Interview with the Vampire Page #3

DREAM SEQUENCE:

thickens as we see HAZY fragments suggesting possibility:

A)

Louis, beautifully-dressed, dancing with a woman.

B)

Louis and Lestat together riding horses fast throughthe night.

LAUGHTER, MUSIC, HEARTBEAT INTERMINGLE.

PAN OVER an audience of bejeweled and wigged spectatorsall clapping and cheering. Return to:

INT. LOUIS'S BEDROOM

Louis sits against the bedstead staring intently atLestat.

Silence.

FOCUS ON LESTAT:

seated on the bed.

Then:

LESTAT:

You have to ask me for this. You

have to give your full consent,

do you hear?

(CONTINUED)

13.

CONTINUED:

LOUIS:

Give it to me!

LESTAT:

(seductive)

Vampires. We slay our brothersand sisters.

LOUIS:

I want it!

LESTAT:

And thrive on their blood.

LOUIS:

Give it to me.

Lestat bends close as if to drink Louis's blood. Louis

does not shrink back, but stares into his eyes. Lestat

draws back, stands up, leaves through French doors, then

says:

LESTAT:

Tomorrow night. I want you toprove yourself. I shall give youthe choice I never had.

(looks outside)

The sun's coming. Watch it

carefully. If you join metomorrow, you'll never see the sunagain.

Louis sits dazed staring at the empty French windows.

The sun rises over the swamplands and the plantation. Sun

fills the room, striking water pitcher, glass, mirror.

INT. RIVERFRONT TAVERN (NEW ORLEANS)

Crowds of gamblers and revelers carry on at tables andmakeshift bar.

Suzanne is slipping a poison into a man's drink and thenhelps him stagger into:

EXT. ALLEYWAY

There she robs the man and lets him fall down dead in the

mud.

14.

INT. TAVERN - LOUIS AND LESTAT

at a corner table are watching Suzanne as she re-enters.

LOUIS:

(fearfully,

confusedly)

You mean now, with this knife?

He reveals the dagger inside his coat.

LESTAT:

She's an evildoer, my friend.

I've made it easy for you. Don't

you see what she's up to? If youcan kill her, the Dark Gift is

yours.

Louis rises, uncertain, crazed, pushes through thecrowded tavern, approaches Suzanne and seduces her outinto the same alley.

EXT. ALLEYWAY

Louis stares in horror at the bloody knife in his hand asSuzanne falls back dead onto the ground.

Lestat appears over his shoulder, looking coldly at thedead woman. He puts his hand on Louis's shoulder.

LOUIS:

What have I done?

LESTAT:

(reassuring)

It won't be this way when you'reone of us.

Louis drops the dagger on the ground and moves away fast.

EXT. POINTE DU LAC

Louis on a horse dismounts and walks towards the stepsleading up to the gallery. He is crazed with guilt.

Suddenly, as he comes into light from lantern at foot ofsteps he sees -

LESTAT:

sitting collected at the head of the steps.

15.

LOUIS:

backs up as Lestat rises and descends the steps so fluidlyhe hardly appears to move. Light from lantern illuminatesLouis as:

LOUIS:

You are the devil, aren't you?

That's who you are.

LESTAT:

(gently)

I wish I were. But if I were,

what would I want with you?

LOUIS:

I can't go through with this.

LESTAT:

You're perfect for it. You're

bitter, and you're strong.

LOUIS:

But why do you want me?

LESTAT:

Because you're as strong as Iwas... when I was alive. And

besides, I like you. I like yourconscience. You remind me of...

myself.

Louis takes out his flask and drinks. Fearlessly, drunkenly,

he turns and heads slowly for the nearby swamp.

EXT. PARISH CEMETERY - GRAVES OF LOUIS'S WIFE AND BABY

Louis stops in front of the crypt. Leans his forehead

against the stone.

Lestat appears beside him, radiant, beautiful.

LESTAT:

You really want to be with them?

LOUIS:

Yes. I killed that tavern girl.

I deserve to die.

Lestat in quiet rage, raises his right fist and shattersinto large fragments the rectangular marble face stone,

revealing two coffins on the upper and lower shelf.

Insects swarm from opening.

(CONTINUED)

16.

CONTINUED:

The upper coffin slides out, cracks open, revealing half-

rotted body of a woman, holding an infant, no longerrecognizable as individuals, a tangle of gruesome, rottedflesh, hair, eaten away lace, insects and worms crawlingover it.

Louis gasps and bends closer taking in the full horror.

LESTAT:

It's not your wife and child,

Louis. It's death. Just that

simple. Think and choose. It

happens to everyone. Except us.

Lestat stares at him, smiling, becoming a hazy dreamlikevision, and then hyperclear. He draws closer and closer.

We hear the FLASK fall and BREAK ON paving STONES.

Louis is again spellbound. Sound of HEARTBEAT.

Lestate appears angelic in his radiance.

LESTAT (V.O.)

(patient and

persuasive)

We shall be this way, always.

Young as we are now. I'm so

lonely for a companion... But youmust ask. Do you want to or no?

Louis's senses are confused. He is entranced.

LOUIS:

(tentative and then

sure)

Yes. Yes!

Lestat embraces Louis obscuring his face. HEARTBEAT growsLOUDER. DRUMBEAT comes, OUT OF SYNC, but almost together.

LOUIS'S POV

The moon, the clouds, the sky, and fragments of earliervisions, blurred figures are glimpsed, with earlier dreamimages. LAUGHTER and MUSIC rise and fall under the

UNSYNCHRONIZED SLOWING BEAT of the HEART and the DRUM.

BACK TO SCENE:

Lestat lets Louis fall down beside the broken crypt.

(CONTINUED)

17.

CONTINUED:

Lestat stands over him, once again radiant. Lestat speaksgently.

LESTAT:

You may go now.

Lestat lifts his hand to his lips and blows Louis a kiss.

LOUIS:

No! No, give it to me.

Lestat lifts his own right wrist to his teeth. Fangsslash his own flesh, blood falls. Louis rises to receive

the first drops into his open mouth. Lestat gathers himup, as Louis clamps his hand on Lestat's arm and sucksfrom the wrist.

HEARTBEAT AND DRUMBEAT are SYNCHRONIZED and grow STRONGERand pick up speed.

Louis is released. Staggers.

VAMPIRE VISION:

The world around him (and the look of the film) is transformed;

the swamp, the CRY of the night BIRDS, the moon,

the clouds, all reflect his heightened vision. He looks

down in pity on the rotted woman and infant who appear toglitter and to be beautiful rather than repulsive. He

closes the lid of the coffin, astonished at the ease of

it. Then lifts the entire coffin and returns it to its

slot in the crypt.

He turns and stares at Lestat whom he sees now with a

vampire's vision. Lestat's eyes are brighter. His

buttons are glimmering in the light.

Everything is clearer, brighter, containing more facetsof light and color.

LESTAT:

(lighthearted)

Stop staring at my buttons.

Didn't I tell you it was going to

be fun? But we've work to do.

Lestat leads him into the swamp. Tiny CREATURES move orSING everywhere; leaves move as if growing before Louis's

eyes. The water makes myriad OVERLAPPING sounds, and hecan see deep into it, to the creatures swimming in thedepths.

(CONTINUED)

18.

CONTINUED:

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