Queen of the Damned ★★ 2002 (R) Based on the third book in Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" resurrects vampire Lestat (Townsend) to rock the new millennium after a 200-year nap. He's awakened to become the singing sensation of a goth band (what's more goth than a vampire?). He soon meets up with Jesse (Moreau) a reckless vampire researcher and fellow vampires Marius (Perez), and Maharet (Olin). Lestat's new lady love, however, is Akasha (late pop star Aaliyah), the mother of all the vampires who has big plans for her and her bloodsucking beau, to, (what else?) rule the world. Her followers feel differently, however. Camp, but not camp enough to excuse it's lameness and host of lifeless performances. One dimensional characters and lackluster plot leave this drag of a Queen to Rice and vampire fans only. 101m/C VHS, DVD. US AU Aaliyah, Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Perez, Lena Olin, Paul McGann, Claudia Black, Bruce Spence, Christian Manon;
Director:
Michael Rymer;
Writer:
Scott Abbott;
Writer:
Ian Baker;
Cameo:
Richard Gibbs, Jonathan Davis.
