Neil Jordan on Restoring ‘Interview With the Vampire’ for 4K and Why the Film Didn’t Have Jump Scares

Neil Jordan’s gothic vampire film *Interview with the Vampire*, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, has been restored and released in 4K and on 4K UHD Blu-ray more than 30 years after its cinema debut. Jordan says the frame-by-frame restoration allowed him to rediscover the film’s original visual design after seeing a badly degraded, overly dark 35mm print, while the release also includes deleted scenes and new features about its cinematography, production design and gothic atmosphere.

Jordan explains that the deleted material may have been removed because of the film’s length or because Louis’s suffering became excessive, although he now considers some scenes dramatically central. He describes the story as one about a doomed family and two men trapped in an obsessive relationship, reflecting Anne Rice’s reimagining of the vampire as a figure concerned with eternity, boredom and the punishment of time. Jordan also says the film was never intended to rely on jump scares, since immortal vampires cannot easily be threatened, making dread and existential terror more important than conventional horror.