So you want me to tell you the story of my life.
Like I said, that's what I do. I interview people.
I'm a collector of lives.
FM radio, KFRC.
You'll need a lot of tape for my story.
No problem. I got a bag full of tape.
You followed me here, didn't you?
Yeah, I suppose I did.
You seemed very interesting.
This is where you live?
No.
It's just a room.
What do you say we get started?
What do you do?
I'm a vampire.
I haven't heard that before.
You mean this literally, I take it?
Absolutely.
I was waiting for you in that alley.
Watching you watching me.
And then you began to speak.
What a lucky break for me.
Perhaps lucky for both of us.
You said you were...
...waiting for me.
What were you going to do? Kill me, drink my blood?
Yes.
But you needn't be concerned now.
You really believe this, don't you, that you're a vampire?
We can't begin this way.
Let me turn on the light.
I thought vampires didn't like light. - We love it.
I only wanted to prepare you.
Christ.
Don't be frightened.
I want this opportunity.
How the hell did you do that?
The same as you do.
A series of simple gestures.
Only I moved too fast for you to see.
I'm flesh and blood...
...but not human.
I haven't been human for 200 years.
Please...
How can I put you at ease?
Shall we begin like 'David Copperfield'?
'I am born...
'...I grew up.'
Or shall we begin when I was born to darkness, as I call it.
That's where we should start, don't you think?
You're not lying, are you?
Why should I lie?
1791 was the year it happened.
I was 24.
Younger than you are now.
But times were different then. I was a man at that age.
The master of a large plantation, just south of New Orleans.
I had lost my wife in childbirth.
She and the infant had been buried less than half a year.
I would've been happy to join them.
I couldn't bear the pain of their loss.
I longed to be released from it.
I wanted to lose it all:
my wealth...
...my estate...
...my sanity.
How many aces are in a deck?
Are you calling me a cheat?
No, I'm calling you a piece of stinking offal.
You lack the courage of your convictions. Do it.
Most of all, I longed for death.
I know that now.
I invited it.
A release from the pain of living.
My invitation was open to anyone.
To the whore at my side.
To the pimp that followed.
But it was a vampire that accepted.
Give me your money or you die.
Do you still want death?
Or have you tasted it enough?
Enough.
He left me there, on the banks of the Mississippi...
...somewhere between life and death.
Who are you? What're you doing in my house?
I've come to answer your prayers.
Life has no meaning anymore... does it?
The wine has no taste.
The food sickens you.
There seems no reason for any of it... does there?
What if I could give it back to you?
Pluck out the pain...
...and give you another life?
One you could never imagine.
And it would be... for all time.
And sickness...
...and death...
...could never touch you again.
Don't be afraid.
I'm going to give you the choice...
...I...
...never had.
That morning, I was not yet a vampire...
...and I saw my last sunrise.
I remember it completely...
...and yet I can't recall any sunrise before it.
I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time...
...as if it were the first.
And then I said farewell to sunlight...
...and set out to become...
...what I became.
Have you said your good-byes to the light?
I've drained you...
...to the point of death.
If I leave you here...
...you'll die.
Or...
...you can be young always, my friend...
...as we are now.
But you must tell me...
...will you come...
...or no?
Yes.
Your body's dying.
Pay no attention.
It happens to us all.
Now look...
...with your vampire eyes.
What did you see?
No words can describe it.
Might as well ask Heaven what it sees.
No human can know.
The statue seemed to move, but didn't.
The world had changed, yet stayed the same.
I was a newborn vampire, weeping at the beauty of the night.
Perhaps you'd like another cigarette?
I would. It's not bothering you, is it?
I don't assume it would. It's not like you'll die from cancer.
I don't think so.
What about crucifixes? - Crucifixes?
Can you look at them?
Actually, I'm quite fond of looking at crucifixes.
And the stake through the heart?
Nonsense.
And coffins?
Coffins.
Coffins, unfortunately, are a necessity.
Don't worry.
Soon...
...you'll be sleeping as soundly as you've ever slept.
And when you awake...
...I'll be waiting for you...
...and so will all the world.
Blood, I was to find, was a necessity as well.
I awoke the next evening with a hunger I had never felt.
Once you taste this...
...you'll never go to another tavern again.
You think so?
But what if I'd rather taste your lips?
My lips are even sweeter still.
My friend...
...should taste those lips.
Is his...
...kiss...
...as deep...
...as yours?
Deeper, ma chérie.
I will not take her life.
I've done it for you.
She's dead...
...as a doornail, my friend.
It's so easy, you almost feel sorry for them.
You'll get used to killing.
Just forget about that mortal coil.
You'll become accustomed to it, all too quickly.
Are you not hungry?
Au contraire, ma chérie.
He could eat the whole colony.
I will finish it.
Now leave us.
Can't you pretend, you fool?
Don't give the game away.
We're lucky to have such a home.
Pretend to drink, at least.
Such fine crystal shouldn't go to waste.
I know.
It gets cold so quickly.
We can live like this?
On animal blood?
I wouldn't call it living. Call it surviving.
Useful trick if you're on a ship for a month.
There's nothing in the world now that doesn't hold some...
Fascination.
Yes.
I'm bored with this prattle. - We can live without killing.
It's possible.
Anything is possible.
But just try it for a week.
Come into New Orleans and let me show you some real sport.
Lestat killed two, sometimes three a night.
A fresh young girl...
...was his favorite for the first of the evening.
For seconds, he preferred a gilded, beautiful youth.
But the snob in him loved to hunt in society.
The blood of the aristocrat thrilled him best of all.
The trick is not to think about it.
You see that one?
Widow St. Clair.
She had that gorgeous young fop murder her husband.
How do you know?
Read her thoughts.
I can't.
The 'dark gift' is different for each of us.
But one thing is true of everyone. We grow stronger as we go along.
Just take my word for it.
She blamed a slave for his murder.
Imagine what they did to him.
Evil-doers are easier, and they taste better.
Where are we going?
Nowhere.
Now, young man, you really amaze me.
I'm old enough to be your grandmother.
Oh, yes, that's the melody.
I remember it.
Murderer.
My little papillons.
My butterflies, he killed them.
You... whining coward of a vampire...
...who prowls killing rats and poodles. You could've finished us.
You've condemned me to Hell.
I don't know any Hell.
That's more like it.
Anger. Fury.
That's why I chose you.
But you can't kill me, Louis.
Feed...
...on what you will.
Rats, chickens...
...poodles.
I'll leave you to it...
...and watch you come around.
Remember:
Life without me...
...would be even more...
...unbearable.
Consider yourself lucky.
In Paris, a vampire must be clever for many reasons.
Paris?
Here all one needs is a pair of fangs.
You came from Paris?
As did the one who made me.
Tell me about him. You must've learned something from him.
I learned absolutely nothing.
I wasn't given a choice, remember?
You must know something about the meaning of it all.
Why? Why should I know these things?
Do you know them?
That noise...
...it's driving me mad.
We've been here for weeks with nothing but that noise.
They know about us.
They watch us dine on empty plates and drink from empty glasses.
Come...
...to New Orleans then.
The Paris Opera's in town. We can try some French...
...cuisine.
Forgive me if I have a lingering respect for life.
You'll soon run out of chickens, Louis.
Monsieur Louis?
You don't want any supper?
No, ma chérie.
We're worried about you, Master.
When is it that you go riding in the field?
And how long since you've been to the slave quarter?
Everywhere there is death.
Are you still our master at all?
That will be all, Yvette.
I will not go unless you listen to me.
You must send away this friend of yours.
The slaves are all frightened of him...
...and they are frightened of you.
I'm frightened of myself.
Hear me now.
This place is cursed.
Damned.
And, yes, your master is the Devil.
Get out while you can. You're all free.
Do you hear me?
Run.
Save yourselves.
Perfect. Perfect.
Just burn the place. Burn everything we own.
Have us living in a field, like cattle.
You thought you could have it all.
Shut up, Louis.
Come on.
Where are we?
Where do you think, my idiot friend?
We're in a nice, filthy cemetery.
Are you happy?
Is this fitting? Proper enough?
We belong in Hell.
What if there is no Hell?
Or they don't want us there? Ever think of that?
But there was a Hell.
And no matter where we moved to, I was in it.
We rented rooms on the waterfront of New Orleans.
Your skin is icy.
Your friend has no head for wine.
Don't worry.
I can warm that cold skin of yours better than she can.
Do you think so?
Why...
...you're warm now.
But the price is high.
Your pretty friend, I exhausted her.
Soft.
So soft.
I can see you lying on a bed of satin.
Such things you say.
Do you know what manner of bed?
Should we put out the light?
And then put out the light.
But once I've put out thy light...
...I cannot...
...give it vital breath again.
Its needs must wither.
For you, Louis.
You can pretend it's wine.
She's not dead.
You're in love with your mortal nature. You resist what can bring you peace.
You call this peace?
We're predators,
whose all-seeing eyes give them detachment.
The girl, Lestat. - Take her. End that hunger.
No.
Now, my child.
You're tired, you want to sleep.
It's a coffin.
A coffin. Let me out.
I'm not dead.
It's your coffin, enjoy it.
Most of us never get to know what it feels like.
Why do you do this?
I like to do it. I enjoy it. Take your aesthete's taste to purer things.
Kill them swiftly if you will, but do it.
For do not doubt you are a killer, Louis.
What's that? - It's a coffin.
So it is. You must be dead.
I'm not dead, am I?
You're not dead.
Not yet.
Finish this now.
You finish it.
Save me from him.
Save me.
You'll let me go?
I can't die like this.
I need a priest.
My friend is a priest. He'll hear your sins before you die.
Unless... I make her one of us.
No.
Then take her, Louis, end her suffering. End yours.
No.
Now...
...are you happy?
My God.
To think you...
...are all I have to learn from.
In the Old World...
...they called it the 'dark gift.'
And I gave it to you.
Don't go that way, Monsieur. It's the plague.
Go back the way you came. - The way I came...
Mama.
Please help us.
Papa left us and didn't come back.
Please, wake Mama, Monsieur.
My philosopher. My martyr.
'Never take a human life.'
This calls for a celebration.
There's still life in the old lady yet.
Come back.
You are what you are.
Merciful death.
How you love your precious guilt.
Her blood coursed in my veins...
...sweeter than life itself.
And, as it did, Lestat's words made sense to me.
I knew peace only when I killed.
When I heard her heart in that terrible rhythm,
I knew what peace could be.
All I need to find you, Louis, is follow the corpses of rats.