The Queen of the Damned

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Queen of the Damned
Directed by	Michael Rymer
Written by	Anne Rice (novel), Scott Abbott (screenplay), Michael Petroni (screenplay)
Starring	Aaliyah, Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau,
Release date(s)	February 22, 2002
Running time	101 min. 104 min.(Spain)
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Queen of the Damned is the third novel of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. It follows Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. This novel is a continuation of the story that ends in a cliffhanger in The Vampire Lestat and explores the rich history and mythology of the origin of the vampires, which dates back to Ancient Egypt.

Like Interview with the Vampire, The Queen of the Damned was made into a film. Much of the production and filming locations were in Melbourne, Australia. The Queen of the Damned movie was released in 2002, featuring Aaliyah and directed by Michael Rymer. Most film critics were less than impressed by the film. Aaliyah, who played the undead Queen, had died in a plane crash before the film could be completed, and some people argue that the only reason that the film was released in theaters (instead of going direct to video, as had previously been intended) was to capitalize on her much-publicized death. The film featured a contemporary soundtrack with original songs written by Jonathan Davis and Richard Gibbs, performed by Wayne Static, David Draiman, Chester Bennington, Jay Gordon and Marilyn Manson. The soundtrack also featured previously released material from other bands.^[1]

Contents 1 Synopsis 1.1 Plot summary 1.2 The Origin of Vampires 1.3 Vampiric gifts 2 Film and novel differences 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Plot summary

The plot of Queen of the Damned is extensive and complex. The first part of the book tracks several different people over the same period of several days. We are introduced to several new mortals and vampires: Pandora, Jesse, Maharet, Khayman, Eric, and David Talbot. We also see several characters from the earlier books: Armand, Daniel (the "boy reporter" of Interview with the Vampire), Marius, Louis, Gabrielle and Santino. Each of the six chapters of the first part tells a different story about a different person or group of people. Two things unify these chapters: a series of dreams about red-haired twin sisters who live in ancient times and are witches, and the fact that some powerful being is killing vampires around the world by making them spontaneously combust.

Pandora and Santino go to rescue Marius, who has been telepathically calling for help and trying to warn others of some great approaching danger. As they arrive at his home in the far north, they find him buried under ice. They learn that Akasha has been awakened by Lestat's rock music. She has destroyed her husband Enkil and hatched a plot to rule the world. It is Akasha who has been killing the other vampires, trying to reduce the undead to a small number of vampires totally loyal to her.

The second part of the book takes place at Lestat's concert. Jesse is mortally injured and is taken to Maharet's Sonoma compound, where she is made into a vampire and where the rest of the vampires from the first part congregate. The only missing ones are Akasha and Lestat. She has kidnapped him and takes him on a whirlwind tour of the world, inciting women to rise up and kill the men who have oppressed them and trying to convince him to be her consort.

The third portion of the book takes place at Maharet's home in Sonoma, in the middle of a giant forest. There Maharet tells the story of Akasha, and the red haired twins, who are in fact Maharet and her sister, Mekare, to Pandora, Jesse, Marius, Santino, Armand, Daniel, Louis and Gabrielle. Also present are Mael and Khayman, both of whom already know the story. (see "Maharet and Mekare")

In the fourth part of the book, Akasha confronts the gathering of vampires at Maharet's compound. There she lays down her plans and offers the gathering of vampires a chance to be her 'angels' in her New World Order. If they refuse, she says, she will kill them. The others state that they will not join her, and before she can make good on her promise to destroy them, Mekare bursts in and kills her. Mekare then devours Akasha's brain and heart, the only way to save the remaining vampires, becoming the new queen, and destroying Akasha for good.

Shaken, the vampires leave Maharet's compound to gather at Armand's gay resort, called "Night Island," (according to Anne Rice, inspired by Fire Island) in Florida and recover. Over time they disband, various vampires going their separate ways. At the end of the book, Lestat takes Louis to see David Talbot in London. After a brief visit they take off into the night, an incensed Louis and his angry words filling Lestat with glee.

The 2002 film deviated from much of this storyline and killed off some of the characters, including Pandora. In the novel, none of those gathered at Sonoma died apart from Akasha. The characters of Mekare, Santino, Daniel, Louis, Gabrielle, and Eric don't even show up in the movie. It also provided some of the backstory that in the books is given in The Vampire Lestat, for instance Lestat's meeting of Marius and discovery of Those Who Must Be Kept. However, this backstory is also significantly altered. For instance, Marius, not Magnus, is Lestat's maker in the movie.

Warner Bros. was already into its last year of owning motion picture rights to the first three Vampire Chronicles books which would then have transferred back to author Anne Rice, who could then sell the rights to another company of her choosing. Knowing what little time they had left, despite the fact they had had the rights and opportunity to make the latter two movies for over seven years, Warner Bros. hastily hired writers to condense the books The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned into one movie with the latter being the movie title.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The Origin of Vampires

The Queen of the Damned, the novel, deals with the origins of vampires themselves. The mother of all vampires, Akasha, begins as an Egyptian queen many thousands of years ago. During this time two powerful witches (Maharet and Mekare) live in the mountains of an unnamed region. Their village is destroyed and they are taken hostage by the king and queen, who desire their knowledge. All the while, there is an unnamed bloodthirsty spirit who continually comes to the witches to ask if they need help, although they prudently decline the offer. When they tell Akasha something that she does not want to hear, she is horrified and orders the two to be raped by Khayman. Afterward they are cast out into the desert. While making her way back home with a pregnant Maharet, Mekare curses the king and queen secretly with the bloodthirsty spirit. Eventually this spirit inflicts such torment on Akasha and Enkil that they call the sisters back and beg for their aid.

However, a number of conspirators have been plotting against the young king. Planning to say that the spirit killed the monarchs, the conspirators assassinate the royal couple in their possessed house. While Akasha is dying, the spirit tries to drink her blood. Instead he ends up merging with her soul, making her the first vampire. The newly arisen Akasha gives her king the Dark Gift to save his life; she also turns Khayman into a vampire. She orders the witches to be mutilated -- Maharet loses her eyes and Mekare her tongue. Afterward, Khayman comes to them and makes them into vampires as well. The three flee, but are caught by Akasha's soldiers. Khayman escapes but Maharet and Mekare are put in two separate coffins which are then set afloat on two separate bodies of water. They do not see each other again until the events of Queen of the Damned.

Mekare has gone into the ground for these many centuries, while Maharet goes back to her daughter to watch over her, and her decendents. Maharet's daughter's children become what is known as the Great Family, the progeny of the Daughters of Maharet. They are traced maternally, and there are members belonging to every culture, religion, ethnicity, and race. The Great Family represents all humanity and shows the vampires what, exactly, Akasha would be destroying by creating her New World Order.

It becomes clear that as the source of all vampires, Akasha and Enkil are connected to all of the undead by the blood and spirit that all vampires share. In an experiment by the first Keeper, Akasha and Enkil are exposed to sunlight when they are several thousand years old. This merely gives them a tan. However, all other vampires are wounded, and many of the weakest die, thus confirming the legend that anything that harms Akasha will also directly affect all of her progeny.

[edit] Vampiric gifts

Those who have lived for more than a thousand years are by far the most powerful of the vampires; they are called the Children of the Millennia (including Marius, Pandora, Mael, and Santino). After several hundred years, and depending on their maker, vampires begin to exhibit special gifts (These include the Fire Gift, which allows vampires to ignite the vampiric blood in weaker vampires, making them burst into flame. They also receive the gifts of flight, astral projection, and telekinesis. Flight is considered a terrible power by some vampires.)

• Mind Gift (the combined abilities of telepathy and telekinesis). This is the ability to communicate and read thoughts, especially of humans, and to move objects with the mind. This gift is used largely to obtain food - since, via telepathy, a human who sins can be sensed, and most vampires (except when extremely hungry or really evil) refuse to feed on the innocent, and so this allows them to identify their prey. It is also impossible for a maker to contact his fledgeling via telepathy, although a strong one can look through the eyes of those near their fledgeling, or weakly hear the thoughts of their fledgeling though another vampire in a form of relay effect. Older vampires may also possess the ability to move objects with the mind, as witnessed through Akasha's destruction of the Elder, and Marius' opening and unlocking the doors to Akasha's shrine in Blood and Gold.
• Spell Gift. Mentioned in Blood and Gold, this gift allows a vampire to cloud the mind of a human, bending the human to his or her will. Marius employs the Spell Gift often, especially when employing humans to move Enkil and Akasha to a new location.
• Super speed, vision, hearing. All vampires have these super senses and are able do things much better and faster than humans can, and with little or no effort (for example, the child vampire Jenks ability to handle a Harley motorcycle with no trouble, despite possessing the body of a rather Slight 14 year old girl). They can hear a victim's heartbeat, or run too fast to be seen. Super speed is called "celerity" in the text.
• Fire Gift (also known as pyrokinesis). Another powerful gift, usually only developed by a Child of the Millennia. This gift was possessed by Marius, Akasha, Khayman, Lestat, Mekare and Maharet. With the Fire Gift, a vampire can set alight an object or being of their choice, for example, in Blood and Gold, when Akasha destroyed Eudoxia's body by fire, or in the film when she set fire to the vampires in bar and at the concert. This power is only shown to effect vampires, in humans it seemed to cause them to have a stroke, much like Rowan Mayfair's killing telekinesis, or the Killing Gift. No vampire had ever been mentioned to set a mortal human directly on fire, as the ability ignites the "changed" blood found within a vampire. However, the same gift can cause the mind to rupture in a non-immortal.
• Cloud Gift (flight). Depending on whether you stick to the novels or the cinematic depiction, not all vampires have this ability. According to the books, it is not clear that Lestat or Louis have any of these abilities until they taste the old blood. Flight is a gift given only to the very old, those who are truly not attached to the flesh that holds the vampire spirit. All the old ones, including Jesse and Lestat have these gifts after feeding on Maharet and Akasha, respectively. Louis and Gabrielle, Lestat's mother, do not have these gifts or are never mentioned having them. As mentioned above, vampires hate the gift of flight, as it causes them to realize that they are truly not human anymore.
• Super Strength: vast, unlimited, super strength in Akasha's case due to her being the most powerful.
• Killing Gift: Believed to be possessed by the eldest Children of the Millennia, like most gifts it comes with age. Known holders of this power are Akasha, Marius, Maharet and Mekare, Khayman, Mael, Lestat and possibly Jesse. With a mere thought they could kill mortals with this dark gift by liquefying their internal organs.
• Immortality: Unless killed by one of the vampire's weakness, namely sunlight and fire, or an elder's Dark Gift, it is said that they live eternally. As they age they become more powerful and slowly their skin turned to marble, or a marble-like substance, as seen with Akasha and Enkil, Maharet, Mekare, and Khayman, in this time they become detached from their flesh and gain flight and astral projection. Lestat and Jesse receive these gifts after feeding on Akasha and Maharet, respectively. During their immortality vampires go into hibernation, after going momentarily insane with the fact that they will live forever, usually this happens after two-hundred years of being created. This time is mentioned as the "sensitive time" by the elders. Many of these vampires commit suicide. Maharet and Louis are the only one who are not mentioned to hibernate, mainly because Maharet stays "grounded" by her mortal daughter's descendants, all of whom she keeps in contact with.
• Super Healing Powers: are immune to most attacks other than their known weakness and even then are apparently able to heal super fast, especially if they feed or are covered in vampire blood.

[edit] Film and novel differences

Spoiler warning: Plot for following book shared.

Film	Book
Akasha is portrayed as having dark golden skin and green eyes which sometimes change into red ones. She was portrayed in the movie by the late actress and singer Aaliyah.	Akasha and Enkil are as white as marble, all skin pigmentation having been lost completely due to their extremely advanced vampiric age, and Akasha has black eyes.
Marius is Lestat's maker, and is portrayed with short dark hair and dark eyes.	Magnus is Lestat's maker; Lestat doesn't meet Marius, who is said to have long white-blonde hair and blue eyes, until about ten years after he has been made.
Lestat has brown hair.	Lestat has blond hair and is based upon Stan, Anne Rice's husband.
Lestat sends a man out to bring back victims so that he can feed on them.	Lestat does no such thing. He takes his own kills at all times, choosing only to feed on "evildoers" for a large part of his existence.
Marius instructs Lestat on how to be a vampire after he makes him. He tells Lestat not to drink from his victims when their hearts stop, or it will kill him.	Lestat had minimal instruction from his maker, Magnus, and was left to fend for himself. Magnus does tell him not to drink until the heart stops, because he might follow the victim down (presumably into death).
Marius comes to Lestat in the present, telling him he always knew where he was because he is Lestat's maker.	Louis comes to Lestat, not Marius. Makers and their fledglings cannot read each others minds.
Gabrielle and Louis are not mentioned.	Gabrielle and Louis, Lestat's fledglings, are a significant presence.
Jesse is twenty-something, is never mentioned to have psychic powers, and is a novice in the Talamasca. Jesse and Lestat are portrayed as being in love. A connection to Mael is only hinted at during the concert scenes, but completely overshadowed by her relationship to Lestat and Mael killed off by Akasha.	Jesse is thirty-five, a witch, and a field-operator of the Talamasca, which brings her in contact with Claudia's spirit, sparking her obession with vampires in general and Lestat in particular. Jesse is infatuated with Lestat but Lestat is merely impressed with her. If Jesse is in love with anyone, she is in love with Mael.
Jesse believes that Lestat is a vampire from the first moment she hears of him, and is eager to investigate. She tells David Talbot that she is going to Lestat's concert.	Jesse is assigned to New Orleans to research vampires and Lestat, and she thinks the assignment is ridiclous. Once she does come to believe in him, she goes off to the concert against the Talamasca's wishes, and doesn't tell David. He finds out that she is there when he sees her at the show.
Jesse is made by Lestat after the Queen is dead.	Maharet makes Jesse after she is nearly killed in the riot at Lestat's concert.
Mekare is never mentioned, her role merged into that of her sister Maharet.	Mekare plays the most important role in the origin story and the climactic scene.
Lestat's concert is held in Death Valley, California.	The concert is held in San Francisco.
The vampires at Lestat's concert attack him during the show, and Akasha rises from the stage, carrying Lestat away with her.	The vampires attempt to attack Lestat after the show, and he runs away with Gabrielle and Louis. Akasha comes to him in his coffin, right before he falls asleep at sunrise.
Most vampires can fly, including the younger ones.	Only very old or powerful vampires can fly. Lestat cannot fly until after he drinks Akasha's blood.
Akasha and Lestat are awake during the day and able to go out into the sunlight without becoming burned. Akasha claims that Lestat can do so because he drank her blood.	Vampires cannot go out into the sun without injury. Younger or weaker vampires will be destroyed by the sun; older or more powerful vampires will be burned. The extent of that burning will vary depending on the vampire's age or strength, along with duration and intensity of exposure.
Akasha only kills vampires and the entire population of a Greek island.	Akasha does not kill vampires that are known and loved by Lestat (she also fails to kill all vampires, as evidenced by the survival of those such as Khayman and Eric (and Thorne, who only emerges in Blood and Gold), who Lestat has never met). Posing as the Queen of Heaven (and the Virgin Mary), Akasha telepathically urges women to kill nearly all the men in third-world countries, making the man-woman ratio 1:100, because she sees men as the root of all evil.
Akasha gestures to Lestat to drink from her, but does not move. Enkil never moves.	In The Vampire Lestat, Akasha is awakened by Lestat playing the violin and comes down from her throne. As Lestat drinks from Akasha, Enkil almost kills him.
Lestat is still playing with the violin of the beautiful Greek girl he charmed during his "instructions" (She was killed by Lestat when her father discovered he was a vampire).	The girl with the violin was never in the books. The violin belonged to Lestat's second fledgling, Nicolas, who committed vampiric suicide while under the care of Armand. The violin is crushed when Akasha awakens from her throne.
David Talbot is a middle-aged man. At the end of the film, Marius is seen going into David's home.	David Talbot is old and Marius never met him in person, much less attempted to give him the Gift. In a later book, David actually forbade Lestat to turn him into a vampire when Lestat offered (although Lestat eventually did turn David after the affair with the body thief, which left David's soul in a younger man's body).
Pandora and Mael are killed during the final battle with Akasha. Pandora is shown as being Indian. Armand is blond and is looks to be in his early 20s.	None of the vampires are killed in the final battle with Akasha. Pandora is a Roman with brown hair, and Armand has auburn hair and was made when he was 17 after being struck by a poisoned blade during a duel.
Maharet drank the last drop of Akasha's blood, which killed Akasha and turned Maharet into stone like Akasha.	Akasha dies from Mekare eating her brain and heart, thus making her the new Queen. Maharet consumed neither article.
There is no significant insight into or discussion of the origin of the vampires.	The origin of the vampires is a central plot point in the book.
Akasha simply aims at renewing her primeval rule and calls humans "brute creatures" and "merely food".	Akasha tries to usher in a era of peace for the benefit of female humans. She kills the vampire Azim exactly for using humans as merely food.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Queen of the Damned at the Internet Movie Database
• Queen of the Damned at Rotten Tomatoes
• Queen of the Damned at Metacritic
• Queen of the Damned Soundtrack Fanlisting
• Queen of the Damned at Box Office Mojo

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
Interview with the Vampire | The Vampire Lestat | The Queen of the Damned | The Tale of the Body Thief | Memnoch the Devil The Vampire Armand | Merrick | Blood and Gold | Blackwood Farm | Blood Canticle
New Tales of the Vampires
Pandora | Vittorio the Vampire
Characters
Lestat | Gabrielle | Louis | Claudia | Armand | Magnus | Those Who Must Be Kept | Maharet and Mekare | Marius | Pandora Bianca | David | Jesse | Khayman | Daniel | Mael