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I watched Queen of the Damned a long time ago close to when it came out. Aaliyah was a big deal in the music industry at the time and folks watched this movie because she was in a lead role. Plus, I have always been a fan of the vampire genre. She would never admit this publicly, but my mother is to blame for this. I got my love for music from my dad and, my love for horror from my mom.
I don’t expect a lengthy review out of this one and nor should you. Let’s jump back on that Aaliyah ticket. She was the main reason, I think, that anyone watched this movie. Her story is an unfortunate one. Aaliyah was releasing great music that was topping the charts and was so popular that she was easily cast in this role (probably to sell tickets) because her strength was singing. A plane crash took her life at 22 years of age. Apparently, the plane was overloaded and crashed due to this killing her and 8 others. A second popular group of people involved with this movie was a popular band, Korn. Yes, Korn with a “K” and we’ll get to that later.
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Aaliyah’s character was a vampire queen named Akasha. The character was dark and unlike any other female vampire, I’ve seen. There were a couple of contributing facts to this that I want to touch on. Her origins, if I remember correctly, were Egyptian and not Transylvanian, Romanian, or the like. I don’t recall seeing this in film elsewhere. Something about the Egyptian culture holds a vampire character well though. Secondly, I heard a song a year ago by a fellow named Jonathan Richman called “Vampire Girl” and he makes an interesting point. Richman mentions her “serpentine” walk. If a snake could walk upright like it did in the past, Aaliyah had it figured out in this movie. By far, her walk was the best part of this movie.
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I didn’t really like the story in this movie. You can read the plot for yourself here but, basically, a vampire becomes the front man of a rock band and exposes other vampires. As soon as he opened his mouth to sing his rock songs, anybody who had been listening to rock music during that time knew it was Korn that singing and making the music. I know there are some discrepancies about this but, that sound is unmistakable. You can read more about that here. I had not listened to Korn since their second album although I was a Super Fan up to that point so, I recognized it immediately. Jonathan Davis, the lead man for Korn, even makes a cameo in one scene of this movie. Jonathan Davis’ voice did not fit with the Lestat character.
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Aside from the Korn stuff and some silly vampire kung fu, there were cool parts in addition to Aaliyah of course. The setting took place in fitting scenes. There were castles and beaches. Queen of the Damned’s scenery was generally dark and dismal with some desserts as well. Lestat walks up a wall like a spider which was fitting for a vampire, I think. The vampire backstory and tale in this one were interesting. A fresh look at such an old story is always entertaining. Not everyone does a good job with this but Queen of the Damned did. Overall, I did enjoy Queen of the Damned and I would certainly watch this again although I would fast forward through all the music parts.
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For the folks who have seen this and know the walk – are there any other films with such a gait? If so, let me know. My next favorite film walk was Maleficent from the cartoon Disney movie. What’s yours? Let me know in the comments. While you’re messing around on my site, check out my artwork and thumb through my photography here. You read more of my blogs here and follow me on all social media here. All likes, shares, subs, and follows are appreciated.