Vampire’s Kiss is the ultimate Nicolas Cage film, and a bizarre, surreal and hilarious horror-comedy. It’s a film about a yuppie; Peter Loew (Cage) in late eighties New York City, single and rich, and mentally unhinged. His time is divided between working as an executive in his literary agency, nights on the town, and trips to his psychiatrist.
Things come to a head when Loew meets a woman on one of his nights out, brings her home, and has his neck bitten, leading him to slowly transform into a vampire. Whether this is actually happening or whether it is in the mind of Loew is of little importance compared to the key driver of this film, which is Cage’s ridiculous, maximalist performance.
Cage takes his acting in this film to the extreme, with everything, as Spinal Tap would say, turned to eleven. It’s difficult to give it justice in words, but it involves a lot of shouting, facial contortion, and a weird attempt at a “British” accent which is turned on to varying degrees throughout the film. The most surprising element of the performance is that it is by no means bad; its bizarreness is pulled off brilliantly by Cage. To put it simply, it just works, and it’s extremely entertaining.
A particularly artful film this is not. But it is competently shot, directed, and NYC is captured well in its late eighties boom period. The film is, at its heart, extremely fun. It parodies the vampire film, yuppie culture, itself, and everything in between. It’s as unique as they come and a very obscure and weird gem.
1988, Robert Bierman
8.0
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