italian premiere at the Metropolitan Theatre in Rome. Some of these rumours have been confirmed false, but many still believe that something was trying to stop the film. Although there were no incidents on the film's sequels, the original director for the prequel Exorcist: The Beginning, John Frankenheimer, died before filming began

Sequels and related films
John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic was released in 1977, and re-visited Regan four years after her initial ordeal.

Blatty directed The Ninth Configuration, a post-Vietnam War drama set in a mental institution. Released in 1980, it was based on Blatty's novel of the same name. Though it contrasts sharply with the tone of The Exorcist, Blatty regards Configuration as its true sequel. The lead character is the astronaut from Chris' party, Lt. Cutshaw.

The Exorcist III appeared in 1990, written and directed by Blatty himself from his own 1983 novel Legion. Jumping past the events of Exorcist II, this book and film presented a contuation of the story of Father Karras. Following the precedents set in The Ninth Configuration, Blatty turned a minor character from the first film -- in this case, Det. Kinderman — into the chief protagonist.

A parody entitled Repossessed was released the same year, with Blair lampooning the role she played in the original.

A made-for-television film entitled Possessed was broadcast on Showtime on October 22, 2000. It claimed to follow the true accounts that inspired Blatty to write The Exorcist. It was directed by Steven E. de Souza and written by de Souza and Michael Lazarou, from the book of the same name by Thomas B. Allen. Main characters were played by Timothy Dalton, Henry Czerny and Christopher Plummer.

A prequel, Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) attracted attention and controversy even before its release. It went through a number of directorial and script changes, such that two versions were actually filmed. Paul Schrader was hired as director, but the studio ultimately rejected his version. Renny Harlin was then hired as director, and permitted to reuse Schrader's footage, and shoot new footage as he saw fit, to create a more conventional shocker film. Harlin's film was released, but was not well received, including by Blatty himself. Schrader's version was renamed Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and subsequently released. It is considered by some critics to be more thought-provoking and perhaps more frightening because of its subtlety.

There's a 1974 Turkish movie named "Seytan" (Turkish for Satan, the original movie was also shown with the same name) which is almost a scene-by-scene remake of the original. It's gained a reputation among cult movie enthisuasts as "Turkish Exorcist"

House on Haunted Hill (1958) or (1999)
Both are scary, campy, and just good ol’ haunted house fun… I love movies where people get trapped in haunted houses. Want to come to my house?

Poltergeist
Theeeee’re Heeeere. Need I say more?

Poltergeist

The Poltergeist movies are a trilogy of horror films produced in the 1980s. Steven Spielberg co-wrote and co-produced the first Poltergeist, with Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) as the director. Brian Gibson directed Poltergeist II: The Other Side, while Poltergeist III was directed, co-written, co-produced and storyboarded by Gary Sherman.

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Michael Grais and Mark Victor co-wrote the first film with Spielberg, wrote the second film on their own and also co-produced it. Brian Taggert and an uncredited Steve Feke co-wrote the third film.

Spielberg's long-time friends (and then-married couple) Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy co-produced the first film. Freddie Fields and Lynn Arost co-produced the second film, and the third film was co-produced by Barry Bernardi.

 

The scores of the first two films were composed by Jerry Goldsmith. H.R. Giger did conceptual designs for the second film.

Poltergeist (1982)
In the first and most successful film (released on June 4 1982), a group of seemingly benign ghosts begin communicating with five-year-old Carol Anne Freeling in her parents' suburban California home via static on the television. Eventually they use the TV as their path into the house itself. They kidnap Carol Anne, and most of the film involves the family's efforts to rescue her. Eventually they do, but then the spirits, led by a demon known only as The Beast, go on a rampage.
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

This sequel exists to explain in much greater detail why Carol Anne was targeted in the first film. As it turns out, the Freelings' house in the first movie was built over a massive underground cavern that was the final resting place of a utopian cult that died there in the early 1800s. This cavern was even below the graveyard that wasn't relocated in the first film. The cult was led by Rev. Henry Kane, and this man did not have the best intentions. He was power hungry, anxious to control the souls of his followers in both life and death. This film also elaborates that the females in the family have measures of psychic powers, making them a target for the spirits.
Poltergeist III (1988)

Apparently, between the second and third films, the Freeling family has had quite enough of all supernatural activity, and have decided to cut it off at the source: Carol Anne is now living with her aunt Pat (whom Carol Anne insists on calling Trish, a common nickname for Patricia; this is important later in the film as a way of identifying an impostor Carol Anne) and uncle Bruce Gardner in the John Hancock Center where Bruce also works in downtown Chicago.

Some of the stars in the movie, such as Dominique Dunne and Heather O'Rourke, died young. As a result, an urban legend has grown up asserting that the cast was cursed. See the Poltergeist curse.

The line "They're here!" was voted on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes at number 69.

H.R. Giger was responsible for The Beast's creature design.
Of all the films in the series, the first is the only one not currently owned by MGM — it is currently owned by Warner Bros. via its acquisition of Turner Entertainment, which is in possession of the pre-1986 MGM library.

The Poltergeist curse is a rumour that a supposed curse is/was attached to the Poltergeist motion picture series and its stars.

The idea that the casts of the several movies in the series were in some way cursed is a superstition based on the fact that four of the cast members from the movies died in a relatively short span of the films' release, two of them dying at a young age (12 and 22). It is not clear that these particular films are atypical in the number or nature of the deaths of their actors.

In Poltergeist's case, those associated with the film who died prematurely include:

Dominique Dunne, 22-year-old actress who played the oldest sister Dana in the first movie, died after being choked by a jealous boyfriend in 1982. The boyfriend was later convicted and sentenced to six years in prison.
Heather O'Rourke, 12-year-old actress who played Carol Anne in the three Poltergeist movies, died in 1988 after what doctors initially described as an acute form of influenza but later changed to septic shock after bacterial toxins invaded her bloodstream.
Julian Beck, 60-year-old who played Kane in Poltergeist II: The Other Side, died of stomach cancer, with which he was diagnosed before he had accepted the role.
Will Sampson, 53 years old, who played Taylor the Medicine Man in Poltergeist II, died of post-operative kidney failure and pre-operative malnutrition problems.
Other rumours surrounding the film have pointed to a potential cause of the curse. The most widely blamed alleges that real human skeletal remains were used as props in the first film, causing the angry spirits of the deceased to wreak havoc. On this theory, also "survivor" actress JoBeth Williams has pointed out in television interviews (most notably the E! True Hollywood Story episode "The Curse of Poltergeist") that she was actually told that the skeletons used in the well-known swimming pool scene in the first Poltergeist film were real.

Other occurrences that have been attributed to the curse include:

The "Freeling" home in Southern California where the original film was partially shot was damaged by the Northridge earthquake in 1994.
JoBeth Williams, who played mother Diane Freeling, claims she returned home from the set each day to find pictures on her wall askew. She would straighten them, only to find them crooked again the next day.

Actor Will Sampson, a Creek Indian and actual shaman, performed an exorcism on the set of Poltergeist II to rid it of "alien spirits." A year after Poltergeist II was released, he died.

During a scene when Robbie Freeling (Oliver Robins) was choked by a clown in his room, something went wrong with the prop and Robins was actually being choked.
During a photography session for Poltergeist III, it was discovered that one shot of another "survivor" co-star Zelda Rubenstein had shining light obstructing the view of her face. Rubenstein claims the photo was taken at the moment her real-life mother died.

During the fight Dominique Dunne had with her boyfriend that ended up with her losing her life, Dominique's friend who was at the house turned up the Poltergeist soundtrack to drown out the noise of the two yelling outside.

During the making of Poltergeist III, a movie set of a parking garage was completely engulfed by fire during shooting of a fire scene, from which only one crew member escaped without a scratch.

Sleepy Hollow
Johnny Depp is most yummy in this movie. He stars with a blond Christina Ricci. It’s a delightfully spooky movie by Tim Burton. And the costumes that Christina Ricci squeezes into are spectacular!

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Master storyteller Tim Burton (Batman, Edward Scissorhands) weaves an eerie, enchanting version of the classic tale of horror. Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2) is Ichabod Crane, an eccentric investigator determined to stop the Headless Horseman. Christina Ricci (Monster) is Katrina Van Tassel, the beautiful and mysterious girl with secret ties to the supernatural terror.

Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 period horror film directed by Tim Burton. Based on the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the film stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Sir Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Ian McDiarmid, Michael Gough, Richard Griffiths and Christopher Walken. The story centers on police constable Ichabod Crane sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman. The style and themes of the story take inspirations from the late Hammer Film Productions.

Sleepy Hollow had been in development since 1994 and was originally intended to be directed by Kevin Yagher. The film labored into development far enough for Burton, who had unsuccessfully worked on Superman Lives, to direct. The majority of the filming took place in England where the crew built an entire soundstage. Sleepy Hollow would be released with box office success and critical acclaim, grossing roughly $206 million worldwide and scoring a 73 percent approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

n 1799, New York City police constable Ichabod Crane is dispatched by his superiors to the Hudson Highlands hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, to investigate a series of brutal slayings in which the victims have been found beheaded. A frequent user of new, though so far unproven investigative techniques such as finger-printing and autopsies, Crane arrives in Sleepy Hollow armed with his bag of scientific tools only to be informed by the town's elders that the murderer is not of flesh and blood, rather a headless supernatural warrior from beyond the grave who rides at night on a massive black steed.

Crane does not believe them and begins his own investigation, until he comes face to "face" with the Headless Horseman. Boarding a room at the home of the town's richest family, the Van Tassels, Crane develops an attraction to their daughter, the mysterious Katrina, even as he's plagued by nightmares of his wiccan mother's horrific torture under his zealous preacher father when he was a child.

Delving further into the mystery with the aid of the orphaned Young Masbeth, whose father was a victim of the Horseman, Crane discovers within the Western Woods both the Horseman's entry point between this world and the beyond, the gnarled Tree of the Dead with the heads of his victims within, and his grave.

He finds the Horseman's skull is missing though the murders continue until Crane uncovers a murky plot revolving around revenge and land rights with the Horseman controlled by Katrina's stepmother, Lady Van Tassel, who sends the killer after her. Following a fight in the local windmill and a stagecoach chase through the woods, Crane eventually thwarts Lady Van Tassel by returning the skull to the Horseman, who regains his head and heads back to Hell along with her. His job in Sleepy Hollow completed, Crane returns to New York with Katrina and Young Masbeth in time for the new century.

 

Practical Magic
I love this movie. I have watched it about a million and one times. I do suggest drinking a nice bloody cabernet while watching it so that you can fully enjoy the deliciousness of the two male characters. Oh and Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman aren’t bad either.

 

If a broom falls, company is due. When a circle rings the moon, trouble looms, Should you misplace your broom, sorry; a hand vac can't be used in an exorcism rite. Fun and excitement abound in the Owens family of wily witches. One problem, though: the men the Owens women fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman bring a sparkling screen magic to Practical Magic, adapted from Alice Hoffman's bestseller and directed by Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love). They play Sally and Gillian Owens, sisters hexed by a centuries -old curse...and coping with a witches brew of events involving a possible love match (Aidan Quinn) for one, a zombie (Goran Visnjic) for the other and a need to resume the age-old witchcraft taught by two doting Owens aunts (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest). Sit for a spell and enjoy.

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Practical Magic is a 1998 family fantasy film directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as witches who carry on a family legacy of witchcraft and tragedy. The film is based on a book of the same name by Alice Hoffman. The original music score was composed by Alan Silvestri. The rejected score by Michael Nyman also enjoys popularity.

The Owens women are witches in whom the Craft has been passed down through every generation into modern times. The story concerns sisters Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest), and their orphaned nieces Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and Sally (Sandra Bullock). The Owens family is cursed: if an Owens woman finds true love with a man, he will die tragically, as was the case with the father of Gillian and Sally, whose death also brought on their mother's death "from a broken heart," which can be understood as suicide. As a child, Sally casts a true love spell to protect her. She dreams up a series of odd traits for the man of her dreams, confident no real man could ever be like the man in her spell, preventing her from ever falling in love.

The sisters grow up, and Gillian runs away as she is impatient with small town life. Packing her bags and leaving at night, they cast a binding oath to each other using blood from both of their hands and then mixing the bloods by clasping hands. Without Gillian around, Sally feels lonely and craves a normal life. Her aunts, wanting her to be happy, cast a spell that helps Sally fall in love with a man named Michael. Sally marries him and has two daughters, Kylie (Evan Rachel Wood) and Antonia (Alexandra Artrip). When Michael falls victim to the curse and dies, Sally and her daughters return to the Owens home to live with the aunts.

When Gillian's latest boyfriend Jimmy (Goran Višnjić) turns abusive, she calls Sally for help. Sally goes to collect Gillian, but Jimmy kidnaps both of them. Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy's tequila to knock him out, but she uses too much and accidentally kills him. The panicked sisters attempt to resurrect him using a forbidden spell from their aunts' book of spells. The spell works, but when Jimmy is revived, Sally is forced to kill him a second time to stop him from killing Gillian. The sisters bury his body in the Owens home garden, where they hope nobody will notice, but his spirit begins to haunt them.

A State Investigator named Gary Hallett (Aidan Quinn) arrives in town looking for Jimmy. Gillian prepares a banishment spell using the syrup from their table to get rid of Gary, but Sally's daughters thwart the spell when they notice that Gary fulfills a number of conditions of Sally's true love spell. Sally confesses that she killed Jimmy, and that she cast a spell to summon Gary to her. Gary has an encounter with Jimmy's ghost, and decides to leave town without arresting Sally.

Jimmy possesses Gillian, and the aunts decide that in order to dispel Jimmy, a coven needs to be formed (nine women, "twelve's better"). Sally is forced to ask the aid of townswomen who had feared and excluded her. The women come out of curiosity and a desire to help. The exorcism is a success due to the strong bond between the two sisters; Jimmy's spirit is dispelled and the 300-year-old curse of the Owens women is ended, when Sally repeats the spell that was mentioned as Gillian first left, by clasping their hands to mix each others blood once more. It brought Gillian back.

Sally receives a letter from Gary that she and her sister are cleared of any suspicion or wrongdoing in Jimmy's case. Gary eventually returns to the town to be with Sally. The Owens women, daughters and all celebrate All Hallows Eve dressed up in stereotypical witch costumes, but they are embraced and welcomed by the townsfolk.

Interview With The Vampire
My ultimate favorite movie, I must tell you that I have NEVER had a more vivid dream about vampires in my life. When Louis goes to visit Armand in the Theatre Des Vampires, I about exploded. This is a MUST see if you haven’t already...

 

Interview with the Vampire is a vampire novel by Anne Rice written in 1973 and published in 1976. The novel, the first to feature the enigmatic vampire anti-hero Lestat, was followed by several sequels, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles. A film version, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, was released in 1994 starring Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas and Tom Cruise.

Published in 1976, Interview with the Vampire quickly became a cult success, and a prominent influence on present Goth culture. The novel was set apart from its predecessors of the vampire genre by its confessional tone from the vampire's perspective, touching on existential despair and the sheer boredom of lifeless immortality.

Rice reported in her biography that the themes of vampirism and the tone of the book echoed the loss of her daughter Michele from leukemia in 1972. Interview is distinct from its sequels in its sombre tone, and subsequently the perspective shifts to that of the vivacious Lestat. Nevertheless, it remains the best-selling and best-received of Rice's books.

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Plot summary

In San Francisco, a vampire named Louis tells his 200-year-long life story to an interviewer (Daniel Molloy, although only referred to as "the boy" in the novel).

In 1791, Louis was a young plantation owner living south of New Orleans, Louisiana. Distraught and suicidal over the death of his brother, which he blames himself for, Louis is approached by a vampire named Lestat, who desires his plantation. Lestat turns Louis into a vampire (although initially Louis merely begs to be killed) and the two become immortal companions. Lestat spends some time feeding off the local plantation slaves while Louis, who finds it morally impossible for him to murder humans to survive, feeds from animals.

Louis and Lestat are forced to leave when Louis' slaves begin to fear the monsters with which they live and instigate an uprising. Louis sets his own plantation aflame; he and Lestat exterminate the plantation slaves to keep word from spreading about vampires living in Louisiana. Gradually, Louis bends under Lestat's influence and begins feeding from humans. He slowly comes to terms with his vampire nature but also becomes increasingly repulsed by what he perceives as Lestat's total lack of compassion for the humans he preys upon.

Escaping to New Orleans proper, Louis feeds off a plague-ridden young girl one night, whom he finds next to the corpse of her mother. As the girl reaches the point of death, Lestat then turns her into a vampire "daughter" for them, naming her "Claudia" in the process (her real name is never revealed).

Louis is horrified that Lestat has turned a child into a vampire, but instantly falls in love with Claudia and cares for her tenderly and dotingly. She takes to killing easily, but Claudia begins to hate Lestat as she realizes she can never grow up; although her mind matures into that of an intelligent, assertive and seductive woman, her body remains that of a six-year-old girl. After 65 years of living together, Claudia hatches a plot to dispose of Lestat by poisoning him and cutting his throat. Claudia and Louis then dump his body into a nearby swamp. After realizing that they seem to now be the only vampires living in America, Claudia desires to travel to Europe with Louis and seek out "Old World" vampires.

As Louis and Claudia prepare to flee to Europe, Lestat appears, having survived and recovered from Claudia's attack, and attacks them in turn. Louis sets fire to their home and barely escapes with Claudia, leaving a furious Lestat to be consumed by the flames.

Arriving in Europe, Louis and Claudia seek out more of their kind. They travel throughout eastern Europe first and do indeed encounter vampires, but these vampires appear to be nothing more than animated corpses, mindless and unintelligible. It is only when they reach Paris that they encounter vampires like themselves - specifically, the 400-year-old vampire Armand and his coven, the Théâtre des Vampires. Inhabiting an ancient theater, Armand and his vampire coven disguise themselves as humans and feed on live, terrified humans in mock-plays before a live human audience (who think the killings are merely a very realistic performance). Claudia is repulsed by these vampires and what she considers to be their cheap theatrics, but Louis quickly falls under Armand's spell and becomes very attracted to him.

Fearing that Louis will leave her for Armand, Claudia demands that Louis turn a human Parisian dollmaker, Madeleine, into a vampire to serve as both a mother figure and a replacement for Louis. Louis at first refuses but, after realizing Claudia's plight, gives in and makes Madeleine into a vampire. Louis, Madeleine and Claudia live together for a brief time but all three are abducted one night by the Theatre vampires. Lestat has arrived - having survived the fire and attempted murder in New Orleans - and his accusations against Louis and Claudia result in Louis being locked in a coffin, while Claudia and Madeleine are locked in an open courtyard. Louis survives, but Madeleine and Claudia are burned to death by the rising sun. Armand arrives and releases Louis from the coffin. Louis finds the ashen remains of Claudia and Madeleine and is devastated. He later returns to the Theatre late the following night, burning it to the ground as the sun rises and killing all the vampires inside, and leaves with Armand.

Louis and Armand then travel across Europe together for several years, but Louis never fully recovers from Claudia's death and, eventually, he and Armand drift apart and go their separate ways. Tired of the Old World, Louis eventually returns to America and New Orleans in the early 20th century, living as a loner; he feeds off any humans that cross his path but lives in the shadows and never creates another companion for himself.

Telling the boy of one last (which is later described in detail by Lestat in later books) encounter with Lestat in New Orleans, Louis ends his tale; after 200 years, he is weary of immortality as a vampire and all the pain and suffering to which he has had to bear witness. The boy, however, seeing only the great powers granted to a vampire, begs to be made into a vampire himself. Infuriated that his interviewer learned nothing from his story, Louis refuses, attacks him, and vanishes without a trace.

Recovering from the attack, the boy notes the address of the house where Louis last saw Lestat in New Orleans, and then leaves to track down Lestat - and the "Dark Gift " - for himself.

The film was a major success, causing a resurgence of interest in the book series and sent Interview With The Vampire back onto the bestseller lists. Rice initially voiced her objections to the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat (her original choice was Rutger Hauer). But, after seeing the finished film, she paid $7,740 for a two-page ad in Daily Variety praising his performance and apologizing for her previous doubts about him.

A second film adaptation of the Vampire Chronicles came out in 2002. Starring Stuart Townsend as the infamous Lestat, the movie combined incidents from the second and third books in the series but released under the title of the third book, The Queen of the Damned. The plot was substantially altered from that of the book, and the film was poorly received by fans and critics alike.

Queen of the Damned is a 2002 film adaptation of the third novel of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series, The Queen of the Damned, although the film contained many plot elements from that novel's predecessor, The Vampire Lestat. It stars Aaliyah in the title role and Stuart Townsend as the vampire Lestat. The film was released six months after Aaliyah's death in a plane crash and is dedicated to her memory.

On April 25, 2006, the musical Lestat, based on Rice's Vampire Chronicles books, opened at the Palace Theatre on Broadway after having its world premiere in San Francisco, California in December 2005. With music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin, it was the inaugural production of the newly established Warner Brothers Theatre Ventures.

Despite Rice's own overwhelming approval and praise, the show received mostly poor reviews by critics and disappointing attendance. Lestat closed a month later on May 28, 2006, after just 33 previews and 39 regular performances.

The Vampire Chronicles:

Interview with the Vampire (1976)
The Vampire Lestat (1985)
The Queen of the Damned (1988)
The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
Memnoch the Devil (1995)
The Vampire Armand (1998)
Merrick (2000)
Blood and Gold (2001)
Blackwood Farm (2002)
Blood Canticle (2003)
New Tales of the Vampires: (Other vampire tales that are not within the main sequence, but in the same fictional world)

Pandora (1998)
Vittorio the Vampire (1999)

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