The plot of this movie is somewhat thin throughout, you got a nearly eternal vampire who takes lovers to whom she promises eternal life. Her promise is illusory. Eventually she comes to her own end, although it is not clear exactly why or how. We see the actual "how" but it seems a very easy/simple end to a cunning and eternal being. I assume she comes to her end out of the the enmity of the others caused by the promise of eternal life that is not quite what they thought it was.
We learn from the story of John of Miriam's past lovers who never actually die, they just aged rapidly and were stored in coffin-like boxes upstairs in Miriam's NYC Townhouse. Suddenly John and the others get out of their boxes and force Miriam over the side of a stairwell, where she falls to her apparent death and rapid transformation to an aged corpse.
The movie leaves unexplained how these weak, previously boxed up vampire-lovers suddenly get out of their boxes and unite against Miriam. Also left unexplained: A) Why Miriam loses control over the former lovers, falls and dies at their hands--how can this happen? B) There are all these birds in the top level of this apartment. What do they symbolize? What purpose or role do they play in the movie? Why isn't there bird guano all over the top floor of this house? C) Why and how does Sarah (Susan Sarandon) apparently take Miriam's place after her death? I mean, why was Miriam not replaced by John (David Bowie) or one of the others? D)Why is it that the other aged lovers appear to disintegrate in death before our eyes, but Susan Sarandon shows up in the final scene, apparently the new eternal vampire replacing Miriam. Why does she survive? E) Susan Sarandon apparently commits suicide in Miriam's embrace, however, when David Bowie asks Miriam to kill him, she tells him that it cannot happen, that he's eternal. So there is an apparent inconsistency here. Why can one commit suicide but the other not die?
This movie needed a lot more detail filled in to make its end comprehensible to the viewer and it needed some critical details to be consistent.
We learn from the story of John of Miriam's past lovers who never actually die, they just aged rapidly and were stored in coffin-like boxes upstairs in Miriam's NYC Townhouse. Suddenly John and the others get out of their boxes and force Miriam over the side of a stairwell, where she falls to her apparent death and rapid transformation to an aged corpse.
The movie leaves unexplained how these weak, previously boxed up vampire-lovers suddenly get out of their boxes and unite against Miriam. Also left unexplained: A) Why Miriam loses control over the former lovers, falls and dies at their hands--how can this happen? B) There are all these birds in the top level of this apartment. What do they symbolize? What purpose or role do they play in the movie? Why isn't there bird guano all over the top floor of this house? C) Why and how does Sarah (Susan Sarandon) apparently take Miriam's place after her death? I mean, why was Miriam not replaced by John (David Bowie) or one of the others? D)Why is it that the other aged lovers appear to disintegrate in death before our eyes, but Susan Sarandon shows up in the final scene, apparently the new eternal vampire replacing Miriam. Why does she survive? E) Susan Sarandon apparently commits suicide in Miriam's embrace, however, when David Bowie asks Miriam to kill him, she tells him that it cannot happen, that he's eternal. So there is an apparent inconsistency here. Why can one commit suicide but the other not die?
This movie needed a lot more detail filled in to make its end comprehensible to the viewer and it needed some critical details to be consistent.