Terror within Point of View: INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

Look how 1994’s Interview with the Vampire makes us feel empathy of terror during this sequence of vampire-specific damnation!

The sequence plays with suspense and POV by showing front-on shots of Louis and Claudia as they scream and writhe in fear, then turning the camera 180 to show us what they see which causes such panic. Then it goes into a series of closeups which put us next to or ‘inside’ their terror, before cutting wide to show the inescapability of their predicament.

Point of View

After Louis and Claudia are dragged apart, we see a prolonged medium shot of Louis struggling; his face central in frame, eyes wild, before finally cutting to a shot of what he sees:

The frame sizes showing and the casket is similar, and each cut back and forth brings them closer and closer to camera, thus each other.

Once the scene has ‘taught’ us how it’s presenting POV, we get a similar shot-reverse-into-POV for Claudia, only as she’s upside-down, so is what she sees.

Inside the Terror

In further linking of the two, there’s a match cut, from Claudia throwing her head back to Louis’ head being thrown into the coffin before the lid is shut over his face.

Contrast for Impact

The scene then shows a series of closeups, including Louis inside his casket and bricks being placed over the door Claudia has been shut behind.

Finally the scene jumps out to the widest shot we’ve seen — after so many closer shots this hits us with the dread Claudia is hit with: her position is inescapable.

Note the pounding music, rock-stacking noises and vampires laughing all cut out at once with the jump to the wide, to give us the sort of effect of Claudia hearing the ‘ringing of silence.’

For one last punch in the guts, the scene comes back in to see her face processing.