Release Date: 2 June 1989
Run Time: 103 minutes
Origin: USA
Mimi's Rating: 4 1/2 plastic vampire teeth of 5
"Christ! The tortures of the damned!"
Vampire's Kiss is if you took American Psycho and stripped it of all subtlety. Our protagonist, Peter Loew (Nicolas Cage), is your classic 80s yuppie. He's a narcissist with an empty life he fills with excesses like clubbing, one-night stands and trendy drugs. But you get the feeling that Peter is profoundly lonely and searching for something more, even if that something isn't something he can quantify. Peter seems to struggle a lot with what exactly he wants in life.
Peter sees his psychiatrist often for his declining mental health. In one session, he admits that when a bat flew into his room and interrupted his latest one-night stand, the ensuing struggle with the animal aroused him. The next day, Peter takes the woman from the previous night, Jackie (Kasi Lemmons), to the art museum but ends up abandoning her there in a self-sabotaging move. Peter appears to want love, or at least his idea of love. He is clearly jealous of random couples he sees around the city.
After the disastrous date with Jackie, Peter meets the mysterious and alluring Rachel (Jennifer Beals). As they make love at Peter's apartment, she reveals herself as a vampire and bites Peter on the neck. But, the following day, we see Peter with an uninjured neck talking to an unseen Rachel. It seems that Peter's mental state is worse than it first appeared.
Quickly, Peter begins behaving increasingly bizarrely and even tormenting a secretary at his publishing house named Alva Restrepo (María Conchita Alonso). Poor Alva. The way Peter treats her adds horror to this horror satire. The depiction of the extremes of sexism in the workplace is harrowing, and there's an especially poignant scene with Peter and the other all-male higher-ups laughing over Peter's recent mistreatment of Alva. This torment culminates when Peter sexually assaults Alva while hallucinating that she is Rachel. Believing Peter raped her, Alva eventually tells her Brother Emilio and the two head out to find Peter to enact their vengeance.
"Every other secretary here has been here longer than you, Alva. Every one. And even if there was someone here who was here even one day longer than you, I still wouldn't ask that person to partake in such a miserable job as long as you were around. That's right, Alva. It's a horrible, horrible job; sifting through old contract after old contract. I couldn't think of a more horrible job if I wanted to. And you have to do it! You have to or I'll fire you. You understand? Do you? Good."
In earlier scenes, it is shown that Peter might welcome death by Alva's or anyone's hand. Several times in the film, we see him beg for death, a release from his delusions, from multiple different people. You want to sympathize with Peter. He's a Renfield-like character with delusions of Rachel playing the role of Dracula. His mental state is ignored due to his maleness and position in society. "He's eccentric," they say, ignoring his troubling behaviours and silent cries for help. Despite all this, Peter is still not a good person. We see this before his downward turn. And even when in the full grip of madness, when he imagines he meets the ideal romantic match, it barely takes ten minutes until he is degrading her and undermining even this fictitious relationship.
Looking past the memes, you might discover that Vampire's Kiss is more than a "so bad it's good movie." It's a fascinating character study of a man's spiral into complete madness. Cage's performance is mesmerizing, and you'll be glued to the screen wondering just how the last bonkers performance could possibly be surpassed. Every acting choice by Cage has a purpose, no matter how odd they might initially seem.
Despite being a film about such a heavy subject, it is hilarious. Some may say unintentionally so, but I beg to differ. I genuinely believe Cage and Bierman knew what they were cooking up here. One scene I found particularly funny was when he leaves Jackie at the art gallery. It's not as wild as some of the other comedic bits, but the way he silently walks out and gets in a cab had me cracking up. Another favourite scene is near the end when Peter hallucinates that he is meeting with his psychiatrist. Elizabeth Ashely does a great job portraying the fictional version of Dr. Glaser, and their back and forth was comical.
I'm prepared to go to the stake and say Vampire's Kiss might be one of Nicolas Cage's all-time best performances. If you're a fan of movies like American Psycho or even 2014's The Voices starring Ryan Reynolds, you should give Vampire's Kiss a chance.
Bonus: Christian Bale used Nicolas Cage's performance as Peter Loew as an inspiration when filming American Psycho.
Why you should watch:
It's like American Psycho but somehow even more outlandish.
One of my top performances from Cage.
Come for the memes, stay for the surprisingly good movie.
Why you shouldn't watch:
Cage's outlandish performance can make it harder to sympathize with Peter.
If you don't like Cage's unique style of over-the-top acting, you won't enjoy this film.