Tamed Monsters and Human Problems in Cinema’s &lt;i&gt;Interview with the Vampire&lt;/i&gt; (1994)

P Stuart Robinson

doi:10.7557/13.5007

Abstract

What can the taming of the monster reveal about its construction and the potential and limits of change? Modernist, individualist qualities of Western culture and society have shaped the construction and deconstruction of the monster in popular culture in general and film in particular. The idea of an historically emergent human nature and its associated norms is key to the construction of the monster as transgressive. Less obvious but nonetheless apparent is the constraining role this Western construction of human nature continues to play in recent cinematic attempts to approach the monster more closely. These are explored through a consideration of vampire movies within the horror genre, with a focus on Interview with the Vampire (dir. Neil Jordan, 1994), as arguably both influential within and emblematic of a more general trend. The film dismantles the conventional monster figure of the vampire, humanising her by detailing her transposition from a natural, human setting to something otherworldly. Human (read as Western) qualities are reinforced and salvaged from the disturbing ambivalence of conventional monstrosity, as we observe the logic of ‘human’ adaptation to alien conditions. In this way, both the paradoxical model of freedom as conformity to nature and the naturalising reification of contingent social groupings are re-affirmed.

Highlights

Louis de Pointe du Lac looks out of the hotel window, suited and ponytailed, his back to the foregrounded young journalist who prepares to tape their conversation, arranging those cumbersome late-20th-century accoutrements of documentation
What is less obvious is the constraining role this Western construction of human nature continues to play in recent cinematic attempts to approach the monster more closely
Collective or political subjectivity is likewise reaffirmed through the idea of a natural order proper to vampires, which mirrors that of humans

Summary

Introduction

Louis de Pointe du Lac looks out of the hotel window, suited and ponytailed, his back to the foregrounded young journalist who prepares to tape their conversation, arranging those cumbersome late-20th-century accoutrements of documentation. It raises questions about the social and political context of the monster as a widely recognised figure of otherness. Though the cultural roots of the monster figure clearly run much deeper, it has taken a certain form and role within Western society, which reflect the normalising tendencies described above.

Results

Conclusion