Hello horror family. I hope things are going well on your side of the world. Me? I cannot complain, my personal life is good, work life is good, but, do you know what, my horror life could use a little love right now, so let’s do just that, shall we?

Today I would like to talk about Queen of the Damned (2002) and the reasons why I enjoy watching it over and over again, but first, I would like to quickly go down memory lane and reminisce about the day I watched it for the first time at the movie theater. I was in college, admittedly more focused on my social life than on academics, I remember going to the screening alone for some reason, absorbing every second of the experience since I was already a hardcore Anne Rice fan, curious as to how they were going to successfully adapt my favorite book of the Vampire Chronicles, a book which, by the way, seventeen years later still remains as one of my favorites from the entire collection (13 books and counting). I too remember the shock after realizing that Jonathan Davis from KoRn lent his voice for all the songs (the man even had a cameo appearance as a scalper for Lestat’s concert), which I remember finding both amazing and disorienting since his band was kind of a big deal for me at the time and my brain could not process what was happening in front of my eyes: favorite nu metal band, favorite fiction author, favorite book of the series, compelling Vampire characters, great soundtrack (Deftones, Static-X, Ticky, etc.), plus the great original score and songs from Davis, all of it together on film in an almost obscene display for my eyes and ears.

Wow, I hadn’t thought about that day in ages. Do you do this? Reliving vividly special past events? I see it as a gift and a curse, luckily, today it was the former.

Okay, so now that I have stablished how special the movie was for me, I would like to jump in and give you my Yes to YAZ! list of my top 5 characters/elements in Queen of the Damned. Here we go!

5. Lestat: I liked the fact that stylistically they chose to make him a brunette as I believe that added to the bad boy, rockstar sex appeal. Perfect hair? Check. Pale skin? Check. Slim body? Check. Tight jeans? Check. Sexual voice when speaking? Check. Extra sexual voice when singing? (Thank you again, Jonathan Davis.) Check. Commanding, intimidating presence? Check and check!

This was by far my favorite musical performance:

4. Flashbacks: The movie took elements from book 2 and book 3 (Lestat the Vampire, Queen of the Damned, respectively) of the Vampire Chronicles and at the same time took creative liberties as one would expect from a Hollywood adaptation (Magnus turned Lestat into a vampire, not Marius, just saying), yet the film worked just fine and unless you were an Anne Rice fan you would have never noticed the inaccuracies. I really appreciated going back in time and seeing all the period wardrobe and a “young” Lestat being mischievous as a brand new vampire.

3. Jesse: Not her looks, but the character’s choices reminded of me. Crazy? Yes. Does anyone care? No, no one does.

2. Marius: Strangely enough, I found myself responding more to him than to Lestat… there was something so incredibly attractive about Marius… also, paintings.

1. Queen Akasha: No explanation needed, I mean, just look at her!

Seriously, the ending of this seductive and destructive dance scene was, in my humble opinion, the money shot of the entire movie:

Okay my horror friend, this is it for now.

In Love and Fear,

- Marath