Akasha Rules Her Limited Presence In Lackluster ‘Queen Of The Damned’

 

Queen of the Damned film poster.

Vampires are the most alluring creatures depicted in both the literary and filmmaking capacity— thirsty for human blood and lustful for warm or cold bodies. We’re often drawn to reading Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula or Sheridan Le Fanu’s earlier novel Carmella. Wes Craven’s Vampire in Brooklyn delivers specific 1990’s laughter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns offer campy nostalgia. Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess and Nikyatu Jusu’s Suicide By Sunlight features villainous Final Black Women, a beauty bound to live forever, her blood coated fangs. 

With a criminal sixteen minute screen time, Aaliyah’s final role as Anne Rice’s titular ruler Akasha in Australian director Michael Rohmer’s Queen of the Damned, had such great potential. 

Akasha the stone. DP: Ian Baker.

The film begins very boringly. 

Lestat, an egotistical vampire walking down the streets in typical vamp attire, narrates and isn’t particularly interesting. Marius, Lestat’s sire, had seen something in him. Yet, what? There is no charm, no charisma, a vacancy in his eyes. Of course, he’s meant to be voided, he’s the walking dead. 

The craftsmanship on Akasha’s stone is quite exquisite. DP: Ian Baker. 

When Lestat reflects on his experience being made and his sudden desire for music, he’s led into murdering a young woman (not drinking out of hunger) and it torments him. Still, Marius takes Lestat to some faraway lair in the center of water. Lestat starts playing a fiddle— a fiddle that awakens Akasha, a stone statue.

Why has Marius departed? Jealous that Akasha is more drawn to Lestat even though Marius kept her hidden and otherwise took care of her and her king’s statues? 

Akasha’s awakening involves abstract flashes, past mingling with the present. She will break free almost two hundred years later. DP: Ian Baker.

Meanwhile, a young woman named Jesse obsesses over Lestat, reading his journals and listening to his music. She’s a human attracted to getting into any kind of danger as long as she obtains closeness to Lestat— typical groupie behavior. 

Unfortunately, Akasha exhibits Jesse’s same mindset, Akasha using her superior powers on a grander scale in hopes of snatching up Lestat’s devotion. She’s manipulated minds and situations to ensure Lestat’s success. Now newly awakened and out on the prowl, slim, agile Akasha enters a modern vampire bar dressed in an elaborate silver and gold headpiece, metallic bralette, free flowing skirt and arm bands that sway along her movements. She walks in a purposefully sensuous manner, slow and seductive, her kohl-lined blue eyes holding a mesmerizing magnetism that her fellow creatures cannot break away from. She is their mother, the siren above all sirens. 

And she kills them. 

Everyone. 

The scene is a riot— a sheer exhibition of a vampire who doesn’t always have to physical touch her victims— biting into their flesh or ripping out their hearts and feeding on it. Akasha can burn them alive with the wave of her hand. She’s a grade A narcissist too, caring solely for her own pleasures, her passion for violence and death outweighing the normal vampire levels. They usually want someone to devour tomorrow. Whereas Akasha needs as much as possible, patience be damned. Her appetite is insatiable. Can Lestat truly handle a queen operating without a moral compass? 

Akasha murders a bar of vampires in a slow, methodical power demonstration. DP: Ian Baker.

Akasha walking away in slow motion from the burning bar holds reminders of Carrie leaving behind her burning high school. Akasha did not give a fudge. DP: Ian Baker.

Jesse was not the only one looking forward to Lestat’s concert. DP: Ian Baker.

On the concert day, Jesse decides to continue stalking Lestat (despite watching him kill a poor woman in front of her) and Maurice returns to warn Lestat that Akasha has woken up and killed her longtime king. Lestat only cares about the show, his delight in seeing how many vampires will try to murder him on stage. Later, as he serenades the audience, cloaked assassins in wait, Maurice joins in the sudden fray. They’re seemingly outnumbered until Akasha lets the bodies fray peacefully into the air before she makes her appearance visible. Her hypnotic gaze exists only for the vampire Lestat yet it doesn’t necessarily seem to be shared. He looks grateful, relieved, and surprised. Not the same as the intense need he reveals with Jesse, the innocent naïveté. 

Still, Akasha takes Lestat up on a magical ride through the air that requires no carpet or singing genie. 

At the end of the day, even Akasha becomes fooled by devotion. DP: Ian Baker.

Akasha exemplifies an evil malice that puts other villains to shame. She intended to destroy humanity and rule the vampire underworld. Could Buffy be a match for someone as powerful? It is easy to imagine Black Panther’s foe Kilmonger parading around Akasha’s sadistic ideas and asking her “is this your king?” regarding Lestat. The rockstar vampire showed no authoritative values, especially to be aligned alongside such an inherently wicked goddess. 

It really sucked that the end came down to broadcasting uncomfortable optics: the pure white woman versus a woman of color— the only woman of color person in the film, in the whole vampire coven. It was giving Black women are good for a fun time, not a long time (aka eternity for them). Lestat conveys “your strength was a delicious temporary addiction, I will be taking that, and sticking with my human lover.” Akasha, a cruel chilling force, still manages to convey a human reaction—betrayal— as her family implores her to a barbaric fate akin to a salacious orgy.  

Akasha shows Lestat a kingdom— dead bodies surrounding waters and dirt covered land. She doesn’t understand his obvious discontent. DP: Ian Baker.

Although much promise had been shown in her first part as Romeo Must Die’s sweet-soft heroine Trish O’ Day, Aaliyah's incredible transformation is the primary highlight in Queen of the Damned. She utterly evolved from mysterious, beautiful singer/dancer into a full-fledged femme fatale vampire— her every gesture, her every look spoke terrifying volumes. Her irresistible performance transcends bland material that angered Anne Rice— who deserved a better adaptation of her work. Angus Strathie and Bao Tranchi’s costume designs must be commended for their conjoined talents— the metallic breast plates, the elaborate headpiece and jewelry, and the flowing skirts. This trio were responsible for making Akasha an outstanding villain. 

Famous women who paid homage to Akasha— Anok Yai, Teyana Taylor, Meagan Good, and Normani.

Co-produced by Channing Dungey (former ABC television head), just imagine women filmmakers tackling this gritty material, intending for Akasha to lead her own story, to be the cold, callous villain not relying on a man to wake her up. If Julie Dash or Kasi Lemmons helmed the reins, Akasha’s narrative would probably dive deep into rich Egyptian history, voices told by real figures that actually look of that time period, not white people giving accounts that sound like secondhand make believe. There are too many “Akasha is this” and “Akasha is that” from the vampires, leaving Akasha to barely address her motives. Certain Black women filmmakers love the bonus incentive of exploring diverse cultures (the bonafide research sleuths) and lending that into the scripts to add layered nuances, to even educate the actors and the behind-the-scenes peoples. Akasha, supposedly the most powerful vampire, couldn’t see that her chosen one— after “sleeping for two hundred plus years”— was hung up on Jesse? Lust can blind most folks. A creature of Akasha’s supernatural caliber would have been given Lestat the smoke with the flick of her wrist. Whether due to the poor script or the acting performance, it wasn’t believable that Lestat tricked Akasha and led to her demise. What else was planned before Aaliyah passed away? Although her scenes were completed, the film has an unfinished quality and doesn’t account for why she’s barely in it. Plus, Aaliyah and Korn were to collaborate on music. Perhaps she would have contributed to an edgy soundtrack that included Tricky (a favorite). What If and I Can Be from her last album definitely showcased that her vocals could rival the thrum of an electric guitar riff. 

Akasha exudes a commendable presence. DP: Ian Baker.

Every few years, the itch to rewatch Queen of the Damned comes into effect. Aaliyah only had two differing film roles. Akasha is the hardest as her fiery fictional end is a painful metaphor to the cause of death its portrayer, a phenomenal artist that the world lost way too soon.