Interview with the Vampire
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Screenplay by         Anne Rice
   
   Produced by           Stephen Woolley
                         David Geffen
   
   Directed by           Neil Jordan
   
   
   
   Cast List:
   
   Tom Cruise            Lestat de Lioncourt
   Brad Pitt             Louis Pointe du Lac
   Antonio Banderas      Armand
   Stephen Rea           Santiago
   Christian Slater      Daniel Malloy
   Kirsten Dunst         Claudia
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
                                               FADE IN:
   
   
   INT. ROOM - NIGHT (SAN FRANCISCO)
   
   A small bare room, illuminated only by the streetlight
   coming through the window.
   
   A hand presses a cassette into a recorder and fiddles
   with a small microphone.
   
   Malloy sits over a table fiddling with the tape. He is
   young, half-shaven, dressed in T-shirt and jeans. He
   looks too -
   
   LOUIS, who stands by the window, looking out on the
   street, with his back to Malloy. Louis is dressed in an
   old-fashioned suit.
   
                       LOUIS
             So you want me to tell you the
             story of my life...
   
                       MALLOY
             That's what I do. I interview
             people. I collect lives. F.M.
             radio. F.F.R.C. I just interviewed
             a genuine hero, a cop who -
   
                       LOUIS
                   (quietly interrupting)
             You'd have to have a lot of tape
             for my story. I've had a very
             unusual life.
   
                       MALLOY
             So much the better. I've got a
             pocket full of tapes.
   
                       LOUIS
             You followed me here, didn't you?
   
                       MALLOY
             Saw you in the street outside. You
             seemed interesting. Is this where
             you live?
   
                       LOUIS
             It's just a room...
   
                       MALLOY
             So shall we begin?
                   (playfully, almost
                   teasing)
             What do you do?
   
                       LOUIS
             I'm a vampire.
   
   Malloy laughs.
   
                       MALLOY
             See? I knew you were interesting.
             You mean this literally, I take it?
   
                       LOUIS
             Absolutely. I was watching you
             watching me. I was waiting for you
             in that alleyway. And then you
             began to speak.
   
                       MALLOY
             Well, what a lucky break for me.
   
                       LOUIS
             Perhaps lucky for both of us.
   
   Still in shadow he turns from the window and approaches
   the table.
   
                       LOUIS
             I'll tell you my story. All of it.
             I'd like to do that very much.
   
   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 about
             that now. Things change.
   
   Louis stands opposite, hand on the chair. Malloy is
   riveted.
   
                       MALLOY
             You believe this, don't you? That
             you're a vampire? You really
             think...
   
                       LOUIS
             We can't begin this way. Let me
             turn on the light.
   
                       MALLOY
             But I thought vampires didn't like
             the light.
   
                       LOUIS
             We love it. I only wanted to
             prepare you.
   
   Louis pulls the chord of the overhead naked light bulb.
   
   
   LOUIS' 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
   Louis is in the chair, dimly lit by the street-light
   from the window. The cassette is turning.
   
                       MALLOY
             How did you do that?
   
                       LOUIS
             The same way you do it. A series of
             simple gestures. Only I moved too
             fast for you to see. I'm flesh and
             blood, you see. But not human. I
             haven't been human for two hundred
             years.
   
   Malloy is speechless, frightened yet enthralled.
   
                       LOUIS
             What can I do to put you at ease?
             Shall we begin like David
             Copperfield? I am born, I grow up.
             Or shall we begin when I was born
             to darkness, as I call it. That's
             really where we should start, don't
             you think?
   
                       MALLOY
             You're not lying to me, are you?
   
                       LOUIS
             Why should I lie? 1791 was the year
             it 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 south of
             New Orleans...
   
                                               DISSOLVE
                                               TO:
   
   
   EXT. LOUISIANA - DAY (1791)
   
   A disheveled Louis, hair in pigtail, in deep pocket
   frock coat, rides his horse through the fields of
   indigo, passing an overseer and slaves at work.
   
   He passes slave quarters and the distant colonial
   mansion of Pointe du Lac.
   
   He comes to a small parish church and a graveyard. he
   dismounts and walks through the tombs to an elaborate
   one in Greek Style.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I had just lost my wife in
             childbirth. She and the infant had
             been buried less than half a year.
   
   There is a marble angel above the tomb, feminine, with
   a tiny cherub angel in her arms. Louis looks from the
   angel, down to the inscriptions on the tomb:
   
   "DIANNE DE POINTE DU LAC 1763 - 1791
   INFANT JEAN MARIE - 1791"
   
   Louis rips away the vines already covering the
   inscription, then drinks from a pocket-flask. His face
   is ashen.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I was twenty-four and life seemed
             finished. I couldn't bear the pain
             of their loss. I longed for a
             release from it.
   
   
   INT. WATERFRONT TAVERN - NIGHT
   
   Louis in ragged lace and dirty brocade sitting between
   two whores at a gaming table, drinking absinthe. All
   around him flatboatmen, whores, gamblers, black African
   freedmen.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I wanted to lose everything. My
             wealth, my estate, my sanity. But
             Lady Luck didn't oblige.
   
   Louis displays a hand of four aces. A gambler at the
   table stands in fury, over turning money, cards,
   drinks.
   
                       LOUIS
             You're calling me a cheat?
   
                       GAMBLER
             I'm calling you a piece of shit -
   
   The Gambler pulls out a pearl-handled pistol and points
   it at Louis. The crowd hushes and draws back. Louis
   smiles drunkenly and stands. he rips open his lace
   shirt, exposing his chest.
   
                       LOUIS
             Then do me a favor. Get rid of this
             piece of shit...
   
   The Gambler's finger on the trigger. His hand shakes.
   
                       LOUIS
             You lack the courage of your
             convictions, sir. Do it.
   
   LESTAT, a hooded figure in the corner, smiles from
   beneath the shadow of his hood. Gleaming blue eyes.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Most of all I longed for death. I
             know that now. I invited it, a
             release from the pain of living...
   
   The Gambler lowers his gun, scowling. Louis pockets the
   fistfulls of coins he has won.
   
   
   EXT. WATERFRONT - NIGHT
   
   Loud, crowded riverfront taverns full of ruffians.
   Louis staggers down, an arm around a whore, drinking
   from a bottle. A pockmarked pimp follows behind.
   
                       LOUIS
             My invitation was open to anyone.
             Sailors, thieves, whores and
             slaves...
   
   
   EXT. WHARF - NIGHT
   
   Louis, quite insensible, being propped up against a
   wall by the whore in a dank wharf over the water. The
   pimp rifles his pockets, then pulls a knife, about to
   slice his throat, when a shadow falls over him. He
   turns, and we see the face of Lestat, who lifts him
   into the air by his throat, breaking his neck. the
   whore screams and Lestat's other hand clamps over her
   mouth. Lestat drags her towards him. Louis falls to the
   ground, supported no more, insensible. Close on his
   face, as we hear the last breaths of life of the whore,
   off.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             But it was a vampire that accepted.
   
   
   IN THE WATER
   
   The bodies of the thief and whore float by. Above on
   the wharf, Louis, now awake, stares down at them. He
   turns, to see Lestat, towering above him.
   
                       LESTAT
             They would have killed you -
   
                       LOUIS
             Then my luck would have changed.
   
                       LESTAT
             You want death? Is it death you
             want?
   
                       LOUIS
             Yes...
   
   Lestat floats down on top of him, then lifts him in the
   air, draws his head back by the hair and sinks his
   teeth in his neck.
   
   
   ON LOUIS' FACE
   
   Every muscle rigid, teeth clenched, as the blood is
   drained from him.
   
   
   ON THEIR FEET
   
   Hovering above the ground, like two quivering dancers.
   
   THE WIND billows through the ghostly white sails and
   rigging of the boats around the wharf.
   
   
   LESTAT
   
   Floats higher, with Louis in his arms, draining his
   blood. One hand reaches out and grips a rope, hanging
   from a shipmast. The other holds Louis. He withdraws
   his teeth, and looks into Louis' drained face.
   
                       LESTAT
             You still want death? Or have you
             tasted it enough?
   
   Louis can barely get the words out.
   
                       LOUIS
             Enough...
   
   Lestat smiles and lets him go. Louis falls and plummets
   into the water below.
   
   
   LOUIS' FACE
   
   Coming to the surface, in the water lapping by the
   wharf. The bodies of the whore and thief float beside
   him. He looks up and sees Lestat way above him,
   dangling from the rope of the shipmast.
   
   
   INT. ROOM - SAN FRANCISCO
   
   ON MALLOY'S FACE
   
   Captivated, terrified, enthralled.
   
                       MALLOY
             That's how it happened?
   
                       LOUIS
             No. The Gift of Darkness requires
             more than that, as you'll see.
   
   
   EXT. WATERFRONT - DAY
   
   Louis floating by mudflats, surrounded by dead fish,
   the carcasses of animals, eighteenth century rubbish.
   He gets to his feet and walks weakly through the
   mudflats. The sun is coming up over the sea behind him.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             He left me half dead that morning.
             he wanted something from me. He
             came back the following night.
   
   
   INT. LAVISH FRENCH-FURNISHED BEDROOM AT POINT DU LAC
   
   Louis is delirious in a four-poster bed, shrouded with
   mosquito netting. A female slave, YVETTE, bathes his
   face with a rag. She is crying. Other slave women hover
   in the shadows. Yvette puts out all candles save one by
   the bed, and withdraws, with the others.
   
   Candlelight flickers on the face of the bisque virgin.
   
   Louis tosses and turns, dreaming, murmuring
   incoherently. Then he opens his eyes.
   
   LESTAT, exquisitely dressed in French clothing, stands
   by the bed smiling. In the light of the candle we see
   that he is not human; skin too white; eyes too bright.
   Lestat looks amiable, even mischievous, but impossible
   - and angel or monster.
   
   Louis grabs his pistol from the table and cocks it.
   
                       LOUIS
             Who the hell are you? What are you
             doing in my house?
   
                       LESTAT
             And a beautiful house it is too.
             Yours is a good life, isn't it?
   
   Louis takes aim. Lestat puts his hand over the barrel.
   Louis fires. The bullet tears a hole in Lestat's hand.
   Lestat is unfazed. He takes the gun from Louis' hand
   and throws it away. His hand begins to heal.
   
                       LESTAT
             You're not afraid of anything, are
             you?
   
                       LOUIS
             Why should I be?
   
   Louis reaches for his sword, hanging by the bed, and
   point it. Lestat laughs indulgently. He draws closer.
   
                       LESTAT
             Are you going to put that through
             me too? Ruin my beautiful clothes?
   
   He comes closer to Louis, right up to his face, so the
   sword passes through his waistcoat.
   
                       LESTAT
             Were all last night's promises for
             nothing?
   
   He reaches out with his now-healed hand and plucks out
   the sword.
   
                       LOUIS
             What do you want from me?
   
                       LESTAT
             I've come to answer your prayers.
             You want to die, don't you? Life
             has no meaning anymore, does it?
   
   Lestat sits down on the bed, drawing up one knee. Louis
   is becoming spellbound.
   
                       LESTAT
             The wine has no taste. The food
             sickens you. There seems no reason
             for any of it, does there? But what
             if I could give it back to you?
             Pluck out the pain and give you
             another life? And it would be for
             all time? And sickness and death
             could never touch you again?
   
   The vampire theme rises, with the sound of a heartbeat.
   
                                               DISSOLVE
                                               TO:
   
   
   EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT
   
   The camera drifts through the graveyard where Louis'
   wife is buring. Everything is lit with an eerie glow,
   as if seen through some unearthly eye.
   
                       LESTAT
             Vampires, that's what we are.
             Creatures of darkness, only we see
             it that darkness more clearly than
             any mortal has ever seen...
   
   Louis and Lestat drifting, dreamlike, through the
   overhanging vines, comes to the grave of his wife and
   child. Above the crypt, the statue of angel, mother and
   child.
   
                       LESTAT
             Wouldn't it be sweet to bid pain
             goodbye? To wave away anguish and
             grief? To embrace the peace of the
             unending night?
   
   The marble fingers of the child on the statue move. The
   angel raises her head and has the face of Louis wife,
   Diane. she raises her hand and touches Louis tear-
   streamed face. The child speaks.
   
                       MARBLE CHILD
             Papa...
   
   Louis reaches out to embrace them and finds himself
   touching cold marble. He cries out in anguish-
   
                       LOUIS
             Diane!!!!
   
                       LESTAT
             They are gone, Louis. Death took
             them. Death which you can now
             destroy...
   
                       LOUIS
             NO!!!!!
   
   
   INT. LOUIS BEDROOM - NIGHT
   
   Louis, thrashing on the bed in a delirium. Lestat
   places a hand on his forehead and soothes him.
   
                       LESTAT
             You have to ask me for this. You
             have to want it, do you hear me?
   
                       LOUIS
             Give it to me!!!
   
                       LESTAT
             Vampires. We thrive on blood.
   
                       LOUIS
             I want it!
   
   Lestat bends close as if to drink Louis' blood. Louis
   does not shrink back, but stares into his eyes. Lestat
   draws back, then stands up and goes to the French
   doors.
   
                       LESTAT
             Tomorrow night. You must prove
             yourself. I will give you the
             choice I never had.
   
   He looks outside.
   
                       LESTAT
             The sun's coming up. Watch it
             carefully. If you come with me
             tomorrow, you'll never see it
             again.
   
   He leaves. Louis sits dazed, staring at the empty
   French window. The sun rises with unnatural beauty,
   over the swamplands and the plantation, filling the
   room, striking water-pitcher, glass, mirror, and the
   picture of his dead wife.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             My last sunrise. That morning I was
             not yet a vampire, and I saw my
             last sunrise. I remember it
             completely, yet I don't remember
             any sunrise before it. I watched
             the whole magnificence of the dawn
             for the last time, as if it were
             the first. And the I said goodbye
             to sunlight and went out to become
             what I became.
   
   
   EXT. PLANTATION - NIGHT
   
   Lestat and Louis walk through the slave quarters,
   huddles groups around fires, music, singing. The sound
   of whipping is heard.
   
                       LESTAT
             Your grief has unhinged you. You've
             let your estate rot.
   
   In the woods beyond the quarters, the white overseer is
   whipping a black slave, with horrifying savagery.
   
                       LESTAT
             You let your overseer run riot,
             work your slaves to the bone. We'll
             start with him.
   
                       LOUIS
             How do you mean, start?
   
                       LESTAT
             Call him.
   
   Louis calls.
   
                       LOUIS
             Carlos!!!
   
   The overseer turns and comes towards them, with the
   bloodied whip.
   
                       LESTAT
             Why the bloody whip, Carlos?
   
   The overseer looks into his eyes, shivers with terror,
   drops the whip and runs for the trees. Lestat is on him
   in an instant. He sinks is teeth in his neck. Louis
   runs to him, tries to pull him off. But Lestat turns to
   Louis and smiles, with his bloodied mouth.
   
                       LESTAT
             Let's call that a start.
   
                       LOUIS
             I can't do it.
   
                       LESTAT
             You've just done it -
   
                       LOUIS
             Kill me if you will, but I can't do
             this...
   
   He flees, as Lestat ends to finish off the overseer.
   
   
   EXT. POINTE DU LAC - NIGHT
   
   Louis running up the steps leading to the gallery. He
   is crazed with guilt. He looks up and sees -
   
   
   LESTAT
   
   Sitting collected at the head of the steps.
   
   
   LOUIS
   
   Backs away as Lestat rises and descends the steps so
   fluidly he hardly seems to move.
   
                       LESTAT
             Don't worry. He was white trash,
             they come at two a penny. I dumped
             him in the swamp and untied the
             slave, licked his wounds clean.
   
                       LOUIS
             You're 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 it, I tell
             you.
   
                       LESTAT
             Your perfect. Your bitter and
             you're strong.
   
                       LOUIS
             But why do you want me?
   
                       LESTAT
             Because you're as strong as I was
             when I was alive.
   
   Louis takes out his flask and drinks. Drunkenly, he
   turns and heads for a nearby swamp.
   
   
   EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHT
   
   Louis stops again in front of the crypt. Drinks from
   the flask, leans his forehead against the stone.
   
   Lestat appears beside him, radiant, beautiful.
   
                       LESTAT
             You really want to be with them?
   
                       LOUIS
             Yes. Kill me. Kill me like you
             promised -
   
                       LESTAT
             You asked for death. I didn't
             promise it -
   
   In a quiet rage, Lestat raise his fist and shatters the
   marble face stone, revealing a coffin below. His fist
   shatters that in turn, revealing the half-rotted body
   of a women, holding an infant, no longer recognizable
   as individuals, a tangle of gruesome rotted hair,
   flesh, eaten away lace, insects and worms crawling over
   it.
   
   Louis gasps.
   
                       LESTAT
             It's not your wife and child my
             friend. It's death. Just that
             simple. Think and choose. It
             happens to everyone. Except us.
   
   Lestat stares at him, smiling, becoming a hazy
   dreamlike vision, then hyperclear. Louis again is
   spellbound. He drops the flask, which shatters on the
   stones.
   
   Lestat appears angelic in his radiance.
   
                       LESTAT
             We shall be this way always, my
             friend. Young as we are now. I'm
             lonely for a companion, lonely for
             your strength. But I'm not that
             lonely. Do you want to come or not?
   
   Louis capitulates in one long sigh.
   
                       LOUIS
             Yes...
   
   Lestat comes closer, smiling.
   
                       LESTAT
             Did I hear a yes?
   
                       LOUIS
             Yes...
   
   Lestat embraces Louis, obscuring his face. He drinks
   his blood. We hear two heartbeats, out of sync, coming
   together. We see Louis' face, growing paler, paler, as
   his blood is drained. His eyes stare upwards, losing
   their focus.
   
   
   LOUIS' POV
   
   The moon, through hanging vines. The marble statue of
   his wife and child smile at him, as if come alive. Her
   hair blows in the breeze, wonderful gold tresses, the
   child's fingers reach out...
   
   
   BACK TO SCENE
   
   Lestat lets Louis fall down beside the broken crypt.
   Louis looks from the rotting bodies to Lestat above
   him. radiant. Lestat speaks gently.
   
                       LESTAT
             I've drained you to the point of
             death. If you drink from me you
             live for ever. If I leave you here
             you die.
   
   Lestat lifts his hand to his lips and blows Louis a
   kiss.
   
                       LOUIS
             No. Don't leave me here. Give it to
             me.
   
   Lestat lifts his own right wrist to his teeth. Fangs
   slash his own flesh, blood falls.
   
                       LESTAT
             You're sure?
   
                       LOUIS
             Sure...
   
   Louis rises to accept the first drops with his open
   mouth. Lestat gathers him up, as Louis clamps his hand
   on Lestat's arm and drinks from the wrist.
   
   The VAMPIRE THEME swells.
   
   Lestat watches him drink his wrist with wry amusement.
   Louis finishes, staggers away from him as if drunk.
   
   
   LOUIS' POV
   
   Vampire vision. The world is transformed, the swamp,
   the moon, the clouds, the cry of the night birds all
   come to him with unnatural clarity. He looks down with
   pity at the corpses of his wife and child who appear
   beautiful in death now rather than repulsive. He closes
   the lid of the coffin and replaces it in the ground,
   astonished at the ease of it.
   
   He turns and stares at Lestat whom he sees now with
   vampire's vision. Lestat's eyes are brighter, his
   buttons are glimmering in the light. Everything is
   clearer, brighter, containing more facets of light and
   color.
   
                       LESTAT
             Stop staring at my buttons. Didn't
             I tell you it was going to be fun?
   
   Lestat leads him into the swamp. Everything astonished
   Louis, as if he's never seen it before. Louis is
   suddenly racked by shudders of pain.
   
                       LESTAT
             You're body's dying. Pay no
             attention. It will take twenty
             minutes at most.
   
                       LOUIS
             Dying?
   
   Louis dry-retches.
   
                       LESTAT
             It happens to us all.
   
   Lestat wipes Louis' brow.
   
                       LESTAT
             Come, you're going to feed now.
   
                       LOUIS
             I want a woman.
   
   Lestat laughs and his laughter echoes like bells in
   Louis' ears.
   
                       LESTAT
             That doesn't matter anymore, Louis.
             You'll see. Come...
   
   
   LOUIS' VAMPIRE POV - SWAMP
   
   Small high ground. Camp of runaway slaves. Several
   share a bottle of rum around the fire. A male slave
   rises. A gorgeous hunk of flesh in the moonlight and
   goes into the swamp to relieve his bladder.
   
                       LESTAT
             They're all beautiful now. Men,
             women, the old, the young...simply
             because they are alive. -
   
   The slave walks towards them in the darkness. A
   crucifix gleams round his neck.
   
                       LESTAT
             Take him.
   
                       LOUIS
             The crucifix -
   
                       LESTAT
             Forget the crucifix. Take him.
   
   Louis hesitates.
   
                       LESTAT
             Resist no more Louis. Feed...
   
   The slave looks up and sees them. Two gleaming white
   beings standing before him with devil's eyes. The he
   runs.
   
   Louis can resist him no more. He swoops on him with a
   vampire's rapid movement, brings him to the ground and
   sinks his teeth in his neck.
   
   Close on Louis feeding on the slave, the magnificent
   body shuddering in its death-throes. Lestat stands
   above, laughing.
   
   The slave dies. Louis rises from him, drunkenly,
   engorged with blood.
   
                       LOUIS
             What have I done?
   
                       LESTAT
             You have fed. You were made for
             this...
   
   Louis looks down at the body of the slave. Lestat's
   laughter echoes around him.
   
                       LOUIS
             Dear God, what have I done?
   
                       LESTAT
             You've killed Louis. And enjoyed
             it.
   
   Lestat laughs harder. Louis runs from him, screaming in
   anguish.
   
   
   EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT
   
   Louis reaches his wife's grave. He falls to his knees,
   throws back his head and bares his new fangs to the
   moon.
   
                       LOUIS
             Dear God, what have I become????
   
   
   INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT
   
   Malloy stares at Louis, terrified and enthralled.
   
                       MALLOY
             You said the slave had a
             crucifix...
   
                       LOUIS
             Oh, that rumor about crosses?
   
                       MALLOY
             You can't look at them...
   
                       LOUIS
             Nonsense, my friend. I can look on
             anything I like. And I am
             particularly fond of looking on
             crucifixes.
   
                       MALLOY
             The story about stakes through the
             heart?
   
                       LOUIS
             The same. As you would say today...
             Bull shit.
   
                       MALLOY
             What about coffins?
   
                       LOUIS
             Coffins... coffins unfortunately
             are a necessity...
   
   
   EXT. MANSION - NIGHT
   
   Louis walks up the steps to the mansion. He looks now
   like a fully-fledged vampire. Yvette, the slave girl
   stares at him from the open doorway. Cascades of
   harpsichord music come from the interior.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Killing is no ordinary act. It is
             the experience of another's life
             for certain. That night I had lost
             my own life and taken another's. I
             was drowning in a sea of human
             guilt and regret, with all the
             heightened senses of a vampire...
   
   Louis enters the mansion, following the harpsichord
   music, as if in a dream. Yvette draws back as he
   approaches.
   
   
   INT. MANSION - NIGHT
   
   Louis wanders into the parlor, where Lestat is playing
   the harpsichord rapidly and exuberantly. Louis goes to
   a full-length mirror and sees his own reflection there
   - quite the perfect vampire.
   
                       LESTAT
             Yes, that's you, my handsome
             friend. And you'll look that way
             till the stars fall from heaven.
   
                       LOUIS
             It can't be...
   
                       LESTAT
             Give it time. You're like a man who
             loses a limb and still imagines he
             feels pain. It will pass. And we
             must sleep now. I can feel the sun
             approaching.
   
   
   EXT. POINTE DU LAC
   
   Dawn spreading over the plantation.
   
   
   INT. BASEMENT - POINTE DU LAC
   
   A brick walled storage room. Two coffins stand on the
   floor. Lestat enters with a lantern, Louis behind.
   Lestat is apprehensive and protective of Louis. He
   pulls back one lid ot reveal a satin interior.
   
                       LESTAT
             You must get into it. It's the only
             safe place for you when the light
             comes.
   
                       LOUIS
             And if I don't?
   
                       LESTAT
             The sun will destroy the blood I've
             given you. Every tissue, every
             vein. The fire in this lantern
             could do that too.
   
   Louis approaches the coffin, hands trembling as he
   peers into it.
   
                       LESTAT
             Don't be afraid. In moments you'll
             be sleeping as soundly as you ever
             slept. And when you awake I'll be
             waiting for you, and so will all
             the world.
   
   Louis crawls into the coffin, fearful yet fascinated.
   
                       LOUIS
             You told me something earlier. You
             said you didn't have a choice. Was
             that true?
   
   Lestat smiles bitterly and nods.
   
                       LESTAT
             Someday I'll tell you. We have a
             lot of time to talk to each other.
             You might say... we have all the
             time we shall ever need.
   
   He closes the lid.
   
   Total darkness. Sounds of Louis' panicked breathing. Of
   his prayer again.
   
                       LOUIS
             Dear God, what have I done?
   
   
   INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT
   
   Louis and Lestat sitting at a sumptuous table, piled
   with uneaten food. Lestat is going through sheafs of
   documents.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I awoke the next evening to a
             different world. And I realized
             there are as profound differences
             between vampires as between human
             beings...
   
   Lestat, totting up figures on a piece of paper.
   
                       LESTAT
             Your wealth, dear Louis, is
             inestimable. Your income from
             cotton alone will keep us in
             comfort for a century.
   
   Louis just stares at him.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I sat there staring at him with
             contempt. He had the soul of a
             shopkeeper, he was the sow's ear
             out of which nothing fine could be
             made. I felt sadly cheated in
             having him as a teacher...
   
   Lestat looks up at him and grins.
   
                       LESTAT
             You'll get used to killing. Just
             forget about that mortal coil.
             You'll become accustomed to things
             all too quickly.
   
                       LOUIS
             Do you think so?
   
   Yvette enters, stands behind him, staring at Lestat
   with loathing.
   
                       YVETTE
             You are not hungry, sir...
   
                       LESTAT
             Au contraire, my dear. He could eat
             a horse...
   
   Lestat laughs loudly. Louis turns and looks at Yvette.
   Her beautiful forehead in the candlelight, the veins
   pulsing on her neck and her hands.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I looked at anything mortal and saw
             all life as precious, condemning
             all fruitless guilt and passion
             that would let it slip through the
             fingers like sand...
   
   Yvette returns his stare, troubled.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             It was only as a vampire that I
             could see Yvette's beauty. Her fear
             of me increased my desire.
   
   Yvette reaches for his uneaten plate. Louis stops her
   hand. Holds it for a beat too long, looking at the
   veins in her wrist.
   
                       LOUIS
             I will finish it, Yvette. Now leave
             us.
   
   She turns and runs from the table. Lestat leans towards
   him.
   
                       LESTAT
             Can't you pretend, you fool? Don't
             give the game away. We're lucky to
             have such a home.
   
   His hand snakes out under the table. It comes up
   holding a large grey rat.
   
                       LESTAT
             Pretend to drink, at least.
   
   He bares his fangs and slices the rat's throat. He
   pours the blood into a crystal glass.
   
                       LESTAT
             Such fine crystal shouldn't go to
             waste...
   
   He hands the glass to Louis. Louis drinks the blood and
   stares at it in surprise, then at the dead rat on the
   fine lace tablecloth.
   
                       LESTAT
             I know. It gets cold so fast.
   
                       LOUIS
             We can live like this? Off the
             blood of animals?
   
   Lestat shrugs.
   
                       LESTAT
             I wouldn't call it living. I'd call
             it surviving. A useful trick if
             you're caught for a month on a ship
             at sea.
   
   Lestat strokes the belly of the dead rat, studying it
   sadly.
   
                       LESTAT
             There's nothing in the world now
             that doesn't hold some...
   
                       LOUIS
             Fascination...
   
                       LESTAT
             Yes. And I'm bored with this
             prattle -
   
   He throws the rat away.
   
                       LOUIS
             But we can live without taking
             human life. It's possible.
   
                       LESTAT
             Anything is possible. But just try
             it for a week. Come into New
             Orleans and let me show you some
             real sport!
   
   He rises. Louis follows.
   
   
   EXT. NEW ORLEANS - NIGHT
   
   A big, lavish drinking place with a raised stage.
   
   Italian actors in buffoonish costumes act crude
   commedia dell'arte on the stage.
   
   Plantation owners in soiled brocade, lace, crooked wigs
   watch the show as tavern wenches move about.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             This was New Orleans, a magical and
             magnificent place to live. In which
             a vampire, richly dressed might
             attract no more notice in the
             evening than hundreds of other
             exotic creatures.
   
   Louis and Lestat by a table, in the shadow of a tree.
   Teresa, a tavern wench, sits on Lestat's lap, pouring
   drinks for the two of them. She lifts a fresh glass to
   Lestat's lips as he flirts with her.
   
                       TERESA
             Come on, mon cher. The best in the
             colony. Once you touch this you'll
             never go to any other tavern again.
   
                       LESTAT
             You think so, cherie? But what if
             I'd rather taste your lips?
   
                       TERESA
             My lips are even sweeter still...
   
   She kisses him. He lets his tongue play with hers, then
   runs it down her neck. She swoons with pleasure. Then
   he sinks his teeth gently in her neck, looking
   playfully behind at Louis, who if appalled and
   fascinated.
   
   
   ANTICS ON THE STAGE
   
   Laughter rocks the tavern.
   
   Lestat slips the pale and dead Teresa into a chair
   beside him and folds her hands on the table. No one
   notices. He lays gold coins on the table and touches
   Louis' knee.
   
                       LESTAT
             Let's get out of here!
   
   Lestat rushes out, thrilled with himself.
   
   
   EXT. TAVERN - NIGHT
   
   A crowded street. Louis and Lestat emerge from the
   tavern. Louis looks up at the moon.
   
                       LOUIS
             Have you ever been caught?
   
                       LESTAT
             Of course not. It's so easy you
             almost feel sorry for them.
   
   They walk down the crowded night street, full of ladies
   in their finery, freed slaves, whores, sailors etc.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Lestat killed two, sometimes three
             a night. A fresh young girl, that
             was his favorite for the first of
             the evening.
   
   
   INT. FRENCH QUARTER MANSION - BALLROOM
   
   Small orchestra plays for colonial couples in fine wig
   and garb prancing to a French minuet. Young women sit
   in chairs along the walls with their chaperones. Young
   men stand opposite.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             But the triumphant kill of Lestat
             was a young man. They represented
             the greatest loss to Lestat because
             they stood on the threshold of the
             maximum possibility of life.
   
   A youth of preternatural beauty, silhouetted against
   French windows. He is talking to an elegant widow,
   seated, holding two manicured poodles. Lestat stares at
   the youth with longing.
   
                       LESTAT
             The trick is not to think about it.
             See that one? The widow St. Clair?
             she had that gorgeous young fop
             murder her husband. She's perfect
             for you. Go ahead.
   
                       LOUIS
             But how do you know?
   
                       LESTAT
             Read her thoughts.
   
                       LOUIS
             I can't.
   
                       LESTAT
             The dark gift is different for each
             of us. But one thing is true of
             everyone. We grow stronger as we go
             along.
   
   He leads Louis closer to them.
   
                       LESTAT
             Take my word for it. She blamed a
             slave for his murder. And do you
             know what they did to him?
   
   He smiles at the young man, who smiles in return.
   
                       LESTAT
             The evildoers are easier. And they
             taste better...
   
   
   EXT. LAWNS - NIGHT
   
   Lestat walks the youth towards a copse of trees. He
   looks back at Louis, who holds both poodles on a
   delicate leash, walking with the widow. The minuet
   spills from the french windows.
   
                       WIDOW ST. CLAIR
             Now, young man, you really amaze
             me! I'm old enough to be your
             grandmother.
   
   She leans towards him concquettishly. Louis, crazed
   with hunger, sees her as beautiful in the moonlight. He
   allows her lips reach his. He takes her in his arms,
   gently, romantically, and sinks in his teeth. She
   swoons.
   
                       WIDOW ST. CLAIR
             Yes, that's the melody, I remember
             it. Oh yes...
   
   Louis draws his lips away. She is weak in his arms, but
   still alive. He can't do it. The poodles growl. He
   shoots out an arm and grabs one, then the other.
   
   
   EXT. TREES - NIGHT
   
   Lestat, bending over the body of the dead youth. A
   scream pierces the night.
   
                       WIDOW ST CLAIR
             Murder!!! Murderer!!
   
   
   EXT. LAWNS. NIGHT
   
   The widow on the grass, her poodles dead beside her.
   Louis is trying to quiet her.
   
                       WIDOW ST CLAIR
             My little papillions! My
             butterflies!!! He killed them!!!
   
   Lestat comes from nowhere, claps a hand over her mouth
   and breaks her neck. He spits in fury at Louis.
   
                       LESTAT
             You whining coward of a vampire who
             prowls the night killing rats and
             poodles. You could have finished us
             both!
             
   Louis throws himself on Lestat with extraordinary
   force, pummeling him towards the trees.
   
                       LOUIS
             What have you done to me? You've
             condemned me to hell.
   
                       LESTAT
             I don't know any hell -
   
   Louis hurls him against tree after tree with a strength
   he never knew he had.
   
                       LOUIS
             You want to see me kill? Watch me
             kill you then -
   
   He drags him to the ground an throttles him. Lestat
   looks up at him, amazed and amused at the same time.
   
                       LESTAT
             What strength, my friend, what
             strength. I remember why I chose
             you now.
   
   Lestat squirms from his grip, seemingly effortlessly.
   
                       LESTAT
             But you can't kill me, Louis. Nor I
             you.
   
   He ruffles Louis' hair, with wry affection.
   
                       LESTAT
             Feed on what you want, mon cherie.
             Rats, chickens, doves, goats. I'll
             leave you to it and watch you come
             round. Just remember, life without
             me would be even more unbearable...
   
   He smiles. A sly, pleasurable secret secret smile.
   
   
   EXT. POINTE DU LAC - NIGHT
   
   Their carriage draws up to the mansion as the first
   fingers of light spread across the sky.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Being a vampire to him meant
             revenge. Revenge against life-
             itself. Every time he took a life
             it was revenge. and the slaves with
             a wisdom that was denied their
             masters, began to notice...
   
   
   INT. SLAVE-HUT - NIGHT
   
   In a tiny cabin, a slave family. Kids sleeping on the
   floor, in cribs and cots. The parents sleep on the bed,
   young, beautiful, naked. Beside them is Lestat, who is
   drinking the husband's blood, his hand playing across
   the breast of the wife as he does so. She murmurs in
   her sleep.
   
                       WIFE
             Yes... please...
   
   She grabs his fingers and kisses them, thinking him to
   be her husband. Lestat gently disengages himself and
   leaves.
   
   
   EXT. SLAVE-HUT - NIGHT
   
   The woman's scream pierces the sky, as Lestat walks
   into the night.
   
   
   EXT. CHICKEN-COOP - NIGHT
   
   Every chicken is dead, bloodies necks hanging down from
   the cribs. Louis emerges from the entrance, blood on
   his lips. He hears the scream.
   
   
   EXT. SLAVE QUARTER - NIGHT
   
   The sound of drumming is heard, African, primal. The
   woman runs through the quarters, screaming grief.
   Others gather at doorways, restrain and console her.
   
   
   EXT. DOVE-COTE - DAY
   
   A beautiful, elaborate eighteenth century dove-cote.
   Every dove inside is dead, pierced at the neck. A black
   hand throws in a flaming torch and it bursts into
   flame.
   
   
   INT. CABIN - NIGHT
   
   A doll, made in the image of Lestat, is pierced with
   needles.
   
   
   EXT. SWAMP BY FIELDS - DAY
   
   Bodies of slaves floating in the swamp, with the bodies
   of goats. Slaves at the edge throw ropes around the
   bodies, pull them towards the shore. The drumming grows
   louder.
   
   
   EXT. SLAVE-QUARTERS - NIGHT
   
   Louis walking through. The slaves hush as he
   approaches, gather in doorways and whisper. He turns
   and looks at them, sorrowfully. He looks truly like a
   ghost. Their eyes turn away when they meet his. He
   walks on.
   
   
   INT. DINING ROOM IN MANSION - NIGHT
   
   Lestat and Louis sit at the table, the untouched food
   between them.
   
                       LESTAT
             Consider yourself lucky. In Paris a
             vampire has to be clever for many
             reasons. Here all one needs is a
             pair of fangs.
   
                       LOUIS
             Paris? You came from Paris?
   
                       LESTAT
             As did the one who made me.
   
                       LOUIS
             Tell me about him. You must have
             learnt something from him! It had
             to happen for you as it did for me!
   
                       LESTAT
             I learnt absolutely nothing. I
             wasn't give a choice, remember?
   
                       LOUIS
             But you must know something about
             the meaning of it all, you must
             know where we come from, why we...
   
   Lestat spits out in anger.
   
                       LESTAT
             Why? Why should I know these
             things? Do you know them?
   
   The drumming grows outside.
   
                       LESTAT
                   (gripping his temples)
             That noise! It's driving me mad!
             We've been in the country for
             weeks, with nothing but that
             noise!!!
   
                       LOUIS
             They know about us. They see us
             dine on empty plates and drink from
             empty glasses.
   
                       LESTAT
             Come the New Orleans then. There's
             an opera on tonight. A real french
             opera! We can dine in splendor!
   
                       LOUIS
             I respect life, don't you see? For
             each and every human life I have
             respect.
   
                       LESTAT
             Respect me a little then. I'm the
             only life you know.
   
   Louis stares. Lestat turns childishly, petulantly.
   
                       LESTAT
             You'll soon run out of chickens,
             Louis...
   
   He walks out, humming a French aria. Louis stares at
   his plate.
   
   
   EXT. SLAVE QUARTERS - NIGHT
   
   The slaves, gathered on mass around fires. Frenzied
   drumming, dancing. Lestat rides through, scattering the
   flames. The drumming stops. The slaves look towards the
   house. Slowly, they begin to move towards it.
   
   
   INT. POINTE DU LAC DINING ROOM - NIGHT
   
   Louis, sitting in despair by the table. Yvette, the
   slave girl enters.
   
                       YVETTE
             Michi Louis? You don't want any
             supper?
   
   Louis laughs harshly.
   
                       LOUIS
             No, ma cher. I need no supper. Is
             all well at Pointe Du Lac tonight?
   
   Yvette draws closer. Light reveals her beauty.
   
                       YVETTE
             We worry about you master. When do
             you ride about the fields? How long
             since you've been to the slave
             quarters? Everywhere there is
             death. Animals, men. Are you our
             master still at all?
   
   Louis watches her sadly. He's getting hungry. Her
   throat is long and slender, her breasts are gorgeous.
   
                       LOUIS
                   (dazed)
             Leave me alone now, Yvette.
   
                       YVETTE
             I will not go unless you listen to
             me. Send away this new friend of
             yours. The slaves are frightened of
             him. They are frightened of you.
   
   She comes closer, and he can hear her beating heart.
   She touches his hair. He takes her hand and brings it
   to his lips.
   
                       LOUIS
             I am frightened of myself, Yvette.
   
   He kisses her wrist. She suddenly gasps, sharply,
   withdraws her hand. She sees her wrist is red with
   blood. She sees the blood on his lips. She screams.
   
   Louis stands.
   
                       LOUIS
             Hush, Yvette -
   
   She screams even louder. Louis clamps his hand over her
   mouth. Her hand grips the table-cloth, pulls, bringing
   the empty glasses and crockery to the floor.
   
   In horror, Louis realizes he has broken her neck. He
   brings her cut wrist to his lips, then drops it,
   revolted. He carries her body outside, grief-stricken.
   
   The drumming grows louder.
   
   
   EXT. MANSION - NIGHT
   
   Fires burning in the distance, round the slave-cabins.
   The slaves are gathered at the foot of the mansion
   steps. They see Louis come out, holding the body of
   Yvette. He is deranged with grief.
   
                       LOUIS
             This place is cursed. Damned, do
             you hear me? And your master is the
             devil.
   
   He places the body of Yvette in a rocking chair on the
   veranda.
   
                       LOUIS
             Get out while you can. You're free
             men.
   
   They don't move. They stare at him blankly.
   
                       LOUIS
             Unlike me, you are no free men...
   
   He turns behind him, and looks at the mansion, all
   candelabra and chandeliers lighted, all windows open.
   
                       LOUIS
             Do I have to convince you?
   
   He rushed up the stairs, snatches up the candelabra and
   sets fire to the drapes. He goes from window to window,
   lighting drapes, lace curtains, everything.
   
   
   SLAVES POV - MASTER
   
   Setting fire to the house.
   
   They rush up the stairs with shouts of "STOP HIM, HE'S
   MAD". A wall of flame gushes out from the interior,
   blocking their way.
   
   
   INT. BURNING MANSION - NIGHT
   
   Louis, wandering from room to room of the burning
   mansion. he sees paintings of his wife consumed by the
   flames. He is weakening with the fumes, the heat. We
   can see this in his face, the texture of his skin.
   
   Suddenly a large french window cascades inwards and
   Lestat stands there, whip in hand. Behind him we can
   see the morning sky.
   
                       LESTAT
             You fool, what have you done?
   
                       LOUIS
             What you wouldn't do. It's almost
             sunrise. It will be the sun or the
             fire. You said they can kill me.
             The sun or the fire!
   
   Louis stands there, weakened, then collapses onto the
   floor. Lestat darts forward and catches him before he
   drops. He runs out the shattered window, carrying him
   on his shoulder.
   
   
   EXT. LARGE GRAVEYARD - DAWN
   
   With many crypts. Louis, unconscious, carried over
   Lestat's shoulder.
   
   
   INT. CRYPT
   
   Darkness. Louis lying on the floor of a large crypt. He
   slowly comes to.
   
                       LOUIS
             Where are we?
   
                       LESTAT
             Where do you think, my idiot
             friend? We're in a nice filthy
             cemetery. Does this make you happy?
             Is this fitting and proper enough?
   
   Louis laughs softly.
   
                       LOUIS
             We belong in hell.
   
                       LESTAT
             And what if there is no hell, or
             they don't want us there? Ever
             think of that?
   
   
   INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT
   
   The vampire sits in silence, as if tired by his story.
   Malloy speaks, hesitantly.
   
                       MALLOY
             You loved Yvette...
   
                       LOUIS
             Can a vampire feel love?
   
                       MALLOY
             You loved your wife, surely.
   
                       LOUIS
             I was human then. Might as well ask
             can an angel feel love. Both are
             blesses or cursed with a certain...
             detachment. Though whether angels
             take as long to learn it as I, I
             will never know.
   
   He looks directly at Malloy, shocking him with his
   gaze.
   
                       LOUIS
             Yes, I loved Yvette. As I loved
             Pointe Du Lac. And as with each
             thing I loved, I destroyed it.
   
   
   EXT. NEW ORLEANS - EVENING
   
   From the sea, at evening, shrouded in mist.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Lestat I did not love. And he
             survived.
   
   
   INT. INN - EVENING
   
   A lavish little supper chamber with coffered bed, fancy
   French furniture. Open to rooftops of colonial city.
   Louis sits by an open window looking out over the city.
   Behind, we can hear the laughter of Lestat and tow
   female voices. Louis turns and sees -
   
   Lestat, in the main chamber with two drugged or drunked
   whores. One runs her finger down his chest. The other
   seems out of it.
   
                       WHORE #1
             You're skin's icy.
   
                       LESTAT
             Not always...
   
   He presses his thumb on her neck and holds her tight,
   sinking his teeth into her neck. After a time she falls
   to the bed, dead. he turns to the other.
   
                       LESTAT
             Your friend has no head for wine.
   
                       WHORE
             She's stupid. I can warm that cold
             skin of yours better than she can.
   
                       LESTAT
             Do you think so?
   
   He rubs her breast.
   
                       WHORE
             Why you're warm now.
   
                       LESTAT
             Ah, but the price is pretty high.
             Your sweet friend - I exhausted
             her.
   
   He bites her in turn, drinks her blood. She does into
   the swoon.
   
   Louis looks on in disgust. He stands.
   
                       LOUIS
             I'm leaving you. I can't stand this
             any longer.
   
   Lestat pulls away from the whore.
   
                       LESTAT
             What, no flowery speeches? About
             what a monster I am? What a vulgar
             fiend?
   
                       LOUIS
             I'm not interested in you. You
             disgust me. I'm interested in my
             own nature and know I can't trust
             you to tell me the truth about me.
   
                       LESTAT
             What do you imagine you are Louis?
   
                       LOUIS
             I don't pretend to know.
   
                       LESTAT
             Don't you understand, Louis, that
             you alone of all creatures can see
             death with impunity... you alone
             under the rising moon can strike
             like the hand of God.
   
   The girl moans.
   
                       LOUIS
             Lestat, she's alive!!!
   
                       LESTAT
             Vampires are killers. Predators,
             who's all seeing eyes were meant to
             give them detachment.
   
   The girl moans again, open her eyes.
   
                       LOUIS
             The girl, Lestat -
   
                       LESTAT
             I know. Let her alone.
   
   He slashes her wrist with his teeth, and lets the blood
   drip into a glass.
   
                       LESTAT
             You think you can be human. You
             think you can go back. But you
             can't. You live off the blood of
             rats now Louis. How human is that?
   
   The girls moans again. Lestat drinks that glass.
   
                       LESTAT
             Lie still, love...
   
   The girl begins to scream. Lestat picks her up.
   
                       LESTAT
             You're tired love, you want to
             sleep.
   
   He walks to his coffin, puts her inside and sits on the
   lid. We hear muffled screaming and banging from inside.
   
                       LOUIS
             Why do you do this Lestat?
   
                       LESTAT
             I like to do it. I enjoy it. Take
             you aesthete's taste to purer
             things. Kill them swiftly if you
             will, but do it! For now doubt, you
             are a killer Louis. Ah!
   
   He stands up. The girl pushes the lid off, hysterical.
   She looks at Louis.
   
                       GIRL
             It's a coffin, a coffin! Get me
             out!
   
                       LESTAT
             Of course it's a coffin. You're
             dead, love.
   
   Louis screams at Lestat
   
                       LOUIS
             Lestat - finish this -
   
                       LESTAT
             You finish her - if you feel so
             much -
   
   The girl grabs Louis and pleads.
   
                       GIRL
             You won't let me die, will you?
             You'll save me?
   
                       LESTAT
             But it's too late, love. Look at
             your wrist, you breast.
   
   He picks her up again. He turns to Louis laughing.
   
                       LESTAT
             Unless I make her one of us...
   
                       LOUIS
             NO!!!
   
                       LESTAT
             THEN YOU KILL HER!!!!!
   
   The girl screams. Louis puts his hands to his ears.
   Then Lestat, in a fit of pique puts his teeth to her
   neck. She dies at last.
   
   A terrible silence descends. Lestat looks at Louis.
   
                       LOUIS
             My God... to think you... are all I
             have to learn from...
   
                       LESTAT
             In the old world, they called it
             the dark gift, Louis. And I gave it
             to you.
   
   Louis leaves without a word.
   
   
   EXT. DANK NEW ORLEANS BACK STREETS - NIGHT
   
   A rat scurried down a gutter, then another and another.
   Louis' hand grabs the rat. We see him from behind,
   walking down the street, gripping one, then another.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Am I damned? Am I from the devil?
             Is my very nature that of a devil?
             And all the while, as these dreaded
             questions caused me to neglect my
             thirst, my thirst grew hotter, my
             veins were threads of pain in my
             flesh, my temples throbbed.
   
   A smaller side street, in which every house is marked
   with an X. The street is crawling with rats, and Louis
   is following them. A man passes with a lantern.
   
                       MAN
             Don't go that way Monsieur. It's
             the plague. Go back the way you
             came.
   
   Louis smiles bitterly at these words, repeating them to
   himself.
   
                       LOUIS
             The way I came...
   
   He walks on, following the rats.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             ... and finally, when I could stand
             it no longer, I stood in an empty
             desolate street and heard the sound
             of a child crying.
   
   A house, the door slightly open, marked with an X. The
   sound of a child crying inside. Louis walks towards it.
   
   
   INT. HOUSE - NIGHT
   
   A little girl, pulling at a figure in a rocking chair.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Mama, please wake up. Mama, I'm
             frightened, please wake up.
   
   As Louis enters, he sees the woman is dead. Her eyes
   are being eaten away by rats.
   
   Louis gasps in horror. Claudia turns. She is a radiant
   doll or angel as she stretches out her hand to Louis.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Monsieur, please help us. Papa's
             waiting for us at the ship. Please
             wake mama, Monsieur.
   
   She runs to him. Instinctively, he gathers her in his
   arms. He looks down pitying on her beautiful face.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             And if I am damned, why do I fell
             such pity for her gaunt face? Why
             do I wish to warm her tiny arms?
             Comfort her beating heart?
   
   She snuggles into him, suddenly utterly secure. She
   tugs at his hair, brings his head down towards her. And
   we see Louis shiver, as his lips go to her neck.
   
   Her breathing becomes calm as she goes into the swoon.
   Gradually another sound replaces it.
   
   LESTAT'S LAUGHTER, GROWING LOUDER AND LOUDER.
   
   Suddenly Louis backs away, caught red-handed, the child
   in his arms. He sees Lestat slapping his knee and
   laughing in the doorway.
   
                       LESTAT
             Ah, my philosopher, my martyr.
             "Never take a human life". Well you
             must admit it is funny. Or is it
             merely touching? I'm not sure.
   
   Louis stares at the unconscious Claudia in horror, then
   lets her slip gently into a chair. Shamefully he wipes
   his mouth, sees the tiny wounds on her throat.
   
   Lestat snatches up the dead mother from the chair and
   begins to dance with her in great circles, humming and
   talking. Her head falls back. Black water flows from
   her mouth.
   
                       LESTAT
             Let's make some party of it, shall
             we? Maybe there's some life in the
             old lady yet?
   
   Louis flees into the street.
   
                       LESTAT
             Come back, Louis, you are what you
             are. The plague would have got her
             within hours anyway. Merciful Death
             how you love your precious guilt.
   
   
   EXT. STREETS - NIGHT
   
   Louis running through an assortment of streets. All the
   night life of New Orleans flows by him.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             For years I had not savored a
             human. And when I had Lestat's
             words made sense to me. I knew
             peace only when I killed and when I
             heard her heart in that terrible
             rhythm I knew again what peace
             could be. Yet even then I could not
             contenance it...
   
   
   EXT. WATERFRONT - DAWN
   
   Fingers of light in the sky. Louis, pale and shivering,
   walks splashing through the water. He comes to a huge
   sewer-pipe, crowded with rats. He crawls inside.
   
   
   EXT. WATERFRONT - SOME EVENINGS LATER
   
   The same sewer-pipe. Now the bodies of dead rats lie
   all around. A pair of fine leather boots splash through
   the water - Lestat's.
   
   
   INT. SEWER-PIPE - EVENING
   
   Louis huddled there, so pale and shivering he seems
   close to death. Lestat comes through.
   
                       LESTAT
             All I need to find you Louis is
             follow the corpses of rats.
   
   He bends down to him, surprisingly gently and puts his
   own coat around him.
   
                       LESTAT
             Pain is terrible for you. You feel
             it like no other creature because
             you are a vampire. You don't want
             it to go on.
   
                       LOUIS
             No...
   
   They emerge from the sewer and walk along the
   waterfront.
   
                       LESTAT
             Do what it is in your nature to do.
             And you will feel as you felt with
             that child in your arms.
   
                       LOUIS
             Oh God Lestat. I felt peace. I felt
             an end to the craving.
   
                       LESTAT
             That and more.
   
   He puts his arm around Louis, to stop his shivering.
   
                       LESTAT
             Evil is a point of view. God kills,
             indiscriminately, and so shall we.
             For no creatures under God are as
             we are, none so like him as
             ourselves.
   
                       LOUIS
             Is God merciless? Greedy and cruel?
   
                       LESTAT
             Ah, but we have even more in common
             with our creator. come, I am like a
             mother tonight. I want a child.
   
   Louis is baffled. He follows.
   
   
   INT. INN - SUPPER ROOM
   
   Lestat enters.
   
                       LESTAT
             She's here, your wounded one.
   
                       LOUIS
             What are you saying?
   
                       LESTAT
             You need company, Louis. More
             congenial than mine...
   
   Lestat holds up a candle and walks towards a large four-
   poster bed. Claudia lies there, angelic, under the
   coverlet, two marks on her neck.
   
                       LOUIS
             Lestat!
   
                       LESTAT
             You remember how you wanted her,
             the taste of her -
   
                       LOUIS
             I didn't want to kill her.
   
                       LESTAT
             Don't worry, Louis, you're
             conscience is clear. You left her
             alive.
   
   Lestat shakes her gently.
   
                       LESTAT
             Claudia, Claudia, listen to me.
             You're ill, my precious and I'm
             going to give you what you need to
             get well.
   
                       LOUIS
             Lestat, what do you mean?
   
   Louis runs at him, but Lestat brushes him aside
   effortlessly, so he falls to the floor. Lestat bites
   his wrist and presses the bleeding wound to the child's
   mouth... He winces in pain.
   
                       LESTAT
             That's it dear. More. You must
             drink it to get well.
   
   Claudia sucks on the wound, reviving, making little
   noises like a person waking from sleep.
   
   Louis rises to his feet as Claudia clutches Lestat's
   arm, sucking the blood fiercely. Lestat moans.
   
                       LESTAT
             Stop, that's enough. No more.
   
   He pulls her loose and she growls and stares at him
   with big clear astonished eyes.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I want more.
   
                       LOUIS
             What have you done?
   
   Lestat puts her down on the bed and sits beside her,
   holding his wrist, obviously in pain.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             More.
   
                       LESTAT
             Yes, cherie, of course you want
             more. And I'll show you how to get
             it. You drink from morals, my
             beauty, but from me? Never again.
   
   Still suffering, Lestat pulls the bell-rope.
   
   
   CLOSE ON CLAUDIA
   
   Being transformed. Becoming white yet robust, bright-
   eyed yet crazed. She shakes her beautiful curls and the
   dust falls from them. They are shining in the
   candlelight.
   
   Louis cannot stop looking at her. He does not notices
   as -
   
   The MAID enters.
   
                       MAID
             Ah, quelle Belle enfant!
   
   The maid comes near the bed, kneels in front of
   Claudia. Lestat lays his hand on the maid's throat and
   Claudia watches keenly.
   
                       LESTAT
             Gently, cherie. They are so
             innocent. They must not be made to
             suffer.
   
   Claudia lunges for the throbbing vein in the neck,
   locking on to the flowing blood.
   
   The Maid is transfixed.
   
   Close on Louis, his anguish, his fascinated horror.
   
                       LOUIS
             You are the devil! You are the
             instrument of Satan!
   
                       LESTAT
             That's enough, cherie. Stop before
             the heart stops.
   
   He lets the dead maid onto the floor. Claudia looks at
   the corpse.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I want some more.
   
                       LESTAT
             It's bet in the beginning, lest the
             death takes you down with it. yes,
             that's it. My child. My beloved
             child.
   
   Lestat and Claudia sit on the Louis XVI settee. Claudia
   is a vision, a doll made out of pearl. Animated, voice
   crisp.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Where is Mamma?
   
   The words echo in Louis' head, as he puts his hands to
   his ears.
   
                       LESTAT
             Mamma's gone to Heaven, cherie,
             like that sweet lady over there.
             They all go to Heaven. And you did
             very well, cherie. Not a drop
             spilt. Very good! You're going to
             be our child now.
   
   Lestat takes out his comb and begins to comb her hair.
   
                       LESTAT
             Your mama's left you with us. She
             wants you to be happy.
   
                       LOUIS
                   (whispers)
             You are the devil! You are the
             instrument of Satan!
   
                       LESTAT
             Shhhh! Do you want to frighten our
             little daughter?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I'm not your daughter.
   
                       LESTAT
             Yes you are, my dearest. You are
             mine and Louis' daughter. You see
             Louis was going to leave us. He was
             going to go away. But now he's not.
             He's going to stay and make you
             happy.
   
   Claudia runs over to him. She smiles at him.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Lou...eee...
   
   Louis is conflicted. He cannot leave her. He touches
   her cheeks, her hair. Same as his. Vampire skin and
   hair. He draws in his breath, shocked by her beauty,
   then he embraces her as a father might a daughter. He
   looks over her shoulder to Lestat.
   
                       LOUIS
             You fiend. You monster.
   
   Lestat smiles
   
                       LESTAT
             One happy family.
   
   
   INT. ROOM - SAN FRANCISCO
   
   Malloy is open mouthed.
   
                       MALLOY
             A child vampire!
   
   He sees the tape has run out. He rapidly and clumsily
   sticks in another.
   
                       LOUIS
             Shall we go on?
   
                       MALLOY
             He did it to make you stay with
             him!
   
                       LOUIS
             Perhaps. He knew me. He knew I
             would love her more than the waking
             world. But there was more to it
             than that. Perhaps in the end he
             did it - to show me that he could.
             For he lavished affection on her,
             there was no doubt about that. Life
             was very different with madame
             Claudia, as you can imagine...
   
   
   EXT. NEW SPANISH TOWNHOUSE - (RUE ROYALE, NEW ORLEANS)
   
   Two husky movers bring in furniture through the back
   courtyard, past the fountain and the banana trees, up
   the back stairs and into -
   
   
   INT. FLAT
   
   Striped wallpaper gives way to flowers in the bedrooms.
   Huge four-poster beds in the bedrooms, and large
   chests, as big as coffins standing against the wall.
   Everywhere there are candles and pretty Louis XVI
   furniture. Lestat gives instructions to the movers.
   
   
   WE MOVE INTO A DIMLY LIT PARLOUR
   
   We see Claudia draped in lace standing on a petit point
   chair as a DRESSMAKER measure out a garment.
   
   Louis can be seen, in an inner room.
   
                       DRESSMAKER
             Monsieur, I need more light. I
             shall go slind if you do not bring
             me a lamp, or let me fit this child
             during the day. Ouch!
   
   She has pricked her hand. A spot of blood appears on
   her finger Claudia takes her hand.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Let me kiss it better...
   
   Claudia brings the hand to her lips. The dressmaker
   abruptly pulls her finger away, in pain again.
   
   CLOSEUP - her finger, two holes showing.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             A little child she was, but also a
             fierce killer, now capable of the
             ruthless pursuit of blood with all
             a child's demanding.
   
   Lestat walks through - sees the dressmaker lying dead
   at Claudia's feet, Claudia still on the chair in the
   half-finished dress.
   
                       LESTAT
             Claudia, Claudia, will you never
             learn? Who will we get now to
             finish your dress? A little
             practicality, cherie...
   
   
   INT. LOUIS' BEDROOM - NIGHT
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             She would sleep in my coffin,
             daily, curl her child's fingers
             round my hair as she dreamt of I
             know not what...
             
   Claudia and Louis, sleeping in a coffin together,
   Claudia's fingers curling his hair.
   
   
   INT. CLAUDIA'S BEDROOM
   
   Claudia playing with dolls, each as perfect and
   beautifully dressed as she is.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Mute and beautiful, she played with
             dolls, dressing them and undressing
             them by the hour.
   
   
   INT. PARLOUR - NIGHT
   
   Claudia tinkling with her child's hands on the piano,
   picking out a hesitant tune.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Mute and beautiful, she killed. And
             to watch her kill was chilling.
   
   
   EXT. SQUARE - NIGHT
   
   The tinkling of Claudia's piano is heard, over -
   
   A well-dressed lady, walking through a square lit by
   gaslight. The lady hears a child's sobbing and stops,
   turns.
   
   
   POV
   
   Claudia, the picture of lost innocence, sitting on a
   bench and crying.
   
                       WOMAN
             Why are you crying, child?
   
   The woman, all solicitude, goes to Claudia.
   
                       WOMAN
             Are you lost, my love?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Mama...
   
                       WOMAN
             Hush now, don't cry, We'll find
             her...
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Mama...
   
   The woman takes Claudia in her arms. Claudia nestles
   her head in her shoulder, her teeth near her neck.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             They found death fast in those
             days, before she learnt to play
             with the, to delay the moment till
             she had taken what she wanted...
   
   
   INT. PARLOUR - NIGHT
   
   A stern, stiff PIANO-TEACHER (male) beating time with a
   ruler as Claudia picks out scales on the piano. He raps
   her on the knuckles.
   
                       PIANO-TEACHER
             The thumb girl! Mind the thumb!
   
   Claudia glares at him, then returns to playing,
   improving rapidly.
   
   
   INT. DOLL-SHOP - NIGHT
   
   Piano music over. Mozart, now well played.
   
   Claudia staring at a glass case, inside of which are an
   array of eighteenth century dolls. An old DOLLMAKER
   looks down on her.
   
                       DOLLMAKER
             They are expensive, my dear. Maybe
             too expensive for a young girl like
             you...
   
   
   EXT. STREET - NIGHT
   
   Claudia walking along, clutching the doll.
   
   
   INT. DOLL-SHOP - NIGHT
   
   The dollmaker lying dead, two puncture marks in his
   throat, his dolls scattered all around him.
   
   
   EXT. UNDERTAKER'S - NIGHT
   
   Claudia and Louis looking through the window at a
   display of coffins. Claudia point at the smallest one.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             She grew, yet stayed the same. She
             wanted a bed of her own, yet would
             climb back into mine.
   
   
   INT. CLAUDIA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT
   
   The child's coffin on the floor. The lid lifts. Claudia
   emerges, yawning, wanders through the flat into -
   
   
   LOUIS' BEDROOM
   
   Where his coffin sits. She slides the lid off, and
   curls in beside him.
   
   
   INT. PARLOUR - NIGHT
   
   Claudia playing the piano, now with remarkable
   dexterity. The piano-teacher sits mute beside her. As
   she plays, he topples over and falls to the ground. We
   see the puncture-marks in his neck. Lestat, hearing the
   noise, comes in.
   
                       LESTAT
             Claudia, Claudia! Didn't I tell
             you, never in the house!
   
   Claudia smiles to herself, keeps playing.
   
   
   INT. CLAUDIA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT
   
   CANARIES sing in a cage, above a child's coffin.
   
   Claudia is writing at a secretaire. She is writing in a
   diary with a quill pen in an adult hand. She murmurs
   the date as she writes.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             September 21st, one hour after
             sunset. The sky is still violet,
             the way Louis loves and as always
             Lestat was gone when we rose.
   
   She looks up and sees Louis in the doorway, watching
   her.
   
                       LOUIS
             How did you learn to write,
             Claudia?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             The way I learn everything. By
             watching you.
   
   She closes the diary.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             But you never let me see you kill,
             Louis.
   
                       LOUIS
             Lestat taught you all you need to
             know about that.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Infant death, he calls me. Sweet
             daughter death. You know what he
             calls you? Merciful death.
   
                       LOUIS
             He jests.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Why does he call you that?
   
                       LOUIS
             Hush, Claudia don't talk about such
             things. Show me your book.
   
   She opens it. Inside there is a beautiful pen and ink
   portrait of Louis.
   
                       LOUIS
             Claudia! You did that?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Sit still. It's not finished -
   
   She begins to fill in the sketch.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Time can pass fast for mortals when
             they're happy. With us it was the
             same.
   
   
   EXT. RUE ROYALE - NIGHT (1800'S)
   
   Street lamps are oil at this period. Houses are now
   tall two-story Spanish style. Streets are flagstone.
   Passing carriages are black.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             It was a very different life. And a
             new century was beginning. what had
             once been a small godforsaken
             French colony was growing into a
             great port, giving us an endless
             train of magnificent strangers...
   
   Claudia, Louis and Lestat, dressed in the same clothes
   walking through a raucous carnival with sideshows.
   Crowd milling around, sailors, whores, children,
   thieves, freed slaves, Indians. They pass a Wild West
   display, jugglers, fire-eaters, three-card
   tricksters...
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             All human life was here, for the
             taking. And we took, all three of
             us, in our different ways...
   
   They come to a raised platform where a troupe of
   perfectly-formed midgets do a burlesque show.
   
   Claudia stops. She stares, at these small, perfect
   creatures like herself, intrigued and troubled.
   
   Louis and Lestat walk on, not noticing as -
   
   
   CLAUDIA
   
   Circles the troupe. She comes to a small tent, behind
   it. At the entrance stands a midget youth.
   
                       YOUTH
             You want to come inside, lovely?
   
   Claudia walks up to him.
   
                       YOUTH
             Ever been kissed?
   
   Claudia shakes her head. He kisses her. Claudia allow
   her to be kissed, then bites his tongue. he youth
   struggles, as Claudia holds him and drains him. She
   lets him go as Louis appears behind her.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             She's like me, Louis. Small and yet
             not small at all. Like me.
   
   Louis hurriedly draws her away.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I watched her grow yet stay the
             same, her doll-like face possessed
             of adult eyes, eerie, powerful,
             seductive...
   
   
   INT. FLAT - NIGHT
   
   Claudia playing the piano, now like a demonic Liszt.
   Louis writing.
   
   Lestat appears in the doorway. He has a big box in his
   arms.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Another doll? I have ten, you
             realize.
   
   FOCUS ON early 19th Century French dolls - wood, glass,
   wax, bisque - all around the bedroom, on chairs, on the
   bed. Some newish, some tattered old.
   
                       LESTAT
             Well, I thought you could use
             another.
   
   He hands her the box. It is a fine Parisian Jumeau
   doll. She likes it and stokes its face.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Why always on this night?
   
                       LESTAT
             What night? What do you mean?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You always give me the doll on the
             same night of the year.
   
                       LESTAT
             I didn't realize.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Is this my birthday?
   
   He examines the other dolls.
   
                       LESTAT
             Some of these are so old and
             tattered. You should throw them
             away.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I have. Or there would be twice as
             many.
   
                       LESTAT
             But you're the fairest by far.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You dress me like a doll. You make
             my hair like a doll. Why?
   
   Lestat doesn't answer. Claudia stands up quickly, and
   strides out into the -
   
   
   PARLOUR
   
   Where Louis is reading by the window. She walks to a
   mirrored cabinet, takes out a scissors and begins
   cutting her hair.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You want me to be a doll forever?
   
                       LOUIS
             Claudia - don't -
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Why not?
   
   She continues cutting. She sees Lestat emerge from her
   bedroom in the mirror behind her then turns to him, an
   angelic little boy's face now with soft curls around
   her face.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Can't I change, like everybody
             else?
   
   She walks past him, back into her bedroom and slams the
   door.
   
   A beat. Louis looks from the mass of blonde hair on the
   floor to Lestat. Then a HORRID SCREAM pierces the
   silence. More screams, which become roars.
   
   
   INT. CLAUDIA'S BEDROOM
   
   She stands before the dressing-table, all her long hair
   grown back over her shoulders. She holds it with both
   hands, screaming and screaming. Lestat and Louis come
   through the door.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Which of you did it? Which of you
             made me the way I am?
   
                       LESTAT
             What you are? You would be
             something other than you are?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             And if I cut my hair again?
   
                       LESTAT
             It will grow back again!
   
                       CLAUDIA
             But it wasn't always so! I had a
             mother once! And Louis - he had a
             wife! He was mortal the same as
             she! And so was I!
   
                       LOUIS
             Claudia -
   
   She turns on Lestat.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You made us what we are, didn't
             you?
   
                       LESTAT
             Stop her Louis!
   
                       CLAUDIA
             DID YOU DO IT TO ME????
   
   She runs at him with the scissors, scoring his face.
   The cut heals. She scores it again. It heals again. She
   stares at him in horror.
   
                       CLAUDIA
                   (whispering)
             How did you do it?
   
                       LESTAT
             And why should I tell you? It's in
             my power.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Why yours alone? Tell me how it was
             done!!!!
   
                       LESTAT
             Be glad I made you what you are!
             You'd be dead not if I hadn't.
   
   He storms out. Louis goes to Claudia and picks her up
   in his arms.
   
                       LOUIS
                   (tenderly)
             We're immortal. You've always known
             that.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Tell me why... you've got to tell
             me...
   
   Louis carries her outside, onto the porch. There is an
   old flower-seller going by.
   
                       LOUIS
             You see the old woman? That will
             never happen to you. You'll never
             grow old. You will never die.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             And it means something else too,
             doesn't it? I shall never, ever
             grow up.
   
   She clutches Louis desperately.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I hate him. But I cannot bear to
             lose you. You're the only companion
             I have, forever. You taught me
             everything I know. Please tell me
             Louis. Tell me how it came to be
             that I am this... thing...
   
   Louis strokes her beautiful face, her hair.
   
                       LOUIS
             Come... I've something to show
             you...
   
   
   EXT. NEW ORLEANS STREETS - NIGHT
   
   Louis walking, holding Claudia as if he was about to
   lose her.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Though everything was changed,
             through the years had warped the
             contours of the streets, I found my
             way there, aware that I'd always
             known where it was and avoided it,
             not wanting to pass the doorway
             where I'd first heard Claudia cry.
   
   Louis back in the same street, outside the same house.
   He stands with Claudia at the window. There is a family
   inside, a picture of domestic tranquility.
   
                       LOUIS
             I heard you crying. You were there
             in a room with your mother. You
             were hugging her for warmth, crying
             pitifully as you had been for days.
             Because your mother was dead...
   
   Claudia stares at him, suddenly very cold, very alert.
   
                       LOUIS
             I opened the shutters... I came
             into the room... I felt pity for
             you. Pity, but something else.
   
   He can't go on. Claudia's eyes are remorseless.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You... fed on me?
   
                       LOUIS
             And he found me with you. I ran,
             sickened at what I'd done. Then he
             cut his wrist and fed you from him.
             I tried to stop him, but you were a
             vampire then. And have been every
             night hereafter.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You both did it?
   
                       LOUIS
             I took your life. He gave you
             another one.
   
   Claudia speaks through indrawn breath.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             And here it is. And I hate you
             both.
   
   She runs.
   
   
   INT. ROOM SAN FRANCISCO
   
   Malloy and Louis.
   
                       MALLOY
             But why did you tell her?
   
                       LOUIS
             How could I not? She had to know.
   
                       MALLOY
             And did you lose her? Did she go?
   
                       LOUIS
             Where would she have gone? She was
             a child, and beautiful,
             heartbreaking merciless child. And
             I had made her that...
   
   
   EXT. STREETS - NIGHT
   
   Louis, walking the streets, shivering.
   
                       LOUIS
             I walked all night. I walked as I
             walked years before when my mind
             swam with guilt at the thought of
             killing. I found myself at the
             Cathedral.
   
   A cathedral rising out of the mist, the doors open.
   
                       LOUIS
             I thought of all the things I had
             done and couldn't undo. And I
             longed for one second's peace...
   
   Louis walks towards the doors, inside.
   
   
   INT. CATHEDRAL - NIGHT
   
   Louis enters. The dim lights of candles. A sacristan
   tending the altar, an old woman praying - otherwise
   empty.
   
                       LOUIS
             I had no fear. If anything I longed
             for something to happen, for the
             stones to tremble as I entered the
             foyer.
   
   Louis walking down the nave of the church. He stops by
   the alter.
   
                       LOUIS
             I almost genuflected from old
             habit. I almost prayed.
   
   Louis sits in a pew.
   
                       LOUIS
             And then it struck me.
   
   
   LOUIS' POV
   
   The cross, the statues, the tabernacle.
   
                       LOUIS
             What if the statues gave an image
             to nothing? What if I was the
             supernatural in this cathedral? The
             only immortal under this roof. And
             I felt nothing but loneliness.
             Loneliness to the point of madness.
   
   Suddenly a hand is laid on his shoulder. Louis almost
   jumps. He turns and sees the face of a grey-haired
   priest.
   
                       PRIEST
             You wish to go to confession? I was
             about to lock up the church.
   
   Louis stares at him, tears in his eyes.
   
                       PRIEST
             You are troubled, aren't you? Can I
             help?
   
                       LOUIS
             It's too late, too late -
   
                       PREIST
             No, it's never too late. Come...
   
   The priest gestures to the confessional. Louis rises,
   slowly.
   
   
   INT. CONFESSIONAL
   
   Louis, kneeling in the darkness. The hatch slides back.
   
                       LOUIS
             Bless me father for I have sinned
             so often and so long, I don't know
             how to change nor beg for
             forgiveness.
   
                       PRIEST
             Son, God is infinite in his
             capacity to forgive. Tell him from
             your heart.
   
                       LOUIS
             Murders, father, death after death.
             The woman who died two nights ago
             in Jackson Square, I killed her.
             And thousands of others before her.
             I have walked the streets of New
             Orleans like the Grim reaper. And
             fed on human life for my own. I am
             a vampire, father, and have turned
             the one I love most of all into on
             too -
   
   The hatch slams down. Louis rises, confused, and the
   door is flung open, the priest stands there.
   
                       PRIEST
             Do you know the meaning of
             sacrilege?
   
   Louis rises. Walks out.
   
                       LOUIS
             Then there is no mercy.
   
   His face comes into the light. The priest steps back,
   open-mouthed.
   
                       LOUIS
             You talk of sacrilege. Why if God
             exists does he suffer me to exist?
   
   He bares his fangs. The priest runs, screaming. Gets to
   the bellrope, begins to ring the bell. Louis swoops on
   him.
   
                       LOUIS
             Why does he suffer me to live?
   
   Louis takes him, lifting him from the floor, till his
   feet stop kicking.
   
   
   INT. FLAT - NIGHT
   
   Louis enters, silently, like a corpse. He hears a voice
   behind him.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Locked together in hatred -
   
   He turns, sees her sitting in the darkness. She is
   wearing a tiny nightgown of stitched lace and pearls,
   weirdly adult and seductive. She comes towards him.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             But I can't hate you Louis.
   
   She sprays perfume over her body as she comes nearer.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Is this the aroma of a mortal
             child?
   
   She whispers.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Louis. Lover.
   
   She kisses his cheek.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I was mortal to you. You gave me
             your immortal kiss. You became my
             mother and my father. And so I'm
             yours. Forever.
   
   She takes his face in her hands.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             But now's the time to end it,
             Louis. Now's the time to leave him.
   
                       LOUIS
             He'll never let us go.
   
   Claudia smiles.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Oh... really?
   
   
   EXT. DOCKLANDS - NEW ORLEANS - NIGHT
   
   A sailing ship, by the docks. Louis and Claudia talking
   to a shipping-clerk.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             So we made plans. She was convinced
             there were others of our kind in
             Europe, that they would have the
             answers Lestat couldn't provide.
             Lestat whom she now hated, who she
             thought she could be free of. I
             doubted, but then she had a
             surprise in store...
   
   
   INT. FLAT - NIGHT
   
   Lestat playing the piano. Louis reading. Claudia
   enters, wearing a cape and hat. She walks to the piano,
   sits at the end of the piano and stares at him as he
   plays.
   
                       LESTAT
             What is it now? You irritate me!
             Your very presence irritates me!
   
                       CLAUDIA
                   (sweetly)
             Does it?
   
                       LESTAT
             Yes. And I'll tell you something
             else! I've met someone who will
             make a better vampire than both of
             you.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Is that supposed to frighten me?
   
                       LESTAT
             You're spoilt because you're an
             only child. You need a brother. Or
             I do. I'm weary of you both.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I suppose we could people the world
             with vampires, the three of us.
   
                       LESTAT
             Not you my dear.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You're a liar. But you upset my
             plans.
   
                       LESTAT
             What plans?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I came to make peace with you, even
             if you're the father of lies. I
             want things to be as they were.
   
   Louis perks up, puzzled.
   
                       LESTAT
             Stop pestering me then!
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Oh, Lestat. I must do more than
             that. I've brought a present for
             you.
   
                       LESTAT
             Then I hope its a beautiful woman
             with endowments you will never
             possess.
   
   Claudia stares at him for a moment.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Better than that.
   
   She takes his hand and leads him into an inner room.
   Louis follows behind.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You haven't fed enough. I can tell
             by your color.
   
   
   INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT
   
   Two beautiful youths, lying asleep on a couch, by a
   table full with a half-eaten meal. Lestat sighs.
   
                       LESTAT
             Oh, Claudia, you've outdone
             yourself. Where did you find them?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Drunk on brandy wine. A thimbleful.
             I thought of you when I saw them.
   
                       LESTAT
             We forgive each other then?
   
   Claudia stares at him, sitting. She nods.
   
   Lestat bites into the neck of one of the youths, sucks
   greedily and horribly. Claudia watches him without
   expression. He finished one, is about to take the other
   when he staggers. He looks at Claudia.
   
                       LESTAT
             Absinthe? You gave them absinthe?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             No. Laudanum.
   
   Lestat stares wildly at her, tries to move towards her,
   then slips to the floor.
   
                       LESTAT
             Laudanum!
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Yes. It killed them, unfortunately.
             But it keeps the blood warm.
   
   Lestat tries to rise.
   
                       LESTAT
             Ah Louis, Louis, she killed them...
             and let me drink...
   
   Louis watches, appalled. He goes to move.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Don't Louis -
   
                       LESTAT
             Louis, put me in my coffin...
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I'll put you in your coffin.
             Forever.
   
   She pulls a knife out from under her shawl, walks
   rapidly to him and slashes his throat. Blood explodes
   from it.
   
                       LOUIS
             Claudia! Don't do this thing!!!
   
                       LESTAT
             Louis, Louis, I gave you the gift -
             help me -
   
   Claudia lacerates his face. Blood pours from
   everywhere. She plunges the knife in his chest. He
   falls back, fangs bared, clutching the knife. Claudia
   leaps on him then, bites deep into his neck as he dies.
   Louis screams, runs forward, pulls her away.
   
                       LOUIS
             What have you done, Claudia -
   
   He drags her off Lestat, tries to pull her out of the
   room. She hisses at him.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Louis! Look what's happening to
             him!!
   
   Louis looks. The floor is a sea of blood. Lestat has
   begun to shrivel, as if he'd been a bag of blood. His
   skin is shriveling against his bones like parchment,
   his eyes are slipping back into his skull-like face.
   His lush, beautiful hair remains unchanged. But his
   clothes are virtually being emptied of the body. It is
   no more than bones, wrapped in paper and the pupils of
   the eyes suddenly roll up into the papered skull.
   
                       LOUIS
             Lestat. Oh, God forgive us.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Don't mock me, Louis. Help me.
   
   She stares at the shriveled skeleton in its skin
   wrapping. She is fascinated. She sees the vampiric
   blood flow all over the floor. She touches it and
   brings her finger to her lips.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Goodnight, sweet prince, may
             flights of devils wing you to your
             rest.
   
   Louis walks forward, touches the skeleton, the blonde
   hair.
   
                       LOUIS
             He's dead, Claudia, dead.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             The one good lesson he taught me,
             Louis. Never drink from the dead.
   
   She stands up, all business suddenly.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Help me. We must get rid of him.
   
   She drags the coverlet from the table, knocking the
   crockery over the dead youths, and wraps Lestat's
   skeleton in it. She takes a bunch of chrysanthemums and
   places them in his skeleton hands.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Should we burn him? Bury him? What
             would he have liked, Louis?
   
                       LOUIS
             Don't mock, Claudia...
   
                       CLAUDIA
             The swamp...
   
   
   EXT. CARRIAGE - NIGHT
   
   Louis whipping the horses. Claudia beside him. Lestat's
   skeleton in the back, with the bodies of the two dead
   youths.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             In Europe, Louis. We shall meet our
             own kind. Find the one who made
             him. Learn what it means.
   
                       LOUIS
             And suppose the one who made him
             knows nothing and the vampire who
             made him knows nothing, and it goes
             back, nothing proceeding from
             nothing, until there is nothing!
             And we must live with the knowledge
             that there is no knowledge.
             
   The carriage pulls up by a swamp. Mist everywhere.
   Overhanging creepers.
   
                       LOUIS
             And if we find the one who made
             him? Do we tell him we destroyed
             his own creation? The vampire
             Lestat?
   
   Louis drags out the bodies of the boys. He slides them
   into the waters of the swamp. We see ripples in the
   water and the churning of alligators, as they attack
   the corpses. Louis takes Lestat's skeleton in his arms.
   He slides it into the waters. The alligators speed
   towards it.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             He belongs with those reptiles,
             Louis. He deserved to die.
   
                       LOUIS
             Then maybe so do we. Every night of
             our lives. He was my brother. My
             maker. He gave me this life,
             whatever it is.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I did it for us, Louis. So we could
             be free.
   
   He stands there, saying nothing.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Louis, look at me.
   
                       LOUIS
                   (bitterly)
             I can't. Go away from me.
   
   Claudia is shocked to her core. She steps back. Louis
   stares at the rippling waters. Gradually the movement
   of alligators stops. Then he hears a sound he hasn't
   heard in years. Soft, choking. He turns, sees Claudia
   sitting by a cypress tree, like a little girl for the
   first time in years. She is weeping copiously.
   
                       LOUIS
             Claudia - You're crying -
   
   We see her face, tears of blood running down it. She is
   heartbroken, lost.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You never talked to me like that -
             in all these years.
   
                       LOUIS
             And you never cried -
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I can't bear it when you do - I
             would die rather than lose you
             Louis. I would die the way he died.
   
   Louis gathers her in his arms.
   
                       LOUIS
             Hush, Claudia, hush now my dear -
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Tell me you don't hate me Louis. I
             did it for you -
   
   Louis walks her towards the carriage.
   
                       LOUIS
             I love you Claudia. Always. And we
             are free now, Claudia. No Lestat.
             Just the two of us, beginning the
             great adventure of our lives.
   
   He lifts her into the carriage and drives off, leaving
   the silent waters of the swamp.
   
   
   INT. FLAT - NIGHT
   
   Sturdy mulatto workmen lifting cases and trunks out of
   the apartment. All the furniture is covered in white
   sheets. Claudia dressed in a cap and hat, is playing
   the piano by the light of one remaining oil-lamp.
   
   Louis comes from her room with the cage of canaries.
   
                       LOUIS
             The birds. We forgot about the
             birds. There's nothing for it but
             to let them go.
   
   He opens the cage, and the canaries fly around the
   room.
   
   There is a knocking on the door. Claudia falters.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             What was that?
   
                       LOUIS
             The workmen must have a trunk -
             don't stop, cherie -
   
   He goes downstairs. Claudia plays a moment, then stops,
   perturbed. She goes to the window. Then sees something
   out there that makes her face go white. She screams.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Louis!!!
   
   
   THE STAIRWAY
   
   Louis walking to the door. The knocking gets louder.
   
   
   THE PARLOUR
   
   Claudia runs for the stairs, after Louis.
   
   
   THE HALLWAY
   
   Louis reaches the door. The knocking gets louder. He
   opens the door as -
   
   
   CLAUDIA
   
   Reaches the stairs. She screams -
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Don't Louis -
   
   But Louis has opened the door. Nothing there. He looks
   back at Claudia, puzzled, then at the door again when,
   swooping into his vision comes the nightmare image of -
   
   
   LESTAT
   
   In filthy swamp-soaked rags, robust again, but his
   flesh shriveled, covered in scars, his eyes riddled,
   bloodshot. he roars.
   
                       LESTAT
             WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS THAT
             ACCURSED CHILD?
   
   Louis throws his body against the door, slamming it on
   Lestat's reaching hand. The hand withdraws, as Lestat
   roars. Louis bolts the door.
   
   Louis runs up the stairs, sweeps Claudia in his arms,
   watching appalled as the door shudders with the force
   of Lestat's body.
   
   
   IN THE PARLOUR
   
   Louis runs through with Claudia in his arms.
   
                       LOUIS
             It can't be -
   
                       CLAUDIA
             It is! Take the back stairwell -
   
   Suddenly Lestat crashes through the casement window,
   scattering blood everywhere, reefing himself on the
   shattered glass. He tumbles to the floor and gets
   unsteadily to his feet.
   
                       LESTAT
             GIVE ME HER LOUIS!!

   Louis throws Claudia behind him and hurls himself on
   Lestat, who fights like a ravening animal, bits of his
   broken body coming off in the process. Then with a
   terrifying effort, Lestat hurls Louis off, goes for
   Claudia, who grabs the poker from the fireplace,
   scatters burning coals over him. He falls back, then
   comes at her again, as the drapes catch fire. Louis
   grabs the lamp.
   
                       LOUIS
             Stay back - for the love of God...
             or I'll burn you alive...
   
   Lestat lunges again at Claudia.
   
   Louis hurls the lamp, which explodes him in flame.
   
   Lestat screams in agony, whirls around the room, then
   comes on Claudia again. She hurls another lamp.
   
   Louis throws the flaming sheets around him, wrapping
   him further in fire. Lestat falls to his knees,
   choking, hands up over his face in the smoke. The whole
   parlor is afire. Louis gathers up Claudia, smothering
   the burning house, carries her down the back stairs,
   through the carriage way and through the gathering
   crowds of mortals into the street.
   
   
   EXT. STREET - NIGHT
   
   Louis running, with Claudia in his arms. He looks back
   at the flames of the house. Sound of a ship's horn.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             The ship is sailing without us!
   
                       LOUIS
             Not yet. Holding her tightly, Louis
             runs.
   
   
   EXT. DECK OF SHIP - NEAR DAWN
   
   Louis stands at the railings in the morning mist as the
   ship moves down the river. He sees...
   
   
   CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
   
   With flame lighting up the sky.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Though the fire seemed to spread
             through the quartier, I stood on
             that deck until dawn, fearful he
             would come out again of the very
             river like some monster to destroy
             us both. And all the while I
             thought, Lestat, we deserve your
             vengeance. You gave me the dark
             gift. And I delivered you into the
             hands of death for the second time.
   
   
   INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO
   
   Louis and Malloy.
   
                       MALLOY
             Did he die in the fire?
   
                       LOUIS
             He was dead to us. We were free.
             That was all that mattered.
   
   
   EXT. SHIP - EVENING
   
   The ship, shrouded in mist.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Though the ship was blessedly free
             of rats, a strange plague
             nonetheless struck its passengers.
   
   A body is slipped into the sea. A priest reads last
   rites to a mourning family.
   
   
   INT. SHIPS HOLD
   
   Trunks and cases, creaking with the ship's movement.
   Dead rats everywhere.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             Claudia and I alone seemed immune.
             We kept to ourselves, pondering the
             mystery of Lestat and the greater
             mystery of each other.
             
   
   EXT. SHIP - NIGHT
   
   Passing through the Straits of Gibralter.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             We reached the Mediterranean. I
             wanted those waters to be blue.
             They were black, nighttime waters
             and how I suffered then, straining
             to remember the color that a young
             man's senses had taken for granted,
             that my memory had let slip away
             for eternity. It was black off the
             coast of Italy, black off the coast
             of Greece, Europe itself was black.
             
   
   EXT. DECK - NIGHT
   
   Claudia, sitting with an easel and sketch-pad,
   sketching the bay of Naples. A beautifully realized
   drawing, all in shades of grey and black. Louis
   observes.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Louis, your quest is for darkness
             only. This sea is not your sea.
             They myths of men are not your
             myths. Their history isn't yours.
   
   The sketch changes to a sketch of -
   
   
   THE ACROPOLIS
   
   In the moonlight.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             We saw the Acropolis by moonlight,
             shades of grey and silver. And I
             longed for the brilliant white of
             those marbles in the hot sun of
             Homer...
   
   The sketch changes to a sketch of -
   
   
   TRANSYLVANIA
   
   And the traditional shapes of the vampire landscape.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             We docked at Varna and searched the
             rural countryside of the
             Carpathians, for what she liked to
             term "our kind"...
   
   
   MONTAGE OF SKETCHES
   
   A TRANSLYVANIAN VILLAGE, A GRAVEYARD.
   
   RUINED CASTLE AFTER CASTLE, LOOKING INTO THE SKIES...
   
                       LOUIS
             The quest for these Old World
             vampires filled me with bitterness.
             We searched village after village,
             ruin after ruin and I was glad when
             always we found nothing. For what
             could the damned really have to say
             to the damned?
   
   
   INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO
   
   Malloy and Louis.
   
                       MALLOY
             You found nothing?
   
                       LOUIS
             Peasant rumors, superstitions about
             garlic, crosses, stakes in the
             hear, all that - how do you say
             again? Bull shit. But one of our
             kind? Not a whisper.
   
                       MALLOY
             No vampires in Transylvania? No
             Count Dracula?
   
                       LOUIS
             Fictions, my friend. The vulgar
             fictions of a demented Irishman...
             So we repaired to Paris...
   
   
   EXT. BOULEVARD FACADE OF GRAND HOTEL AND PARIS OPERA
   
   Crowds and gaslight everywhere. Carriages, horses,
   OPERA coming from the opera house.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I think the very name of Paris
             brought a rush of pleasure to me
             that was extraordinary. I was a
             Creole, after all and Paris was the
             mother of New Orleans, a universe
             whole and entire unto herself...
   
   
   EXT. 18TH CENTURE PALACES ALONG THE SEINE - NIGHT
   
   The high walls of the Louvre, dark figures walking in
   pairs through the shadowy tulieries.
   
   
   EXT. STREET - SHOP WINDOW
   
   Claudia, in furtrimmed muff and bonnet, peers through
   the glass at a display of dolls. Each doll in there
   seems to resemble her, with blonde hair and blue eyes.
   She peers deep into the shop and sees -
   
   MADELEINE, a young woman bent over a workbench painting
   a doll's face, oblivious to being watched.
   
   
   INT. OPERA STAIRCASE
   
   Louis and Claudia hurrying hand in hand with a crowd of
   mortals towards the sound of an ORCHESTRA TURNING
   beyond.
   
   
   INT. NOTRE DAME
   
   Claudia and Louis standing in the deep shadows, looking
   at the branching arches. Louis is overcome with
   sadness, Claudia is fascinated.
   
   
   INT. GALLERY
   
   Louis and Claudia walk among a series of mythological
   nudes by Poussin.
   
   
   INT. SALON - NIGHT
   
   Claudia, surrounded by discarded dresses and outfits,
   being attended by couturiers. All the clothes are tiny,
   to fit her frame, but have an adult cut and shape.
   
                       LOUIS
             We were alive again. We were in
             love and so euphoric was I that I
             yielded to her every desire...
   
   
   INT. SUMPRUOUS HOTEL SUITE
   
   Full of late 19th century furniture, lots of Empire
   style, Regency, gilt, velvet and brocade.
   
   
   CLOSE ON A HUGE BLACK EBONY CHEST
   
   Against a wall, solemn among all the light and glitter.
   
   
   CLAUDIA
   
   By a large gilt mirror, in her new clothes. She is
   covered with jewelry, fixing earrings to her ears.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Help me, mon chere...
   
   Louis walks over, helps her with the earrings.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             How do I look?
   
                       LOUIS
             Still my beautiful child.
   
   Claudia laughs.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             A beautiful child! Is that what you
             still think I am?
   
                       LOUIS
             Yes...
   
   He turns away.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Why do you turn away? Why don't you
             look.
   
   She twirls, looking at herself in the mirror, then
   stops, stares at herself.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You want me to be your daughter
             forever, don't you?
   
                       LOUIS
             Yes.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Well tell me, papa. What was it
             like making love?
   
   Louis is stunned. He blushes.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You don't remember? Or you never
             knew.
   
                       LOUIS
             It was something hurries...and
             seldom savored... something acute
             that was quickly lost. It was the
             pale shadow of killing.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             But how will I ever know, Louis?
   
   She stares at him through the mirror.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I'll never find them, will I? My
             own kind...
   
   
   EXT. BOULEVARD - EVENING
   
   Louis and Claudia walk along a boulevard like father
   and daughter. All around them are bourgeois Parisian
   families on their evening stroll. Claudia points at the
   children that pass.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Have I anything in common with her,
             Louis?
   
   She points to a beautiful French child walking by with
   her mother.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Or her, or her - or any of them?
   
                       LOUIS
             Claudia, you torture yourself.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             They are ducklings, that will grow
             into swans. Whereas I must be the
             duckling forever.
   
                       LOUIS
             You are more beautiful than any of
             them.
   
   
   EXT. DOLL-SHOP - NIGHT
   
   We see Madeleine, inside, painting a doll's face. Louis
   and Claudia arrive outside.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             All her dolls resemble me.
   
   
   POV
   
   Claudia's face, with the dolls in the background. The
   resemblance is uncanny.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Are they my kind Louis? Dolls never
             change either.
   
                       LOUIS
             You are neither, Claudia. Now stop
             this -
   
   Madeleine sees Claudia from inside. She waves.
   
                       LOUIS
             You know her?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Yes. Should I take her, Louis?
             Among her dolls? make a doll of her
             in turn?
   
                       LOUIS
             Come, Claudia...
   
   He takes her arm. But Claudia shakes him off, and moves
   into the shop.
   
   
   EXT. LATIN QUARTER - NIGHT
   
   Louis walks briskly, head bowed.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             For a time we had been almost
             human, in the sensual whirl of what
             Paris had to offer. But the human
             delights of that city only served
             to remind her of the ageless child
             she had become. I felt her pain as
             I walked until I become aware that
             I was being followed.
   
   
   CLOSEUP - LOUIS' FEET
   
   Walking. A step echoes his.
   
   Louis stops. Turns, sees nothing. Then walks again. The
   echoing steps begin again.
   
   Louis again. Sees a shadow, flitting.
   
                       LOUIS
             Claudia!
   
   Nothing. He walks again, hears the same effect. Then he
   stops. He stares at a gaslamp opposite.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             So it was when I had given up the
             search for vampires that a vampire
             found me...
   
   Santiago, a tall vampire, materializes under the
   gaslight. And Louis gradually realizes that this
   vampire has assumed the same attitude, posture, clothes
   and hair-style as Louis.
   
   Louis gives an involuntary shake of the head. Santiago
   mimics. Louis takes a step forwards. Santiago mimics.
   Louis folds his arms. Santiago mimics.
   
                       LOUIS & STATIAGO
                   (simultaneously)
             Clever.
   
                       LOUIS
             You mean me harm?
   
                       SANTIAGO
                   (a beat later)
             You mean me harm?
   
   Louis calculates.
   
                       LOUIS
             Trickster. Buffoon!
   
   Santiago echoes the first word, but not the second.
   Louis has broken his composure. He turns his back on
   Santiago, only to come face to face with Santiago right
   in front of him.
   
   Again Louis turns this back to find Santiago facing
   him.
   
   Louis turns, glowers, refusing to look at him.
   
                       LOUIS
             I've searched the world for an
             immortal and this is what I find?
   
   Slowly he looks up. Santiago draws close, breaking the
   mirror trick and suddenly slams Louis back against the
   wall.
   
   Louis is furious. He regains his balance, strikes out
   at Santiago and when Santiago vanishes, to reappear
   behind him, Louis slams back his elbow into his
   midriff. Santiago staggers, amazed and then rushes at
   Louis, throwing him down.
   
   Louis rolls back to his feet, then to his amazement
   sees two vampires, on in front, on behind. He looks
   both ways, then sees one has vanished. He stares,
   awestruck, at this new one:
   
                       ARMAND
             He looks like an angel.
   
                       ARMAND
             You are all right.
   
   He reaches into his waistcoat, takes an engraved
   invitation out of his pocket and thrusts it at Louis.
   
   Louis reads it aloud, as we see:
   
   "THEATRE DES VAMPIRES
   By Special Invitation
   Friday, 9 p.m."
   
                       ARMAND
             Bring the petit beauty with you. No
             one will harm you. I won't allow
             it. Remember my name. Armand.
   
   Armand bows and vanishes.
   
   Louis listens to the silence.
   
   
   EXT BOULEVARD DES CAPUCHINES - THEATRE DES VAMPIRES -
   NIGHT
   
   Louis formally dressed with Claudia in rich attire on
   his arm. They pass people buying tickets for the
   theatre and go inside.
   
                       LOUIS
             Remember what I've told you.
             They'll have different powers.
             They'll read your thoughts if you
             allow it.
   
   They draw close to:
   
   
   HUGE POSTERS
   
   Reading -
   
   "THEATRE DES VAMPIRES PRESENTS
   THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
   By Edgar Allen Poe"
   
   The posters are illustrated with cliched images of
   vampires overcoming damsels in distress.
   
   
   ANOTHER ANGLE
   
                       CLAUDIA
             But this can't be real. This is
             nonsense.
   
                       LOUIS
             Nonsense all right. But something
             tell me it's going to be the
             strangest nonsense we've ever seen.
   
   Warily, they show their invitations to the mortal
   ticket taker at the door. He glances away
   indifferently.
   
   
   INT. THEATRE BOX - NIGHT
   
   Claudia and Louis look at the crowd as the lights go
   down.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Mortals, mortals everywhere. And
             lots of drops to drink.
   
                       LOUIS
             They are here. I know they are.
             Listen for something that doesn't
             make a sound.
   
   Stage: curtain rises.
   
   An elaborate painted set of an Italianate castle. Death
   standing before it, the traditional image of the Grim
   Reaper, complete with magnificent scythe.
   
                       LOUIS
                   (whispers)
             It's a vampire. It's the one I saw
             in Rue St Jacques.
   
   A version of the Poe story unfolds before them. All of
   the participants are vampires. All beautiful gleaming
   white, aged 20 or 30.
   
                       LOUIS
             They use no paint. And the audience
             think it is paint.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             How devilishly clever.
   
   A spotlight uncovers a mortal woman suddenly forced out
   upon the stage.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             She's no vampire.
   
                       LOUIS
             No. She's frightened. She doesn't
             know where she is.
   
   The audience laughs uneasily, then stops as the Mortal
   Woman comes into the footlights. She is too beautiful,
   too confused. Santiago, as Death, advances on her. She
   backs away, terrified, then sees the other vampires, in
   a phalanx, advancing from behind, in a half-circle.
   
                       MORTAL WOMAN
             I don't want to die!
   
   She looks around in panic. Santiago swoons, arms over
   his breast as if he is hopelessly in love.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             We are death!
   
   The Mortal Woman steps to the footlights.
   
                       MORTAL WOMAN
             Someone help me. Please... What
             have I done?
   
   Louis whispers to Claudia.
   
                       LOUIS
             This is no performance.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             And no one knows but us...
   
   
   ON THE STAGE
   
                       SANTIAGO
             We all die. Death is the one thing
             you share with all those here.
   
   Santiago gestures to the audience.
   
   
   AUDIENCE
   
   Rapt faces.
   
   
   ON THE STAGE
   
                       MORTAL WOMAN
             But I'm young...
   
                       SANTIAGO
             Death is no respecter of age. He
             can come any time, any place. Need
             I tell you what fate has in store
             for you?
   
                       MORTAL WOMAN
             I would take my chance. Let me go!
             Please...
   
                       SANTIAGO
             And if you take that chance and
             live, what is your fate? The
             humpbacked toothless visage of old
             age?
   
   Santiago approaches her and tears the drawstring out of
   her peasant blouse. It opens completely and starts to
   slip. She tries to catch it, but gently stops her
   wrists. The blouse falls, exposing her young breasts.
   
   
   LOUIS AND CLAUDIA
   
                       LOUIS
             This is monstrous!
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Yes, and very beautiful.
   
   
   ON THE STAGE
   
                       SANTIAGO
             Just as this flesh is pink now, it
             will turn grey and wrinkle with
             age.
   
                       MORTAL WOMAN
             Let me live, please. I don't care.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             Then why should you care if you die
             now?
   
   She shakes her head, confused. he catches her wrists
   behind her back.
   
   
   AUDIENCE
   
   Is awestruck by her beauty, her suffering.
   
   
   SANTIAGO
   
   Draws near her cheek.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             And suppose death had a heart to
             love and to release you? To whom
             would he turn his passion? Would
             you pick a person from the crowd
             there? A person to suffer as you
             suffer?
   
   
   AUDIENCE
   
   A young girl cries out in jest.
   
                       YOUNG GIRL
             Oh, yes, take me Monsieur Vampire!
             I adore you!
   
   Audience roars with laughter.
   
   
   ON THE STAGE
   
                       SANTIAGO
             You wait your turn.
   
   The audience laughs again.
   
   The Mortal Woman shakes her head in panic.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             Well, have you a sister, a mother,
             a daughter you would send in your
             place?
   
   
   CLOSE ON CLAUDIA
   
   Even she is repelled by the cruelty. She shakes her
   head.
   
   
   MORTAL WOMAN
   
   Shakes her head. She is helpless.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             We alone can give death meaning. Do
             you know what it means to be loved
             by death, to become our bride?
   
   Mortal Woman looks up on the verge of hysteria or
   fainting. But then her eyes mist over. She is being
   entranced.
   
   
   FROM HER POV
   
   We realize she is looking past Santiago at the divinely
   beautiful Armand, who has just stepped out of the
   wings. Armand has entranced her. He passes Santiago.
   Santiago stiffens, but yields the stage.
   
                       ARMAND
             No pain.
   
                       MORTAL WOMAN
             No pain?
   
   Armand takes her by the naked shoulders.
   
                       ARMAND
             Your beauty is a gift to us.
   
   
   ON THE STAGE
   
   Armand gestures to the others who slowly, gracefully
   close in.
   
                       ARMAND
             Who deserves such a gift?
   
   He pulls the drawstring from her skirt and it falls
   revealing her nakedness. But she is spellbound.
   
                       MORTAL WOMAN
             No pain...
   
   Armand embraces her, drinks, her naked body stark
   against her black clothes, then he passes her to the
   other vampires one by one.
   
   
   CLOSE ON LOUIS
   
   Who battles desire and hunger with anger.
   
                       LOUIS
             I've seen enough of this! I loathe
             it!
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Be still!
   
   
   ON THE STAGE
   
   The naked Mortal Woman lies dead on the floor. The
   vampires seem to vanish one by one. As the curtain
   draws across, the Audience loudly applauds what they
   presume are theatrical tricks.
   
   
   ANOTHER ANGLE
   
   The audience, milling towards the exits. They talk in
   vacuous terms about the beauty of the show, the
   symbolism of it, the daring of it as they leave.
   
   Gradually Louis and Claudia are left alone in the empty
   theatre. Louis seems anxious to leave. Claudia whispers
   in his ear.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Patience, Louis. Patience.
   
   He looks around the empty theatre, more eerie now than
   when the play was on. The red curtain shifts slightly
   in a hidden breeze, a candle sputters and dies in a
   box. Then the candle flares again, and we see Armand in
   the box, looking down on them. He stares with a dreamy
   expression, saying nothing.
   
                       LOUIS
             We've been searching for you for a
             very long time...
   
   His voice echoes eerily. Armand gestures for them to
   follow him.
   
   
   INT. FOOT OF STAIRWAY
   
   Armand leading, Louis and Claudia following. It opens
   into a -
   
   
   HUGE UNDERGROUND BALLROOM
   
   Walls are painted with famous copies of Durer,
   Brueghel, Goya and Bosch depictions of death. Fine
   wooden coffins line the walls. Candles burn in sconces,
   casting alternate shadows and pools of light. Armand
   walks through, gesturing Louis and Claudia to follow
   him.
   
   As they walk through, vampire man and women appear out
   of the shadows like wraiths, startling them, drifting
   around them, stroking them, touching Claudia as if she
   were a doll. Shrieks of preternatural laughter.
   
   Armand gestures to the vampires to back off.
   
   All obey but ESTELLE.
   
                       ESTELLE
             Such a darling.
   
   She menaces Claudia, her breasts enormous, her fangs
   bared. Armand throw her a look, and she is flung
   against the wall.
   
   Louis stares around. The vampires faces drift towards
   him and away, always disclosing the face of Armand, who
   seems some distance away, but strangely close, staring
   at Louis with a constantly calm, hypnotic gaze. Then a
   young mortal boy comes from the shadows with a
   candelabra, which he hands to Armand.
   
   Armand and the boy come towards them, leading them
   along the walls, his candelabra illuminating the
   ghastly murals, his face gleaming like an angel above
   the candleflame.
   
                       LOUIS
             Monstrous.
   
                       ARMAND
             Yes, and very beautiful.
   
                       LOUIS
             Your lips, they didn't move.
   
                       ARMAND
             They did, but too fast for you to
             see them. No magic, just grace and
             speed.
   
   The boy is watching Louis. Armand's hand beckons and
   the boy draws up to Louis in the candlelight. He places
   his arms on Louis' shoulders. Louis glances at Armand,
   who smiles. Louis sees the puncture marks on the boy's
   neck.
   
                       ARMAND
             He wants you...
   
   Louis is utterly confused. Can't resist. Drinks his
   blood.
   
   The boy's body presses against him, sensual, willing.
   The other vampires appear all around Louis, who
   suddenly senses it and draws away, ashamed.
   
   Claudia watches warily, from a distance. Armand beckons
   at her and Louis and open a door in the wall which
   reveals a stone staircase.
   
   
   INT. MEDIEVAL ROOM
   
   Medieval chairs, table, an old coffin, a bed in one
   corner, a blazing fire. A medieval painting of Satan,
   being banished from heaven, above the fire. Armand
   places the boy on the bed, settling him so he sleeps.
   
                       ARMAND
             Disappointing, isn't it? To come so
             far and find so little. Jaded
             ingenues, amusing themselves with
             make- believe...
   
                       LOUIS
             We had feared we were the only
             ones...
   
                       ARMAND
             But how did you come into
             existence?
   
   He glances at Louis, then at Claudia, who averts her
   eyes.
   
                       ARMAND
             You don't want to answer... Two
             vampires from the new world, come
             to guide us into the new era as all
             we love slowly rots and fades away.
   
                       LOUIS
             Are you the leader of this group?
   
                       ARMAND
             If there were a leader, I would be
             the one.
   
   Claudia stares at him constantly, guarded.
   
                       LOUIS
             So you have the answers...
   
                       ARMAND
             Ah! You have questions?
   
                       LOUIS
             What are we?
   
                       ARMAND
             Nothing if not vampires...
   
                       LOUIS
             Who made us what we are?
   
                       ARMAND
             Surely you know the one who made
             you...
   
                       LOUIS
             But the one who made him, who made
             the one who made him, the source of
             all this evil...
   
   Louis looks at the picture. Armand watches him.
   
                       ARMAND
             That is a picture, nothing more.
   
                       LOUIS
             You mean we are not children of
             Satan?
   
                       ARMAND
             No.
   
   He smiles at Louis. A smile of infinite compassion.
   
                       ARMAND
             I understand. I saw you in the
             theatre, your suffering, your
             sympathy for that girl. I saw you
             with the boy. You die when you
             kill, you feel you deserve to die
             and you stint on nothing. But does
             that make you evil? Or, since you
             comprehend what you call goodness,
             does it not make you good?
   
                       LOUIS
             Then there is nothing.
   
                       ARMAND
             Perhaps...
   
   He passes his finger through the candle flame.
   
                       ARMAND
             And perhaps this is the only real
             evil left...
   
                       LOUIS
             Then God does not exist...
   
                       ARMAND
             I have not spoken to him...
   
                       LOUIS
             And no vampire here has discourse
             with God or the Devil?
   
                       ARMAND
             None that I've ever known. I know
             nothing of God or the Devil, I have
             never seen a vision nor learnt a
             secret that would damn or save my
             soul. And as far as I know, after
             four hundred years I am the oldest
             living vampire in the world.
   
   He stares at them, his face angelic, hypnotic, young.
   His eyes hold them both in a trance.
   
                       LOUIS
             My God... So it's as I always
             feared. Nothing, leading to
             nothing.
   
                       ARMAND
             You fell too much. So much you make
             me feel...
   
   He stares from Claudia to Louis. He seems to be reading
   their souls.
   
                       ARMAND
             The one who made you should have
             told you this. The one who left the
             old world for the new...
   
                       LOUIS
             He knew nothing. He just didn't
             care.
   
                       ARMAND
             Knew? You mean he is...
   
   Claudia appears suddenly to Louis' shoulder,
   interrupting.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Come, beloved. It's time we were on
             our way. I'm hungry and the city
             waits.
   
   She stares hard at Armand. Armand looks from her to
   Louis.
   
                       ARMAND
             So soon to go?
   
   He seems genuinely regretful. But Claudia pulls Louis
   out.
   
   
   INT. DARKENED CORRIDORS AND THEATRE - NIGHT
   
   Louis and Claudia feel their way through darkened
   corridors, trying to find their way out.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             The place was dark as we left, a
             darkness that confounded even
             Claudia. And as we blundered
             through it, again came the thought:
             I have wronged Lestat, I have hated
             him for the wrong reasons.
   
   Suddenly a light comes on. They see they are in the
   empty theatre. Santiago stands on the stage, under a
   candle.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             How did you wrong him?
   
   Louis is stunned.
   
                       LOUIS
             You read my thoughts?
   
                       SANTIAGO
             You said a name -
   
                       LOUIS
             A name I don't want to say again.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             I seemed to recognize it...
   
   Other vampires appear behind him.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             There is but one crime among us
             vampires here.
   
   He looks at Claudia.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             You should know, who are so
             secretive about the vampire who
             made you.
   
   Claudia laughs.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Boredom!
   
                       SANTIAGO
             It is the crime that means death to
             any vampire. To kill your own kind!
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Aaaah! I was so afraid it was to be
             born like Venus out of the foam, as
             we were! Come Louis, let's go!
   
   
   EXT. HOTEL SAINT GABRIEL - NIGHT
   
   Claudia and Louis enter the Lobby.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I loathe them! I can't stand the
             sight of them! Stupid bourgeois
             Parisians, all dressed in black
             like some private club! I've
             searched for them the world over
             and I despise them!
   
                       LOUIS
             What danger?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             I can feel it from them! They want
             to know who made us, what became of
             him. They have their rules, their
             idiotic rules!
   
   They come to their room, enter.
   
   
   INT. HOTEL ROOMS - NIGHT
   
   Louis closes the door behind him. Claudia paces.
   
                       LOUIS
             Do you think I would let them harm
             you?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             No, you would not, Louis. Danger
             hold you to me.
   
                       LOUIS
             Love holds you to me. And we are in
             danger, not you.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Love?
   
   She smiles at him. A strange, sad, adult smile.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You would leave me for Armand if he
             beckoned you.
   
                       LOUIS
             Never.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             He wants you as you want him. He's
             been waiting for you. He wants you
             for a companion. He bides his time
             that place. he finds them as dull
             and lifeless as we do.
   
                       LOUIS
             That's not so.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Do you know what his soul said to
             me without saying a word? When he
             put me in that trance...
   
                       LOUIS
             So you felt it too!
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Let him go, he said. Let him go.
   
   She touches his face.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Is that what I should do Louis? Let
             you go? My father? My lover? My
             Louis, who made me?
   
   There are tears in her eyes. Louis lifts her up in his
   arms.
   
                       LOUIS
             He can protect us, Claudia.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You really believe that?
   
   
   EXT. DOLL-SHIP - NIGHT
   
   Claudia, staring at the dolls. We see Madeleine inside,
   painting a doll. She sees Claudia and smiles and waves.
   
   
   INT. THEATRE - NIGHT
   
   Louis, sitting alone in the box, as the curtains draw
   back, to show Santiago as death, as before. Louis takes
   advantage of the darkness to slip away.
   
   
   INT. ARMAND'S ROOM - NIGHT
   
   Armand opens the door to Louis' knock.
   
                       ARMAND
             I was waiting for you...
   
                       LOUIS
             Listen to me.
   
   He follows Armand into the room.
   
                       LOUIS
             Claudia is dear to me. My...
             daughter.
   
                       ARMAND
             Your lover.
   
                       LOUIS
             No, my beloved, my child.
   
                       ARMAND
             If you say so. You are innocent.
   
                       LOUIS
             I'm not innocent. But I'm afraid.
             She feels she's in danger from the
             others.
   
                       ARMAND
             She is.
   
                       LOUIS
             But why?
   
                       ARMAND
             I could give you reasons. Her
             silence. Her youth. It's forbidden
             to make so young, so helpless, that
             cannot survive on its own.
   
                       LOUIS
             Then blame the one who made her...
   
                       ARMAND
             Did you kill this vampire who made
             you both? Is that why you won't say
             his name? Santiago thinks you did.
   
                       LOUIS
             We want no quarrel with him.
   
                       ARMAND
             It's already begun. If you want to
             save her, send her away.
   
                       LOUIS
             Then I leave too.
   
   Armand smiles.
   
                       ARMAND
             So soon? Without any of those
             answers you so longed for?
   
                       LOUIS
             You said there were none.
   
                       ARMAND
             But you asked the wrong questions.
             Do you know how few vampires have
             the stamina for immortality? How
             quickly they perish of their own
             will.
   
                       LOUIS
             We can do that?
   
                       ARMAND
             You would never give up life. If
             the world were reduced to one empty
             cell, on fragile candle, you stay
             alive and study it. You see too
             clearly. You see too much.
   
                       LOUIS
             That's what the one who made me
             said.
   
                       ARMAND
             How he must have loved you.
   
   Armand suddenly grips Louis close to him.
   
                       ARMAND
             Louis, I need you more than he ever
             did. I need a link with this
             century. The world changes. We do
             not. Therein lies the irony that
             ultimately kills us. I need you to
             make contact with this age.
   
   Louis laughs bitterly.
   
                       LOUIS
             He? Don't you see? I'm not the
             spirit of any age! I'm at odds with
             everything and always have been!
             I'm not even sure what I am!
   
   Armand smiles.
   
                       ARMAND
             But Louis, that is the very spirit
             of your age. The heart of it. You
             fall from grace has been the fall
             of a century.
   
   Louis is stunned.
   
                       LOUIS
             And the vampires of the Theatre?
   
                       ARMAND
             Like moths around the candle of the
             age. Decadent, useless. They can't
             reflect anything. But you do. You
             reflect its broken heart.
   
   Louis is speechless.
   
                       ARMAND
             Are these not the answers you came
             for?
   
                       LOUIS
                   (softly)
             Yes... My God...
   
                       ARMAND
             A vampire with a human soul. An
             immortal with a mortal's passion.
             You are beautiful, my friend.
             Lestat must have wept when he made
             you -
   
                       LOUIS
             Lestat! You knew Lestat!
   
                       ARMAND
             Yes I knew him. Knew him well
             enough not to mourn his passing.
   
   Armand stands. He takes Louis by the arm, leads him
   towards the back wall.
   
                       ARMAND
             But you must go now. You must get
             her safely out of Paris.
   
   He opens a hidden door in the wall.
   
                       ARMAND
             No-one else knows of this door.
             When you knock you will find me
             waiting...
   
   
   EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - NIGHT
   
   Louis, in the street outside, as the door closes behind
   him.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I felt a kind of peace at last. I
             had found the teacher which Lestat
             could never, I knew now, have been.
             I knew knowledge would never be
             withheld by Armand. It would pass
             through him as through a pane of
             glass. And I knew Claudia must
             leave me...
   
   
   INT. HOTEL SUITE - NIGHT
   
   Louis enters. There is unfamiliar scent in the air, a
   doll sitting by the mirror. Louis looks in the mirror
   and sees...
   
   
   MADELEINE
   
   The doll-maker, resplendent in green taffeta, sitting
   like a Madonna with Claudia on her lap. Claudia's arms
   are wound round her neck. The contrast between mortal
   woman and immortal child is plain.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Madeleine... Louis is shy.
   
   Madeleine rises and comes towards Louis. She draws back
   the lace fringes round her throat, so he can see the
   two marks there. She says softly, dreamily.
   
                       MADELEINE
             Drink.
   
   Louis turns away. Claudia speaks, icy, from the bed.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Do it Louis. Because I cannot do
             it. I haven't the strength. You saw
             to that when you made me.
   
   Louis turns to Madeleine.
   
                       LOUIS
             You haven't the vaguest conception
             under God of what you ask!
   
                       MADELEINE
             Au contraire, monsieur, I have.
   
   Louis pushes her away. Claudia screams.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You have found your new companion,
             Louis! You will make me mine!
   
   Louis grips Madeleine and shakes her.
   
                       LOUIS
             How do we seem to you? Do you think
             us beautiful, magical, our white
             skin, our fierce eyes? Drink, you
             ask me! Have you any idea of the
             thing you will become?
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Your evil is that you cannot be
             evil! And I will suffer for it no
             longer!
   
                       LOUIS
             Don't make me, Claudia! I cannot do
             it!
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Yet you could do it to me!
             Snatching me from my mother's hands
             like two monsters in a fairy-tale!
             Couldn't you have waited? Six more
             years and I would have had that
             shape! And now you weep! You
             haven't tears enough for what
             you've done to me.
   
   She points to Madeleine
   
                       CLAUDIA
             You give her to me! Do this before
             you leave me!
   
   She begins to weep, sobbing like a child.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Oh God! I love you still, that's
             the torment of it. But you know I
             must leave you Louis...
   
                       LOUIS
             Yes...
   
                       CLAUDIA
             And who will care for me my love,
             my dark angel, when you are gone?
   
   Louis looks at Madeleine
   
                       LOUIS
             You promise to care for her then?
   
                       MADELEINE
             Yes...
   
                       LOUIS
             And you know what you ask for?
   
   She wraps her arms around Claudia.
   
                       MADELEINE
             Yes.
   
                       LOUIS
             What do you think she is,
             Madeleine? A doll?
   
                       MADELEINE
             A child who can't die...
   
   Her finger clutches a locket around her neck, Louis
   touches it, opens it.
   
   
   THE LOCKET
   
   A picture of a young girl, Claudia's age, wistful,
   beautiful.
   
                       LOUIS
                   (softly)
             And the child who did die?
   
                       MADELEINE
             My daughter...
   
   Louis takes her chin in his hand, gently.
   
                       LOUIS
             Look at the gaslight. Don't take
             your eyes off it. You will be
             drained to the point of death, but
             you must stay alive. Do you hear
             me?
   
                       MADELEINE
             Yes!
   
   Louis pulls her to him and starts to drink her blood.
   
   
   EXT. HOTEL BALCONY - LATER
   
   Louis on the balcony, weakened terribly. A breeze blows
   on the gauze curtains behind him, through which we
   see...
   
   SILHOUETTES of Madeleine and Claudia. Madeleine her
   arms outstretched, now a vampire, a long moan of pain
   coming from her. Claudia comes through the curtains,
   alarmed.
   
                       CLAUDIA
                   (whispers)
             Louis!
   
   Louis speaks without turning.
   
                       LOUIS
             She is dying. It happened to you
             too, but your child's mind can't
             remember.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             But if she dies...
   
                       LOUIS
             It's only mortal death.
   
   He turns to look at Claudia.
   
                       LOUIS
             Bear me no ill will, my love. We
             are now even.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             What do you mean?
   
                       LOUIS
             What died tonight inside that room
             was not that woman. It will take
             her many nights to die, perhaps
             years. What has died in that room
             tonight is the last vestige in me
             of what was human.
   
   She takes his hand.
   
                       CLAUDIA
             Yes father. At last. We are een.
   
   He bends down and kisses her. He looks up, at the
   wafting curtains. He sees -
   
   
   MANY VAMPIRE SHADOWS
   
   Silhouetted, coming closer.
   
   
   CLAUDIA
   
   Looks up and screams.
   
   
   THE CURTAINS
   
   Are ripped aside. The vampires of the Theatre surge
   through.
   
                       ESTELLE
             Time for justice, little one.
   
   The vampires close on them as Louis struggles,
   Claudia's scream pierces the night air.
   
   
   INT. CORRIDOR OF THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - NIGHT
   
   In a press of vampires, Louis, Claudia and Madeleine
   are forced down the dark corridor. Into -
   
   
   THE BALLROOM
   
   Vampire chaos, as they are dragged through. Louis
   struggling like a demon.
   
                       LOUIS
             Armand! Get me Armand! he wouldn't
             countenance this -
   
                       SANTIAGO
             You can make no demands here!
             Buffoon! Bastard -
   
   Santiago strikes Louis to the ground. As he struggles
   to his feet, he sees the vampires part around a figure
   coming through. He gasps at the sight of -
   
   
   LESTAT
   
   Dressed beautifully, but horribly scarred now, from the
   fire as well as the earlier stabbing. Lestat is
   confused, ancient, teetering, reaching for Santiago's
   shoulder to steady himself.
   
                       LESTAT
             Louis...
   
                       SANTIAGO
             Is he the one?
   
   Lestat shakes his head.
   
                       LESTAT
             No, the child. The child was the
             one...
   
                       SANTIAGO
             All the murderers!!!
   
                       LOUIS
             You are alive, Lestat! It can't be
             murder! Tell them how you treated
             us...
   
   Lestat reaches out to Louis.
   
                       LESTAT
             No... You come back to me Louis...
   
                       LOUIS
             Are you mad???
   
                       ESTELLE
             The sentence is death! To all of
             them!!!
   
                       LESTAT
             Only the girl - it was the girl -
   
   The sound of something being dragged through the crowd.
   Horrible echoing, scraping -
   
   Lestat grips Santiago.
   
                       LESTAT
             You promised me - I could take him
             back to New Orleans - Louis -
             there's something I must tell you -
             about that night - that night I met
             you -
   
   He stares around him, confused. The scraping gets
   louder.
   
                       LOUIS
             You let her go, Lestat - you let
             her free - and I'll come back with
             you -
   
   Santiago grabs Louis by the neck.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             Death for the others. For you
             eternity in a box -
   
   We see now what caused the scraping. A huge metal
   coffin being dragged through the vampires. Claudia
   screams.
   
                       SANTIAGO
             Walled in a dungeon. Your only
             company will be your screams...
             Perhaps it will take centuries...
   
   The vampires grab Louis. They force him towards the
   coffin. Lestat struggles with them.
   
                       LESTAT
             He's coming home with me - you
             promised -
   
                       SANTIAGO
                   (laughing)
             We promised nothing!
   
   Louis struggles fiercely as he is forced into the
   coffin. Claudia weeps.
   
                       LOUIS
             They've fooled you, Lestat! You
             must reach Armand! Armand has the
             power!
   
   Louis, struggling in the coffin. Then the lid is forced
   down, huge locks closed over it.
   
   
   INT. COFFIN
   
   Louis, in the smallest imaginable space. Beating his
   forehead against the metal.
   
   
   EXT. COFFIN
   
   Claudia, throwing herself on the coffin, crying. She is
   dragged away. Vampire hands drag the coffin across the
   stone floor.
   
   
   INT. COFFIN
   
   Louis, forehead pouring with blood, being thrown this
   way and that. The coffin is lifted, upside down, Louis'
   head crashes off the floor.
   
   
   EXT. COFFIN
   
   Is thrust into a niche in the wall. Bricks being placed
   over, mortar trowelled on.
   
   
   INT. COFFIN
   
   Louis upside down. Sounds of bricks and mortar. Then
   terrifying, unearthly scream pierces the coffin,
   striking to his very soul.
   
                       LOUIS
             Claudia!!!
   
   He loses consciousness.
   
   
   BLACKNESS
   
   INT. COFFIN
   
   Louis sleeps, upside down. Sound of bricks being
   broken, thrown aside. Then of locks breaking.
   
   Louis opens his eyes. The lid opens. He sees -
   
                       ARMAND
             Above him, reaching down to take
             his hand.
   
                       ARMAND
             Hurry. Don't make a sound.
   
   Louis gets out, into a vast long catacomb. Louis runs
   to the end of it, steps through a broken brick wall.
   
                       LOUIS
             Where is she? Where's Claudia?
   
                       ARMAND
             Follow me - that way - through my
             cell -
   
   He points to his cell at the end of the passage, the
   foot of the steps. Sound of rain beyond the door.
   
                       LOUIS
             Not without Claudia. Where is she?
   
                       ARMAND
             I can't save her.
   
                       LOUIS
             You can't believe I'd leave without
             her. Armand! You must save her! You
             have no choice.
   
                       ARMAND
             Louis, I can't save her. I will
             only risk losing you -
   
   Louis runs up the stone stairs. It leads to the
   ballroom. He enters.
   
   Estelle stands far off, looking at him coolly. She
   lifts the stage skull mask and laughs softly behind it.
   A male vampire slumps in a chair staring softly at
   Louis.
   
   Silence. Indifference.
   
   Louis sees Lestat sitting in a far corner. he rushes up
   to Lestat, who looks up at him, confused. He's holding
   something crumpled, made of cloth.
   
                       LESTAT
             You'll come home with me Louis? For
             a little while... until I am myself
             again.
   
                       LOUIS
             CLAUDIA!!!
   
   Louis turns round and round in rage. Passive still
   faces. A door bangs open and shut.
   
   Louis looks again at Lestat. He snatches the cloth from
   Lestat's hand. We see it is a small torn bloodstained
   dress. Claudia's dress.
   
   The door bangs again. Estelle laughs. Rain gusts into
   the ballroom.
   
   Louis goes to the door, holding the dress. Armand
   approaches, trying to pull him away, but Louis shrugs
   him off. He draws nearer and nearer and stairs at -
   
   
   INT. BRICK AIRWELL
   
   On the stones lie Claudia and Madeleine, burn to ashes,
   in each other's arms, like the corpses of his wife and
   daughter in the New Orleans graveyard, embracing each
   other.
   
   Only Claudia's blond hair and Madeleine's red hair
   remain unburnt.
   
   Louis looks up at the walls of this airwell, many
   stories to the sky. He cries out in agony.
   
   Santiago appears behind him, staring. Louis roars in
   horror and attacks Santiago, scattering the ashes into
   the rainy wind. Claudia's golden locks fly up into the
   wind, they whirl around the warring figure.
   
   Armand appears, drags Louis free, pulls him screaming
   from the airwell, into the ballroom, towards the exit.
   
   Claudia's hair is sucked up by the wind through the
   airwell, towards the night sky.
   
   
   EXT. NOTRE DAME DOOR - NIGHT
   
   Louis is slumped against the stone wall. Armand stands
   beside him like a guardian angel.
   
                       ARMAND
             I couldn't prevent it.
   
                       LOUIS
             I don't believe you. I do not have
             to read your soul to know that you
             lie.
   
                       ARMAND
             Louis, they cannot be brought back.
             There are some things that are
             impossible, even for me.
   
                       LOUIS
             You let them do it.
   
   Louis climbs to his feet.
   
                       LOUIS
             You held sway over them. They
             feared you. You wanted it to
             happen.
   
                       ARMAND
             Louis, I swear I did not.
   
                       LOUIS
             I understand you only too well. You
             let them do it, as I let Lestat
             turn a child into a demon. As I let
             her rip Lestat's heart to pieces!
             Well I am no longer that passive
             fool that has spun evil from evil
             till the web traps the one who made
             it. Your melancholy spirit of this
             century! I know what I must do. And
             I warn you - you saved me tonight,
             so I return the favor - do not go
             near your cell in the Theatre Des
             Vampires again.
   
   
   EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - DAWN
   
   Wet and deserted, the streets around the theatre are
   quiet.
   
   
   CLOSEUP - CLOCK
   
   Chiming five a.m.
   
   
   CLOSE ON LOUIS
   
   Looking at the paling sky. He is in an alleyway,
   outside of Armand's cell. He has a huge keg with him.
   he finds the door unlocked. He enters.
   
   
   INT. CELL
   
   Empty. The hearth is cold. The old coffin is gone.
   Louis silently closes the door to the passage and
   blocks it with an immense bar. He goes in the other
   door.
   
   
   INT. THEATRE
   
   Louis hurls kerosene all over the stage, the curtain,
   the sets, the seats below. He grabs the scythe from the
   playlet. He walks out. Dribbling a trail of kerosene
   behind him.
   
   
   INT. STAIRS
   
   Louis walking rapidly down, leaving the trail of
   kerosene. He creeps quietly into the -
   
   
   BALLROOM
   
   Leaking kerosene from the cask. He splashes over the
   coffins that gleam in the dimness.
   
   Then he strikes a match and heaves it into the
   kerosene. Everything bursts into flame. The trail of
   kerosene roars into fire through the ballroom over the
   coffins and up the stairs. We hear EXPLOSIONS of fire
   from above.
   
   
   LOUIS
   
   Shudders all over, fighting the morning weakness. He
   readies the scythe, like the grim reaper.
   
   
   ESTELLE
   
   Rises from her burning coffin, screams and tries to run
   through the fire but Louis slashes her down with the
   scythe and she goes down screaming, her dress in
   flames.
   
                       ESTELLE
             Stop him. It's morning. The
             sunlight. Stop him.
   
   Others rise, choking in the smoke. Screams from
   everywhere. They are burning.
   
   Louis backs up the stairs to the -
   
   
   DUNGEON
   
   He can see there a thin pale light under Armand's
   bolted door. Suddenly -
   
   
   SANTIAGO
   
   Comes at him from behind. Louis turns. Santiago rushes
   him in a blur. Louis swings the scythe, too fast to see
   what he himself is doing. Santiago's head streaming
   blood flies through the air.
   
   The body drops, flapping its arms.
   
   SCREAMS come from everywhere.
   
   Another vampire rushes burning towards Louis. He
   decapitates him in turn. Then he staggers into Armand's
   cell, and bars the door the connects it to the ballroom
   behind him. He staggers to the outer door. There is a
   thin strip of daylight, beneath the door, blinding him.
   He throws it open, and staggers into the daylight.
   
   
   EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - DAWN
   
   Louis staggers out of the burning theatre, into the
   thin daylight. Great gusts of smoke cover the street.
   He staggers through the daylight, weakening, about to
   fall, when through the clouds of smoke comes -
   
   
   A MAGNIFICENT HEARSE
   
   As in a dream, driven by Armand's human boy. The door
   of the hearse opens. Through the curtains enclosing the
   interior, we see Armand. He reaches a hand out to Louis
   and pulls him inside.
   
   The hearse vanishes through the smoke, leaving the
   spectacle of the burning theatre.
   
   
   EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - TWILIGHT
   
   The gutted Theatre and ballroom, the roof collapsed,
   exposed to the evening sky. The life of Paris goes on
   around it, oblivious.
   
   
   INT. LOUVRE - NIGHTS LATER
   
   It is already a museum by this time and Louis and
   Armand, fancily dressed and composed, walk through it.
   They stop by a Gericault - The Wreck of the Medusa.
   
                       LOUIS
             You didn't even warm them, did you?
   
                       ARMAND
             No.
   
                       LOUIS
             And yet you knew what I would do.
   
                       ARMAND
             I knew. I rescued you, didn't I?
             From the terrible dawn.
   
                       LOUIS
             You were their leader. They trusted
             you.
   
                       ARMAND
             You made me see their failings,
             Louis. You made me look at them
             with your eyes.
   
   He looks at Louis affectionately.
   
                       ARMAND
             Your melancholy eyes...
   
                       LOUIS
             What a pair we are. We deserve each
             other, don't we?
   
                       ARMAND
             We are a pair, and that's what
             counts.
   
   Armand and Louis walk slowly through the Louvre
   together. Camera follows them for a while, then comes
   to rest on a sunrise by Turner.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             We left Paris shortly after. For
             years we wandered. Greece, Egypt,
             all the ancient lands. Then, out of
             curiosity, perhaps, boredom, who
             knows what, I took him home, to my
             America...
   
   
   INT. MOVIE THEATRE - NIGHT
   
   A deco cinema of the twenties. Louis and Armand,
   dressed in the style of the period walk down the aisle
   through the crowded seats.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             And there, a technological wonder
             allowed me see sunrise, for the
             first time in two hundred years...
   
   On the screen, Murnau's "Sunrise", in black and white.
   We see a montage of sunrises, from a whole range of
   movies, in black and white.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             And what sunrises! Seen as the
             human eye could never see them. We
             would sit in the dark, night after
             night among nameless humans,
             entranced with the miracle of
             light. Silver at first, then as the
             years progressed in tones of
             purple, red and my long-lost
             blue...
   
   The SUNRISES continue, in color now, and the
   backgrounds in them change to the fifties.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             And in time parted. We had become
             so alike, we both wanted the
             certainties of loneliness once
             more.
   
   The lights come up in a different theatre. Louis
   sitting there, alone, in a half empty theatre, dressed
   in the clothes of the fifties. He rises, exits with the
   others.
   
   
   EXT. NEW ORLEANS STREET - NIGHT
   
   Cars rushing by, twentieth-century madness. Louis
   emerges from the theatre, walks through the streets.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             I had returned to new Orleans. As
             soon as I smelt the air, I knew I
             was home. There was sadness there,
             rich, almost sweet, like the
             fragrance of jasmine. I walked the
             streets, savoring it like a long
             lost perfume...
   
   
   EXT. GARDEN DISTRICT - NIGHT
   
   Louis walks past the many Greek Revival Mansions.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             And then on Prytania Street, only
             blocks from the Lafayette cemetery
             I caught the scent of death and it
             wasn't coming from the graves...
   
   CAMERA PANS OVER white-walled Lafayette cemetery and
   its surrounding mansions.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             The scent grew stronger as I
             walked. Old death. A scent too
             faint for mortals to detect.
   
   Louis sees rats darting across the street. They rush
   into a great overgrown garden surrounding a ruined
   mansion. No lights.
   
   Louis stops at a rusted gate. He forces it open and
   enters -
   
   
   A VERITABLE JUNGLE
   
   Of overgrown rose and oak tree and wisteria. he sees a
   faint glimmer of light coming from a distant glass
   window of a huge Greek Revival house. He approaches
   then he sees -
   
   
   OLD SHRIVELLED CORPSE
   
   Of a man, long dead and dried up, snagged in the thorny
   rosevines.
   
   
   LOUIS
   
   Looks around. Walks on. Sees another corpse, almost
   nothing but bones, sinking into the wet earth, the
   roots of an oak overgrowing it.
   
   He looks up at the distant light.
   
   He passes a third corpse, caught in wisteria and rose
   vine, only bones and clothes.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             They were like the doomed princess
             caught in the thorny vines of
             Sleeping Beauty's castle. I knew
             what it meant. A vampire had lured
             them here, but had been to weak to
             get rid of them.
   
   Louis sees dead rats lying near the steps.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             It spelt weakness, madness, the
             behavior of a dying animal that
             pollutes its own lair.
   
   Louis treads carefully on the rotted steps. he moves
   along the porch. More dead rats. He sees through the
   floor-length window into rooms lined with stacked
   books. Virtually walled with them. Water seeps down
   from the ceiling, gleaming as it streaks over the
   books. The floors of the splendid rooms are bare,
   except for a rotten French chair by a dead fireplace. A
   single mirror reflecting the moon.
   
   Dead rats.
   
   He moves along the porch to the parlor windows. The
   candle flickers inside. He sees -
   
   
   HIS POV
   
   Lestat lying on the floor. He is gaunt to near
   starvation. All his scars are gone, but he is almost a
   skeleton and his eyes are enormous in their sockets.
   His clothes are rags. Blond hair beautiful, as always.
   
   
   MALLOY'S ENTRANCES FACE SUPERIMPOSED OVER
   
                       MALLOY (V.O.)
             Lestat escaped the fire!
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             He hadn't even been there. And all
             those years I thought he was dead.
   
   
   BACK TO LESTAT
   
   One tiny candle stands beside him. He reads an early
   comic, from the turn of the century. Without turning
   his head, he speaks.
   
                       LESTAT
             I'm so glad you're here Louis...
             I've dreamed of your coming...
   
                       LOUIS
             Don't try to speak... it's
             alright...
   
                       LESTAT
             I didn't mean to let them do it...
             that Santiago, he tricked me...
   
                       LOUIS
             That's all past, Lestat.
   
                       LESTAT
             Yes. Past... she should never have
             been one of us...
   
   He turns and looks at Louis. Old, fearful, broken.
   
                       LESTAT
             Still beautiful Louis. You always
             were the strong one.
   
                       LOUIS
             Don't fear me, Lestat. I bring you
             no harm.
   
                       LESTAT
             You've come back to me, Louis?
             You've come again to me?
   
   Louis shakes his head. A series of police sirens go by,
   piercing the night sky. A helicopter goes overhead. Red
   flashes illuminate his face. Lestat shivers, covers his
   ears. He's terrified. Louis touches him, calming him,
   until the lights pass over.
   
                       LOUIS
             It's only a siren...
   
                       LESTAT
             I can't bear it Louis! The machines
             out there, that fly and that roar!
             And such lights! They make the
             night brighter than the day!
   
                       LOUIS
             And they frighten you?
   
                       LESTAT
             You know I love the dark. But
             there's no dark anymore.
   
                       LOUIS
             It's false light, Lestat. It can't
             harm you...
   
                       LESTAT
             If you stayed with me Louis, I
             could venture out... little by
             little... become the old Lestat.
   
   Louis shivers. He releases him.
   
                       LOUIS
             I have to go now Lestat...
   
                       LESTAT
             You remember how I was, Louis.. the
             vampire Lestat...
   
                       LOUIS
             Yes. I remember...
   
   Lestat shivers.
   
                       LESTAT
             I tried to tell you Louis... that
             night in Paris... when I first came
             to you... no-one can refuse the
             dark gift, Louis... not even you.
   
                       LOUIS
             I tried...
   
                       LESTAT
             And the more you tried, the more I
             wanted you... a vampire with your
             beautiful, suffering human heart.
             And how you suffered... I need your
             forgiveness, Louis.
   
                       LOUIS
             You have it...
   
   Louis walks slowly away from him. Lestat turns back to
   his candle, his magazine.
   
                       LESTAT
             You'll come back, Louis... take me
             out... little by little... and
             maybe I'll be myself again...
   
   A bluebottle buzzes by him. His hand shoots out and
   grabs it, squeezes the blood.
   
                       LOUIS
                   (whispering)
             Yes, Lestat...
   
   
   ON LOUIS
   
   As he walks through the decayed house. His eyes are
   expressionless.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
             And my story ends there. But in
             fact it ended a long time ago, with
             Claudia's ashes in that theatre. My
             love died with her. I never really
             changed after that. What became of
             Lestat I have no idea. I go on,
             night after night. I feed on those
             who cross my path. But all my
             passion went with her yellow hair.
             I ma a spirit with preternatural
             flesh. Detached. unchangeable.
             Empty.
   
   
   INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT (PRESENT)
   
   Malloy, staring at Louis.
   
                       MALLOY
             No... it can't end like that...
   
                       LOUIS
             But it has. There is no more to
             tell.
   
                       MALLOY
             But you talk about passion, about
             longing, about things I'll never
             know in my life! It's still inside
             you, in every syllable you speak!
             And then you tell me it ends like
             that? Just empty?
   
                       LOUIS
             It's over, I'm telling you...
   
                       MALLOY
             You need a new passion, Louis, a
             new reason to feel... what a story
             you've told, you don't understand
             yourself.
   
   Louis looks at the cassettes on the table.
   
                       LOUIS
             Do what you want with it. Learn
             what you can. Give the story to
             others.
   
   Malloy rises.
   
                       MALLOY
             You have another chance, Louis.
             Take me! Give me your gift, your
             power...
   
   Louis is slowly horrified, then outraged and angry.
   
                       LOUIS
             Is this what you want? You ask me
             for this after all I've told you?
   
                       MALLOY
             If I could see what you've seen,
             feel what you've felt I wouldn't
             let it end like this! You need a
             like to the world out there, a
             connection... then it won't end
             like this...
   
   He stares at Louis.
   
                       MALLOY
             You need me.
   
   Louis turns away.
   
                       LOUIS
             Dear God. I've failed again,
             haven't I?
   
                       MALLOY
             No...
   
                       LOUIS
             Don't say anymore. The reels are
             still turning. I have but one
             chance to show you the meaning of
             what I've said.
   
   He looks at the boy. Then suddenly grabs him, lifts him
   off the floor, bares his terrifying fangs and brings
   them to his throat. Malloy screams, in involuntary
   terror.
   
                       LOUIS
             You like it? You like being food
             for the immortals? You like dying?
             Is it beautiful? Is it intense?
   
   Malloy, now terrified, whispers
   
                       MALLOY
             No... please...
   
   Louis drops him.
   
                       LOUIS
             Thank God.
   
   Malloy, falls on the floor, terrified. When he looks
   up, Louis has vanished.
   
                       MALLOY
             Louis... Louis...
   
   He looks up at the tape. It is still turning.
   
                       MALLOY
             Holy shit...
   
   He shakes his head. He gets up, and with shaking
   fingers gathers his tapes. He runs out of the room.
   
   
   EXT. STREET OUTSIDE - NIGHT
   
   Malloy running for his car, a convertible. He leaps in
   and screeches off through the night.
   
   
   EXT. STREETS - NIGHT
   
   Malloy whips the car through the tiny streets, in
   sheer, unfocused terror.
   
                       MALLOY
             Jesus...
   
   
   EXT. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE - NIGHT
   
   Malloy driving with streams of traffic over the bridge.
   He breathes deeply, to calm himself. He takes a tape
   from his pocket, and with still shaking hands, sticks
   it in the deck.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
                   (tape)
             1791. That's when it happened. I
             was twenty-four. Younger then you
             are now.
   
   Suddenly a bony hand shoots out from the back seat,
   pulls his neck backwards -
   
   
   LESTAT
   
   Sinks his teeth in his neck.
   
   
   MALLOY'S HANDS
   
   On the wheel, shaking, shuddering, losing their grip.
   
   
   MALLOY'S EYES
   
   Bulging, as the life drains out of him. Lestat sucking
   him like a rat.
   
   
   THE WHEEL
   
   Swinging free of Malloy's dying hands.
   
   
   THE CAR
   
   Veers wildly into oncoming traffic.
   
   
   LESTAT
   
   Drinks regardless.
   
   
   A TRUCK
   
   Coming towards them, about to crush the car.
   
   
   LESTAT'S BONY HAND
   
   Grabs the wheel, jerks it as he drinks.
   
   
   THE CAR
   
   Misses the truck by inches.
   
   
   LESTAT
   
   Throws Malloy to one side, climbs into the front seat.
   
   The tape is playing.
   
                       LOUIS (V.O.)
                   (tape)
             My invitation was open to anyone.
             Sailors, whores, thieves. But it
             was a vampire that accepted...
   
   
   ON LESTAT
   
   At the wheel, the corpse of Malloy in the passenger
   seat. He smiles. We can see the blood renewing him.
   
                       LESTAT
             Dear Louis... will I ever forget?
   
   
   EXT. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE - NIGHT
   
   Lestat drives on, the car a tiny speck against the
   bridge, the sea, the sky beyond, with the first fingers
   of light spreading through it.
   
                                               FADE OUT
   
   
   
   THE END