Interview with the Vampire

FADE IN:

EXT. DUBOCE STREET HILL SKYLINE (SAN FRANCISCO) - NIGHT

INT. BAR (SAN FRANCISCO) - NIGHT

UNDER CONTINUOUS ROARING ROCK MUSIC -- we see, but do not

hear:

YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN

talking in groups or couples, some dancing, as lightsflash. Punk hairdos, heavy makeup. Chatter.

DAVID MALLOY, aged 25, well-dressed, leans close to auniformed police officer, holding a mike to the officer'slips, as the officer talks. The wire from the mike leads

to a small recorder on the bar. Malloy also wears oneearphone plug connected to this recorder, which he holdsto his left ear.

CUT TO:

ANOTHER PART OF BAR - BOOTH

Malloy interviews two beautifully-dressed women, whoobviously flirt with him, as they answer his questions,

lean forward, talk into the mike. Malloy finishes hisdrink, puts the recorder in his pocket, takes out acigarette, looks for a door.

EXT. ALLEYWAY - MALLOY

Cigarette on lip, stumbles in darkness, amid garbage cansand debris, fumbling for lighter, then finally lighterflashes.

LOUIS is REVEALED for one instant only an inch fromMalloy, his hand on Malloy's shoulder. Faces almost

touching. Malloy stumbles away in shock.

Louis recedes more slowly into shadow.

MALLOY:

I'm sorry! I didn't know... youwere there.

He struggles to make out the figure but can't. Smokes

nervously.

LOUIS:

I know.

(CONTINUED)

2.

CONTINUED:

MALLOY:

Really, I didn't mean to run into

you.

LOUIS:

Go on. Pass by.

Malloy stamps out the cigarette, holds up the hand mike.

MALLOY:

You don't want to tell me the

story of your life, do you?

He flicks on the recorder in his pocket. Eagerly.

MALLOY:

That's what I do. I interview

people. I collect life stories.

Sometimes I interview four or five

people a night...

He backs away further. Louis is perfectly still.

LOUIS:

The story of my life?

MALLOY:

Yes, I've been collecting livesfor years. F.M. radio. K.F.R.C.

In there I just interviewed agenuine hero, a cop who...

LOUIS:

(quietly, politely)

You'd have to have a lot of tapefor my story. I've had a veryunusual life.

MALLOY:

So much the better. I've gotpockets full of tapes.

INT. ROOM (SAN FRANCISCO)

City skyline from Duboce Street hill.

Louis in shadow moves to the window, as behind him Malloysets the tape recorder on the table and sits in one oftwo straight chairs. Dim light burns on chest of drawersbeyond. As they talk, Louis keeps his back to the roomand Malloy.

(CONTINUED)

3.

CONTINUED:

MALLOY:

This is where you live?

LOUIS:

It's just a room...

MALLOY:

So how shall we begin?

(playfully, almost

teasing)

What do you do?

LOUIS:

I'm a vampire.

MALLOY:

Ah, and you mean this literally, Itake it.

LOUIS:

Yes. I was waiting for you inthat alleyway. You or whoever

came out of that doorway. And

then you began to speak.

Malloy laughs goodnaturedly.

MALLOY:

Well, what a lucky break for me.

LOUIS:

Perhaps lucky for both of us.

Still in shadow he turns from the window and approachesthe table.

LOUIS:

I want to tell you my story. All

of it. I'd like to do that verymuch. I'm glad we've met.

Malloy is uneasy as he studies the shadowy figure,

fascinated but afraid.

MALLOY:

You were going to kill me? Drink

my blood?

LOUIS:

Yes, but you needn't worry aboutthat now. I told you in the alley

to go on. I was letting you passby. I let a lot of motals passby.

(CONTINUED)

4.

CONTINUED:

Louis stands opposite, hand on the chair.

Malloy is riveted.

MALLOY:

Oh this is one I have to hear.

You believe this, don't you? That

you're a vampire? You reallythink...

LOUIS:

(patiently)

We can't begin this way. I'm

going to turn on the light.

MALLOY:

But I thought vampires didn't likelight.

LOUIS:

We love it. I only wanted to

prepare you.

Louis pulls the cord of the overhead naked light bulb.

LOUIS'S FACE

appears inhumanly white, eyes glittering. Inhuman or not

alive. The effect is subtle, beautiful and ghastly.

MALLOY:

Good God!

He struggles to suppress fear and understand.

LOUIS:

Don't be frightened. I want this

opportunity.

The light appears to go out by itself and suddenly Louisis in the chair, dimly lighted by the nearby lamp and thetape recorder has been turned on. The cassette is

turning.

MALLOY:

How did you do that!

LOUIS:

The same way you do it. A series

of simple gestures. Only I movedtoo fast for you to see. I'm

flesh and blood. Only not human.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

5.

CONTINUED:

LOUIS (CONT'D)

I haven't been for two hundred

years.

Malloy is speechless, frightened, yet enthralled.

Spellbound.

LOUIS:

What can I do to put you at ease?

Shall we begin like DavidCopperfield? I am born, I grow

up. Or shall we begin when I wasborn to darkness, as we call it.

That's really where we shouldstart, don't you think?

MALLOY:

(baffled)

You're not lying to me, are you?

LOUIS:

No. 1791 -- that's the year whenit happened. I was twenty-four -younger

than you are now.

MALLOY:

Yes.

LOUIS:

But times were different then. I

was a man at that age. The master

of a large plantation just Southof New Orleans...

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. LOUISIANA - DAY (1791)

A disheveled Louis, hair in pigtail, in deep pocket frockcoat, rides his horse through the fields of indigo,

waving here and there to the African slaves at work.

He passes slave quarters and the distant colonial raisedcottage mansion of Pointe du Lac.

CONTINUE V.O. as he speaks he approaches a small parishchurch and graveyard. He dismounts, approaches a rectangular

Greek style above ground tomb. The stone is

like a doorway.

(CONTINUED)

6.

CONTINUED:

LOUIS (V.O.)

I had only just lost my wife inchildbirth. She and the infant

had been buried less than half a

year.

Inscriptions on the high rectangular tomb show the names:

DIANNE DE POINTE DU LAC 1763 - 1791

INFANT JEAN MARIE 1791

Louis in mix of anger and sadness pushes away the vinesalready covering the head stone and stares bitterly atthe inscription which he touches with his fingers. Takes

a flask from his pocket, takes a heavy drink. He sits,

exhausted, against the grave, as if close to his wife andchild. Face tender and sad.

INT. DINING ROOM (POINTE DU LAC) - NIGHT

Table set with candelabra, gorgeous China.

Louis in soiled shirt and boots, sits at the head of the

table, staring at a plate full of steaming food.

YVETTE, pretty Mulatto slave, pours his glass full ofwine.

LOUIS (V.O.)

I had everything a man could askfor. Yet a darkness had come that

would not lift.

YVETTE:

Please, Michie, eat your supper.

Please. We pray for you everyday.

Louis doesn't move.

Yvette takes his linen napkin from the ring and tries toput it in his lap. He takes her wrist firmly. Rises

from table.

LOUIS:

(patiently)

I know, ma chere. I need time.

EXT. RIVERFRONT STREET (NEW ORLEANS)

of gunwale sidewalks and loud, crowded riverfront tavernsfull of ruffians.

(CONTINUED)

7.

CONTINUED:

Louis in ragged lace and dirty brocade coat walksdrunkenly along the sidewalk. As he enters a crowded,

smoky little tavern and blunders into a card game, flatboat

men and one FANCY-DRESSED GAMBLER eye him as a mark.

He lays his money down on the table. They deal him in.

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