#long half asleep rant inspired by caros iwtv posting earlier

[monstraduplicia]

as much as I like the iwtv tv show and really enjoy a lot of what they're doing in terms of story, i do have to agree that it's sanitizing the gothic elements and taking a genuinely gutwrenching and thrilling story and making it. utterly palatable. while this is natural bc it's tv so the writers want it to reach a broader audience, i think when comparing it to the film specifically you see just how much the show missed the mark when it came to the storys gothic elements

specifically with like. the kills. in the film version lestat specifically seduces his victims before killing them. there is flirtation or kissing and lestats knowing, narcissistic smiles before finally taking what he came for. cat and mouse, hunter and prey, pretty cut and dry sex appeal with a dark twist. but in the show? the victims might be toyed with or tortured, but there is no second layer! its clear lestat isn't attracted to these people and there is no feeding as sex or even feeding as rape. show lestat seems to view humans as walking blood bags, fun to toy with on a sadistic level, but the gothic romance/sexuality is removed which is boooooring

most egregiously is the treatment with Claudia. they completely missed the marc imo of claudias horror of being a woman stuck in the body of a child save with the one scene where this is explored and she has a nervous breakdown early on. she doesn't have a romantic fixation on louis which removes incest connotations, which like. incest is horrifying, especially when its someone you love wanting something from you that you cannot give. in the film, Louis is clearly struggling with a life alone with Claudia as she wants to become his wife and he desperately tries to find some middle ground as to not lose her. imo tv claudia should have asked Louis why he doesn't want to watch her use the bathroom like her uncle did and take it as an insult that he doesn't. the closest we get is the "who's gonna fuck me!" line which while great still doesn't quite reach what it needs to

then there's claudias murders. in the film, she sees a naked woman and yearns to be her, because that is what she is supposed to be. the horror of her mind not matching her body consumes her so much that she kills her and keeps her corpse to rot in her own bed, hidden beneath lestats dolls no less. the music is a cacophony of wailing violins as lestat removes the dolls one by one to reveal the corpse, naked as a rape victim and kept as a living memento of what physically can never be. claudia has become so enraged by her wrongness that she hacks at her hair only to scream a classic horror scream when her doll curls immediately return. this is horror! this is terrifying! this perfectly captures the psychopathy at play. in the show? it's comedy. claudia is drunk and has to play wheres waldo as she scrambles to find missing pieces, all while her latest victim moans from the closest. we're told she's become a crazed serial killer, piling up bodies and cutting off trophies, but there's no feeling it. theres no deep sense of oh God what has she done. what has this child done. it's played for laughs.

its a good show and i genuinely adore a lot of choices, but for a horror show about vampires who do fucked up things im asking for a bit more meat on the bone tbh