thoughts on Interview with the Vampire (the book) -> spoilers ahead

I ended up finishing reading iwtv on vacation yesterday and man was this a roller coaster. First, I want to preface that I had previously watched the 1994 Interview with the Vampire movie a few years back, but man I realized while reading through this that I did not remember like anything that happened within, save for a few of Claudia's scenes (kirsten dunst is quite literally the best part of that movie). I would say that while watching the show elevated my time reading the book, it did feel like a different experience all together. Not that the show is a particularly unfaithful adaptation or anything, but more so that I would say its worth reading in its own right.

I knew Claudia was aged up a bit in the show when she was turned, but to find out she was FIVE was quite insane. Overall, the dynamic between Claudia and Louis within the story was quite hard to stomach at times. Louis will literally call her "his daughter" as well as "his lover" in the same sentence, and frankly there are certain passages that have quite the sexual undertone. Perhaps even worse though were the sequences with Armand's child slave?! that he keeps locked in the Théâtre des Vampires. The scene where Armand has Louis feed on him exceeded the realm of undertone at that point and yikesss. Ultimately, there were multiple occasions where I was extremely thankful for the changes/omissions the show went with, because there would be no possible way to ethically portray this treatment of child characters.

T I also wanted to emphasize how much this book impacted my thought regarding Armand. While I had already been sympathetic towards his actions from his portrayal in the show, I feel that the book overall develops not just him as a character, but also the whole dynamic/relationship between Louis and Armand. Since the show is much more forthright when it comes to the Lestat and Louis relationship being a romantic one from the very beginning, it becomes pretty clear that Louis does not feel nearly as strongly for Armand as he did with Lestat, but rather sees him as a way to abate his own loneliness. Within the book, Louis is much more critical of Lestat, constantly declaring him as dumb and uninteresting, saying that he was purposefully stifling and using Louis for financial gain up until his "death". So by the time Louis and Armand first begin to interact in Paris, it feels like there is a higher possibility that they could somewhat fulfill one another, or that there is a real genuine sense of love in between them, which in my opinion did not come across within the show. The way Louis describes him feels much more genuine, and we get to hear Armand declare the reasons for why he is so drawn to Louis, and how for him he represents the hope within the current century as opposed to the pessimism and cynicism that the members of the Théâtre des Vampires display. Ultimately, this makes the death of Claudia and Madeleine, and the resulting change in Louis, much more fascinating. Since we see Armand realize that loss of humanity in Louis from that point further. While Louis himself states that he would have gone down this road regardless of Claudia's death, one could argue that it was spurred on by that, and that Armand facilitated the change in Louis, from someone who once motivated him to continue living, to now one who equally felt detached from humanity. ughhh they make me sick

another welcome change from the book was the alteration of the Claudia and Madeleine relationship. Since Claudia was turned so young within the book, it definitely made sense for Madeleine to act as a motherly figure towards her. But with Claudia being older in the show, having her and Madeleine's relationship be a romantic one was much more compelling and resultingly tragic (at least for me).

my thoughts on s2ep7 of Interview with the Vampire thus far (literally have not finished the episode yet because I felt like I was gonna throw up)
Its quite interesting how I was quite fond and forgiving of Armand's past mistakes thus far, only to feel so disgusted at the sight of him this point forward. While i know that Claudia is gonna die at the end of this, and I have been mentally trying to prepare myself for this throughout the entirety of this season, seeing this all play out is so visceral and painful. While i have loved Claudia in season 1, Delainey has truly brought her to life and portrayed her in such a way that even the smallest changes in facial expression will have me reeling. To see her constantly be the second choice to Louis (which I also emphasize that I love dearly) does feel like a betrayal, and has ultimately left me increasingly frustrated with him. But to see her find companionship with madeleine was so refreshing. At last Claudia finally had someone who would choose her first. To know that they could have both escaped their fate if they did not come to speak to Louis and Armand that night, genuinely sickening. And to know that Claudia and Madeleine treated Armand so nicely in their last interaction, how he was capable of lying to Louis right to their faces. I do not know how Louis ever came to forgive him for that. The latter half of this season in general while I am absolutely loving it, has made me reflect on how the female characters in this show are treated. Of course since this is an adaptation and I have not gotten to this part of the novel yet, I cannot necessarily discern what is and not book accurate, but I can say that the show has taken its liberties in the past and so I do not necessarily think they are fearful of changing things in order to make a more nuanced story. I do think its not the best choice to have the two most prominent female characters in the show both experience sexual assault in order to further their character development, especially since we do not see this kind of treatment for its male characters. I wonder if season 3 is going to have any significant female characters, especially vampire ones. I know that the third season is going to be focused on rockstar Lestat, so I highly doubt it. It just makes me feel a bit disheartened because so much of the audience for vampire fiction is women/non-men, and the trope of the lesbian vampire is so deeply entrenched with the portrayal of vampirism as a whole throughout the last couple of centuries, so knowing that Claudia and Madeleine are dead, and were given significantly less explicitness and time makes me a bit frustrated. I will say, however, that with the little screentime they had compared to the other couples within the show, they have left a lasting impression on me, and has been the most cathartic for me, but i could be biased considering it was them that finally persuaded me enough to watch the show in the first place :))))).

July 30, 2024 thoughts on Longlegs. I ended up seeing Longlegs yesterday afternoon and so here I am to discuss my thoughts on it that absolutely no one asked for. I initially went into this movie with the preconceptionds that this is a sort of "Silence of the Lambs-esque" thriller because thats what the marketing for this movie has really been pushing, while there are definitely some surface-level similarities between the two, i think that it definitely held its own. Representing not just the unpredictability and violence of man, but also the unexplainable nature of the paranormal. First thing that really struck me was the timeless aspect of it. While it was obvious that the first scene was set some time during the early seventies, the contemporary scenes did not seem dedicated on featuring a distinct/gimmicky sense of nostalgia that a lot of other recent films have tried to. But instead, it felt like it was purposely leaving out as many defining characteristics of the time period as they could, and I truly appreciated that. The one thing that keyed me to it being set in the 90s was that unmissable picture of Bill Clinton on the wall of Blair Underwood's character's office. I think this really added to the atmosphere of the film, as it leaves you unsettled from the get go, feeling as though you are in a sort of liminal space. It also really allows us to get into the mind of the main character Lee Harker, as we find out throughout the course of the film that her perception of time and her own memories is quite hazy, likely due to trauma.

On that topic, I would say that one of the highlights of the film for me was Maika Monroe's performance. I have not seen her in anything previously but after this I definitely want to (should probably finally get around to watching It Follows). The character of Lee Harker seemed to be autistic-coded to me, and while I have never been formally diagnosed, i have long been suspected to be on the spectrum and therefore felt very connected to her and the way she interacted with others. As someone who has a difficult time relating/interacting with others, seeing someone who had the same issues be so successful at her job felt personally reassuring. Spoilers Ahead

The only issue I had with this movie was the doll stuff. which to be fair, ends up being pretty significant to the plot. Honestly, I did not find it remotely satisfying, and in fact I found it to be a major let down considering the first half of this movie felt so strong. Like initially it seemed that the person in charge of these murders was entirely human. Thus showcasing how people's capability to be brutal and unhinged is oftentimes the scariest evil one could experience. While it had depicted that to an extent, it seemed like it was too hesitant to go all the way with it. I feel as though they could have kept the doll premise in the movie and still have had it work, but only if they kept it a bit more ambiguous. Like it felt like the last 30 minutes of this movie was trying to sell us on the idea and I was just never willing to buy into it.