Tom Cruise as Anne Rice's evil Lestat.

Interview with the Vampire and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein try to invigorate the horror genre

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Finally onscreen after innumerable failed attempts over nearly two decades, Anne Rice's perennially popular novel has been given an intelligent, darkly voluptuous reading that rises to pulsating life numerous times during the course of its deadly journey. High want-to-see and curiosity factor, Tom Cruise, Rice's reputation and a highly fueled marketing drive will deliver toothsome B.O. through the holiday season.

Although one of the characters in "Interview with the Vampire" begs to be transformed into a vampire, and eagerly awaits the doom of immortality, the movie never makes vampirism look like anything but an endless sadness. That is its greatest strength. Vampires throughout movie history have often chortled as if they'd gotten away with something. But the first great vampire movie, "Nosferatu" (1922), knew better, and so does this one.

Neil Jordan’s horror-comedy features Cruise in scene-chewing form in a film that outrageously explores the vampire’s actually rather complex lived experience

The most eagerly anticipated movie of the season, Neil Jordan's Interview With the Vampire, ignited a high level of inane squabbling before anyone had seen a frame of it.