By RUSSELL BAILLIE
(Herald rating: * * )
The second movie to emerge from Anne Rice's deathless prose isn't in the same class as the previous one, Interview with the Vampire.
No, instead of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt playing blood brothers in a glossy big-budget film by first division director Neil
Jordan, this film manages Lord of the Rings reject (Townsend), one tragically deceased pop star (Aaliyah), all helmed by Aussie newcomer Rymer who shot much of the time-travelling, globe-trotting story in Melbourne.
But even if a gaunt and glowering Townsend at least appears a more convincing Lestat than Cruise, the film around him is a frequently laughable affair which mistakes long-windedness and incoherence for depth, and coloured contacts and face-pulling for scariness.
You'd think with Lestat waking from his crypt and deciding that having the job of rock singer is just the job for an immortal, it might offer an entertainingly trashy treatise on bloodsucking celebrity.
And with a soundtrack provided by the likes of Korn's Jonathan Davis and Marilyn Manson that this might be fun in an MTVampire kind of way.
No such luck.
Queen of the Damned takes itself far too seriously throughout.
That might be an attempt to stay true to the spirit of Rice's unwieldy, florid, Gothic novels, but on the screen it just provokes frequent unintended laughs while confusing us with huge amounts of unnecessary back-story and characters with no purpose other than as blood donors.
She might be the title role but Aaliyah, who plays Egyptian vampire queen Akasha, makes her entrance an hour into the film and spends the rest of her brief screen time hissing sweet nothings about ruling the world together to Lestat, in between dishing out gruesome death to anyone who gets in her way (or makes a smart comment about her Vegas showgirl costume).
Yes, it is a bit weird seeing her in a film fixated on death and immortality. What a pity, though, that it's not even a half-way decent one.
Cast: Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Perez
Director: Michael Rymer
Rating: M (horror scenes)
Running time: 101 mins
Screening: Village, Hoyts
