For the love of eternity

Anne Rice's video version of "Queen of The Damned" starring the late great Hip Hop singer Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend, an Irish hottie that sizzles as LeStat de Lioncourt (a French nobleman turned to the lunar cycle and its lifestyle), directs the viewer into what could of happened in chronicled lifestyles of the un-dead by way of Hollywood movie, Interview With A Vampire, made famous By Tom Cruise and also Brad Pitt during the latter half of the 1980's.

The Vampire Chronicles, specifically this third book of the series entitled, QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, is a wonderful insight into a world of darkness seen through the eyes of a woman who might witness the chaos of the world wearing not rose-tinted glasses but binoculars instead that allow her to see the hidden 'primordial beast' in all of us, day or nite. This series has been adapted to both on-screen in Hollywwod and also bought by television networks to make spin-off series from.

What makes Stuart Townsend's reprieve of LeStat so compelling in this movie, is his determination. Once the main character is embedded into the enigma of a rock n' roll legend, that status where everybody wants you, can't get enough of you etc, LeStat evokes a need from somewhere deep within his body upon having his mind intrigued by Jesse.

LeStat craves to be something he is completely unprepared for. There is a carnal hunger tasted when he discovers his primordial response to the un-dead way of life. There is respect and honor between them as a harmonious gap is bridged when the QUEEN of THE DAMNED Queen (Aaliyah) is awakened out of spell-cast coma by the melodic nuances of a 'frenzied passion waiting to be unleashed'.

Akasha has been cast in, by way of an an evil plot unleashed many moons ago and devised by the witches she rendered disabled, an alabaster prison standing atop the gardens and trellises in Maharet's compound. This place, a sanctuary to eternal love of life, house other alabaster-encased vampires who had been drained of their life-blood by the ever-greedy Akasha. It is a place reserved for the promising up-rising of the worlds legion of un-dead caretakers, should they survive the demands of the ruler.

Anne Rice is famous for combining the real world with the not yet discovered world by admonishing the thought of entering this world without some understanding of what these creatures practising 'vampyrysm' is about. It is about survival, lunar cycles and what changes the earth goes through during them, the tides, the elements and the psyche, especially the psyche. It is a different life, made to be possible if life gives life willingly and no victim wants to die. But that is ordinarily unrealistic until the charm of LeStat enters the tiny capillaries of a victim in tow of a transfusion.

This is the third novel made into a movie available on this wonderfully digitally-reproduced DVD version that is perfect in clarity and exceptional in sound. One can feel like they are attending the concert in person when LeStat sings his soul out to 100's and 100's of fans. The rock n roll singer theme is done well as he hams up the camera in tight leather and 'come hither looks'. He eats it up and realizes later that eating was not the key but drinking is . . .

Blood, that is the victims who he generously admires and dotes upon, cept' for Jesse who resists him as long as humanly possible. When LeStat meets his admirers or just those that should not know what he is, are devoured atheroscerotically, by way of draining their life-blood that is rich with emotion, fortitude, fight or flight. They generally surrender to a seductively lethal extraction of how they lived their life watching helplessly as it fades from their being and life for them as they know it, exists no more.

These characters are lesser quality roles because he feeds less often but moreso after having sampled the Queen for the first time. Once she has been awakened, Akasha, the highly erotic, gorgeous Queen of The Damned wreaks havoc on the one special person LeStat has become ethereally involved with. She is threatened by the desire for power he adopts after having tasted success.

LeStat is mesmerized by Akasha's beauty but deeply in human love with Jesse, a student he met while touring. He discovers she is studying and following a fictional 'association for the underground' in which the un-dead living is attempted to be proven. There are warnings, there are signals of retracting her steps, their are threats to dismiss her from the Association should she investigate without supervision. And finally there is an incident that leads to a mortal wound requiring LeStat to re-evaluate the multi-purpose of existence and give or refuse: life.

Knowing this is against his feelings of love that have developed over her and what he knows can destroy all she is now, he is in conflict, terrible conflict. It is here that a love-story with morbidity all over it, comes to an illuminating conclusion: even in death we shall live through love. A fantastic story that uses the imagination and the curiosity to explore netherworlds and their inhabitants is delievered in this semi action-packed slightly gorey erotic tale of eternal emancipation from the restraints of ego, religious indoctrination and maybe even reason.

There is telepathy, offered by Marius who comes in from the first and second books and movies, to higher vibrational sexual enticement where the mother of all vampires is challenged by her most loyal servant. The idea that all are connected by blood and the spirit that is realized within them all has been given new life, it fascinates and tickles the great fiction seeker in myself and I hope elicits the same response from you . . .

Now go buy or rent this DVD (or VHS for those still in the cave) and enjoy the experience !