I feel like Queen of the Damned would be a bit of a throwaway answer for anyone who’s familiar.

I fell in love with the Vampire Chronicles series when I was an introverted, socially isolated teenager dealing with an abusive family situation (a little cliché, I know.) But, I immediately fell in love with Anne Rice’s writing style, and how her take on vampires wasn’t the old “good versus evil” and “road to hell, paved with good intentions” that I’d seen in any other vampire novel.

Even her origin story for them was unique to me, and I loved that so many of the vampire characters were forced to take an in-depth look at their life and destructive behaviors, especially now that they were immortal.

Everything from the poor casting, to the music, to the absolute removal of vital plot points made the movie literally unwatchable. I was kind of excited when I learned Aaliyah was cast as Akasha, since she was a well known talent at the time, very lovely, and at least visually perfect for the role.

…then she spent the entire film writhing and hissing at strangers, and teasing a man I kept forgetting was Lestat because they’d cast someone with exactly 0% of Lestat’s physical traits.