Directed by Robert Bierman
Written by Joseph Minion
Starring Nicolas Cage, Maria Conchita Alonso, Jennifer Beals and Elizabeth Ashley
USA, 1989
There’s 80s flicks and there’s vampire flicks and then there’s 80s vampire flicks. And this is one of them. VAMPIRE’S KISS is probably most notable for the unhinged performance at the center of it, served up by none other than Nicolas Cage, king of eccentric acting choices.
Cage seems to sort of maybe put on an English accent as a high powered, ambitious literary agent who browbeats and intimidates his long suffering secretary (Maria Conchita Alonso) by day and picks up chicks at bars by night. In between he visits his therapist (Elizabeth Ashley) where he discusses his increasingly unraveling mental state, helped along by booze and coke.
One night Cage brings home Jennifer Beals who, aside from being Jennifer Beals, is also a vampire. One bite later and now Cage is convinced he’s transforming into a vampire, too. Except we’re not so convinced. He can’t see himself in mirrors, but we can see him. He has to go out and buy plastic fangs instead of growing them the old-fashioned way. Stuff like that. Did the Jennifer Beals incident even happen? What’s real? What’s not?
As the movie unfolded, I wondered if perhaps Bret Easton Ellis was a fan? His bloody, satirical takedown of coke and money fueled 80s excess, AMERICAN PSYCHO, was published only a couple years later in 1991 and seems to explore some of the same territory as VAMPIRE’S KISS, inspiring a remarkable Christian Bale performance in the eventual film version.
Rarely has a descent into madness been so funny. Perhaps it is best to view this whole thing as a giant metaphor. Why the cartoonish Cage performance, though? It’s not clear, but much like with TETSUO: THE IRON MAN I guess the companion question would be, why not? This film likely would not be remembered today if it wasn’t for Cage’s unhinged performance, and you cannot deny that it is entertaining.
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