Queen of the Damned follows the legendary vampire Lestat (Stuart Townsend), who has reinvented himself as a rock star in the contemporary American music scene. His music wakes Akasha (Aaliyah), the queen of all vampires, and inspires her desire to make Lestat her king. Akasha’s malevolent power is so great that all the immortal vampires must stand against her if they want to survive. Meanwhile, a young London woman with a fascination for the dark side (Marguerite Moreau) falls in love with Lestat.

Perhaps this is a hot take, but Queen of the Damned is every bit as enjoyable as the original Interview with the Vampire film (but nowhere near as good as AMC’s 2022 TV series or its currently airing sequel series, The Vampire Lestat). That’s not to say this is a good movie or anything. But it is a fun one. Occasionally decent, more often than not so-bad-it’s-good—especially those wildly horrible visual effects. And nowhere near enough Paul McGann for my tastes. Stuart Townsend gives a respectable performance as Lestat. Though he lacks the gravitas of Tom Cruise or Sam Reid, he nevertheless channels all the early-2000s emo energy he possibly can, and it gives Lestat an energy that’s still fun to follow. But, of course, it’s Aaliyah’s breathtaking performance that steals the show. The movie underutilizes her, especially since she is the titular Queen of the Damned. But every time she comes on screen, the movie feels so much better than it actually is.

For fans of the books, this ends up being a whole lotta Vampire Lestat and a shockingly small amount of The Queen of the Damned. And while that may make for a more interesting movie, it doesn’t make for a faithful adaptation of Anne Rice’s series. And don’t even begin to ask me what went on in the last half hour of the film; I couldn’t begin to explain it, and it feels like a whole bunch of expository scenes were missing—as though the editor ripped scenes out at random. But it’s hard to be mad at The Queen of the Damned when, even at its worst, it’s nothing less than a bunch of good, goofy fun—even if it didn’t make a lick of sense.

3 out of 5 wands.