Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD for all currently released Interview with the Vampire episodes! Take to your coffin until the sun sets and you’ve completely caught up with the new show!
Author Anne Rice wrote a number of thrilling supernatural novels before she died in late 2021, and with several of them focusing on the story of Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac, it makes sense that there have been continued efforts to bring their relationship back to the screen. Now, fans of her books have more than the popular 1994 film, Interview with the Vampire, to enjoy, as a series of the same name has hit AMC and offered up a different take on the tale.
While it’s unlikely that most vampire stories are devoid of violence, and the film adaptation of the writer’s work certainly displayed the bloody nature of a vamp’s life, the dark new television show has taken things to new heights in the episodes which have debuted so far. If you’re interested to know more about the horrifying acts committed by the lovers (and, soon, their immortal sorta daughter, Claudia) then look no further than this list of the most brutal Interview with the Vampire kills so far. We’ll be updating the entries accordingly, so be sure to bookmark this article to see if our opinions match up. Now, let’s get to it!
Episode 1 - That Poor Priest
Oh, boy. I cannot pretend that I wasn’t completely shocked by this kill, as while there were others during the course of the 1910-set events of the premiere episode, they were either simply referred to or not so overly bloody that the show seemed to be on track to compete with its network mate, The Walking Dead.
It was near the end of the episode, after Louis (Game of Thrones star Jacob Anderson) had submitted to Lestat’s (Sam Reid) seduction and the much older vamp has (I believe, anyway) led Louis’ beloved and troubled brother to commit suicide, that we get a truly brutal death that the camera doesn’t flinch from one bit. As Louis is attempting to thwart Lestat’s mental pull, he goes into his church to confess his sins. It’s then that the powerful vampire pulls his priest from the confession booth and drains him. That’s bad enough, but Louis is then forced to watch as another priest comes upon the scene and tries to escape, only for Lestat to use his telekinetic powers to lock the man in. He then catches up to him… and punches his head clean through, leaving only the outline of his skull behind.
Episode 2 - The Opera Singer
Sometimes, in stories where characters who do villainous things are basically the heroes of the story, we find that those characters have strict rules about who they will or won’t kill and how, which is generally a way to make their actions somewhat easier to handle for us mere mortals trying to do the right thing in life. Well, it turns out that Lestat has a bit of a code, which is that if someone pisses him off by not appreciating the beauty of the arts, they are automatically at dire risk.
During the second episode, Lestat treats Louis to a night at the opera, where the French immortal is thoroughly taken with the performance of the musicians and the diva on stage. Everything is going well until her male counterpart enters the scene, and hits several bad notes that even a person with only a passing knowledge of music would notice. Lestat makes a point to speak to the singer later, eventually inviting him back to his home so that they can sing the piece together. When it becomes clear that he’s no more capable of performing than he was when on stage, Lestat doesn’t simply drain him dry, but paralyzes him (again using his powers) so he can’t leave, and so that he and Louis can slowly drink from him as he dies a prolonged, agonizing, and likely confusing death through the night.
Episode 3 - Alderman Fenwick
Look, I’m far from bloodthirsty when it comes to wanting bad characters to be punished for their misdeeds. But, after watching Louis struggle in the early 1900s to maintain his successful businesses amid the racism from white entrepreneurs and local politicians, I was actually glad to see this kill. Though Alderman Fenwick had been a consistent patron of Louis’ brothel/saloon, by 1917 the pressure was on to shut him down so that businesses owned by white men could thrive, and the alderman is already pissed that Louis wouldn’t go into business with him earlier.
After Fenwick offers to buy his saloon for a ridiculously low price, Louis puts a “no whites allowed” sign on his club, which only leads to even more retaliation from the cops and lawmakers. Louis has now had enough. He sneaks into Fenwick’s home while the man’s family is away and gets angrier and angrier as the alderman taunts him. After doing just enough physical damage and showing just enough of his powers so that the racist knows he’s not up against a regular man, the next morning finds Fenwick eviscerated and hanging from the gate of St. Louis Cathedral with a “whites only” sign pinned to his bloody corpse.
Episode 4 - Oh, Charlie
The fourth episode offered up a doozy of a story with a definite horror comedy bent as we got to watch the highlights of Claudia’s first years as a vampire, which perfectly set up a devastating moment near the end, especially for anyone who thought her burgeoning romance with young Charlie would have some sort of happy ending.
After a bit of courting, the two have a make-out session near the stables in Charlie’s carriage. While kissing, Claudia gets carried away and bites her new boyfriend, only to quickly realize that instead of just taking a taste of his life force, she seems to have drained him. When she carries him home to beg Lestat to turn him, he callously (and with a devious smile on his face) informs her that she “didn’t half kill him, you killed him completely.” This leads to Claudia being forced to watch Charlie burn in their incinerator, with us being teased that her guilt over his death will lead to some dire consequences for our vamp trio.
Well, it’s pretty clear that this show is going to continue to set itself apart from the movie that so many fans know, and I can’t wait to see what they do next. Interview with the Vampire airs on AMC, Sundays at 10 p.m. EST and can be streamed with an AMC+ subscription.
