STARS : Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah, Vincent Perez, Lena Olin, Paul McGann, Marguerite Moreau and a host of Aussies in support and bit part roles.

PLOT 3

The Vampire Lestat de Lioncourt (Townsend) has been sleeping for over a century until Gothic Rock lures him from his slumber and allows him to come out of the shadows and have the one thing he’s always longer for - Fame. As head of the obscenely popular rock GROUP Lestat he can play the vampire role to the Nth degree and no-one one is any the wiser as everyone thinks it’s nothing more than a gimmick. Of course the other vampires aren’t real happy about his divulging their secrets and swear to kill him.

Jesse (Moreau) works for the Talamasca, an organisation that has been observing the secret world of the vampires since the 4th century but always discreetly and from a distance. Her boss, the enigmatic David (McGann), who harbours more than a few secrets of his own, warns Jesse against getting too close but to no avail. She meets Lestat and is soon drawn to his magnetism and invited into his world which she accepts even though it could ultimately lead to her own destruction.

Like any good Anne Rice novel, we are soon heading back in time and see how Lestat came to be at the hands of Marius (Perez), a vampire who’s been wandering around since the 4th century BC. It is also during this flashback that we learn about the queen of all vampires Akasha (Aaliyah) who almost wiped out humankind centuries earlier until putting herself into deep slumber until she rises again when the time is right.

No prizes for guessing that this happens soon after we learn about her. Anyway after Akasha rises and kills a lot of humans as well as vampires to satisfy her hunger, it is up to Lestat, Marius and several other vampires to take Akasha down before everyone is wiped out. But this isn’t going to be easy as she is by far the most powerful vampire going around and with awesome powers to match.

Putting aside obvious timeline problems - Interview with a Vampire is set in the mid 1980’s and Lestat has been asleep for a century so how can it be present day - this is a more than solid follow-up to Interview and holds its own.

On a sadder note as I mentioned on the front page, today marks one year to the day, August 26, since Aaliyah was tragically killed in a plane crash.

Watch It If You Enjoyed : Interview With A Vampire and from Dusk Till Dawn

Verdict : Much better than expected

THE EXTRAS

Village Roadshow have provided a plethora of added features on this DVD that should keep you entertained for many a while but here goes anyway….

* Audio Commentary : Director Michael Rymer, Producer Jorge Saralegui, Music Composer Richard Gibbs and songs & score producer Jonathon Davis

* Additional Scenes (32 mins) : There are 13 deleted scenes and each have notes from the filmmakers about why the scenes were cut and what they were meant to represent. Some were cut entirely but the majority are variations on scenes that made the final cut. Some scenes that were cut for pacing reasons could have been left in very easily.

* Documentary - Behind The Scenes (9:45) : This featurette is called “Creating The Vampires” and broken down into 3 sections - Flying, Effects Make-Up & Digital Effects . Each consists of interviews with Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend as well as members of the crew talking about and showing how the various scenes were created. One to watch after the film.

* Documentary - Aaliyah Remembered (3:09) : This is a sequence of interviews with Michael Rymer, Stuart Townsend, her brother Rashad and others talking about the person and talent that she was. Aaliyah herself also talks about her role as Akasha.

* Documentary - Interviews (11:30) : As is the theme of this DVD, this featurette is also broken down into sections. The first is “The music of Lestat” and features interviews with Jonathon Davis and Richard Gibbs who were the music producers, director Michael Rymer, Marilyn Manson, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and others. The next section is Making The Concert which features interviews with Townsend, Rymer and others discussing how the concert was set up and needed 3000 extras to complete. Finally we have Making The Score which is more interviews with the same people previously mentioned.

* Music Videos : In what is a nice touch we have 3 videos from the GROUP Lestat which are Redeemer, Forsaken and System. There is also an additional video from Static X called Cold.

* Club Reels : These are full versions of songs performed at the Death Valley concert. The first is “Not Meant For Me” which we didn’t see and “Slept So Long” which is the first song we saw.

* Gag Reel (2:45): This is an amusing selection of clips of the cast stuffing there lines and breaking up uncontrollably at things other cast members have done. Usual stuff but something I’d like to see more of.

* Stills Gallery : These photos have been broken down into sections and the number in brackets represents the amount of photos contained within that section. In Production Book we have Set Photography (3), Costume Design (7) & Conceptual Artwork (19). In Storyboards we have Lestat and Jesse Take Flight (16) and Akasha Rescues Lestat (18)