Queen of the Damned was a 2002 vampire horror film that rose to prominence due to its source material being loosely drawn from Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles series; the allure of its lead actress Aaliyah, in her final role, inspired a man in Scotland to commit a grisly murder.
The film, which was directed by Michael Rymer (Battlestar Galactica), showed the sultry side of vampires in Anne Rice’s world, similarly to how was done with Interview With The Vampire in 1994. Stuart Townsend starred as the vampire Lestat, who was awakened from his slumber by a hard rock band and emerged as their lead singer. After awakening to a modern world, Lestat decided to use his international stardom to effectively ‘out’ all other vampires. Akasha (Aaliyah) is eventually awoken by Lestat’s music as well and the two explore the world of vampire politics and society, as Rice’s novels often do.
While Aaliyah’s tragic death in 2001 added a level of mystery and tragedy to her haunting performance as Akasha, one man felt that the Queen was attempting to communicate with him beyond the realm of physical media and coerced him to commit a violent murder.
Why Queen Of The Damned Inspired A Real Murder
Allan Menzies, who was 22 at the time of the crime, murdered his friend Thomas McKendrick (21) in West Lothian village in Scotland on December 11, 2002. McKendrick was murdered at Menzies’ home and then buried in a shallow grave. Menzies battered McKendrick over the head and then stabbed him repeatedly; other reports have said Menzies claims to have drunk some of his blood and eaten part of his head. In testimony to the court, Menzies claimed that his reason for committing the murder was because Akasha, the character from Queen of the Damned, told him to kill for her.
Menzies ultimately killed McKendrick because he insulted her while they were in his kitchen; he claimed that he could see Akasha standing in the kitchen with them at the time. Menzies also claimed that Akasha visited him regularly, and that he had watched the film over 100 times. According to Akasha per Menzies’ claims, she said that killing for her would allow him to be rewarded with immortal life as a vampire. Said Menzies, “At the end of the day I knew I would have to murder somebody anyway. It was the only way you could do it. If you don’t murder somebody you couldn’t become a vampire.”
Three psychologists diagnosed Menzies as a psychopath. He went on to serve life in prison, plus an additional three years for “attempting to defeat the aims of justice”, which was to run concurrently with his life sentence. Menzies ended up committing suicide in prison in November of 2004. While murderers have used interesting defenses before, such as in the notorious “the devil made me do it” case, which inspired 2020’s upcoming film, The Conjuring 3, Menzies’ testimony and crime based on Queen of the Damned is certainly chilling.
Next: The Conjuring 3’s True Story Explained
