Vampire's Kiss (1988)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Brilliant and touching

Better Late Then Never

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

I finally got around to watch the 1988 "Vampire's Kiss" in 2016, and it was about due time, because I had really been missing out on what can only be described as the pinnacle of Nicolas Cage's acting career. You did pick up on the sarcasm here, right?Without knowing what this movie was about, I sat down to watch it, believing that it was going to be an actual vampire movie. And for awhile it also did appear like a vampire movie, albeit a very odd and offbeat one. But then you start to realize that this is actually a movie about a man's decline of mental stability and lack of coherency to perceive the reality of the world around him. And as such, then I will say that director Robert Bierman actually managed to set up the movie in an interesting enough way.However, it was just brought to the point of ridiculousness by the weirdness of Nicolas Cage's acting throughout the course of the movie. Sure, he was portraying a man who was losing his sanity, but it was just too much. And his mannerisms and facial expression was just over the top. And the scene where Peter Loew (played by Nicolas Cage) was scolding his secretary Alva Restrepo (played by Maria Conchita Alonso) in his office, where his expression just turns more and more maniacal is so hilarious. It was so hilarious that this scene alone was worth watching the entire movie for.Maria Conchita Alonso actually did a good job in the movie, just a shame that she didn't have a bigger part in the movie. Nicolas Cage, well, let's just say that he was there all over the screen. This was not his finest moment, but it surely was his most memorable movie moment, no doubt about it.While the storyline is sort of bizarre and twisted, then there is also something entertaining to it. It was interesting to see the decline of Peter Loew and how he started to believe in his own delusions. But as I mentioned just above, it was brought too far by Nicolas Cage's performance.Running at an hour and forty-three minutes, this movie felt more like two and a half hours. It just kept on dragging on and on in what seemed forever. It was perhaps because the movie was lacking momentum and didn't really progress at a satisfying speed, so I was starting to become bored at times.Surely the movie had potential and some aspects of the storyline were really good. But the overall result of the movie was a less than mediocre movie experience, because I wasn't particularly entertained by the movie. And while laughing at Nicolas Cage counts for something, it was hardly enough to lift up the movie as such.

Vampire's Kiss is a pretty original dark comedy/horror film starring Nicolas Cage in one of his best performances. Cage is an executive in NYC that throughout the course of the movie is convinced he is a vampire. Cage's character is on a rapid downward spiral to complete insanity. Whether loneliness or too much stress is a factor, it is never specified. I have no idea what types of drugs Cage was taking, but he is totally bonkers in this film. Maria Conchita Alonso is his office assistant and doormat of which his abuse towards her escalates throughout the course of the film. Once Cage is convinced he is a vampire, he embraces his destiny. He has an aversion to sunlight and sleeps under his couch upside down like it is a coffin. He even bought some three dollar fangs in the local occult store. Now that's commitment to the lifestyle! Combine George A Romero's Martin with American Psycho if you want to get an idea of the style of Vampire's Kiss. Anyway you slice it this is one freaky deaky film and it works due to Cage's wild, eccentric and absolutely unhinged and explosive performance. If you are looking for something dark, offbeat, but well done this is one you won't want to miss.

Off the wall black comedy about Peter Loew (Nicolas Cage), a literary agent in NYC. Peter, dissatisfied with the nature of his life, has an encounter with a one night stand, Rachel (Jennifer Beals). She bites him on the neck, and the increasingly unstable Peter believes that she is a vampire and just turned him into one. He makes life absolutely miserable for his flustered secretary Alva (Maria Conchita Alonso), while going about doing what he thinks a vampire's gotta do.Joseph Minion ("After Hours") wrote the screenplay for this movie that, if nothing else, will go down in history for Cages' performance. We've seen him be prone to shameless overacting, but here his eccentricities reach one of their peaks (see also "Deadfall"). As other reviews have stated, though, there is more going on here than meets the eye; the movie isn't really to be taken literally. Yes, there's violence (the gore is courtesy of Ed French), and a few pointed teeth, but it's not too hard to reason that Peter is really manufacturing all of these nightmare scenarios in his head. A rather uncomfortable bit of business with Peters' office harassment of his poor secretary forms the major subplot.Cage really is something to see, as he overturns his sofa, crawls beneath it, and turns it into a makeshift "coffin", shuns the sunlight, and is forced to buy ultra cheap plastic fangs. He's rarely been THIS unrestrained. He even affects a light, posh accent at times that is just downright silly. The supporting cast is fine (Elizabeth Ashley plays Peters' psychiatrist, Kasi Lemmons a potential girlfriend), and the ladies are all tantalizingly sexy. Now familiar faces like John Michael Higgins and David Hyde Pierce have small roles. The filmmaking isn't especially stylish but it's competent enough. (The photography is just gorgeous at times.)"Vampire's Kiss" does generate some modest chuckles. It's kind of tough going at times, and really should have been shorter, but it makes for some decent entertainment.Six out of 10.

Vampire Kiss is actually a pretty good movie. I have read many reviews saying that the movie is a "Dark Comedy", uses black humor, and that it is very funny. I actually did not consider this movie funny, and it would be a great mistake to classify it as a Comedy, or even a black comedy. Vampire Kiss is a drama, a deep drama about a young Jewish executive who goes to live to New York and is defeated by the Big City. The guy can not cope, and he loses it. The originality of the movie is to present this drama to the audience through the mental delusions of a pathetic and sick man who believes he is a vampire. It is actually pretty much the same story as American Psycho: New York and the dramas of the big city seen through the eyes of a sick person. In both cases, the narrator is an exec. In American Psycho is a Financial Exec, and in Vampire Kiss is a publishing exec. Both are successful, can not cope with reality, and tend to invent worlds, not distinguish between the real world and fiction, and hurt people. So, they are just a reflection of the fears, anxieties, loneliness, alienation, hysteria, delusion and psychosis of the people and society. The theme of loneliness and alienation is emphasized very much in the Vampire Kiss. So, congratulations to the movie guys, because they made a pretty original movie, with a good theme, and a good, oppressive atmosphere. The bad points of the movie, and the reason why i only give it a six, is because in my humble opinion, they were not valiant enough to use a less clownish actor, thinking that this movie would be more watchable through some comic relief. I do not like the over the top(as usual) interpretation of Nicholas Cage, a very overrated interpreter. Also, i must say again that the use of absurdity and grotesque(the cockroach eating, the plastic vamp teeth, for example), do not make this a comedy. They make the movie even more frightening, and they make the character played by Cage even more pathetic and disturbing. So, a great movie, but it could have been much better. This is all the way American Psycho with Vampire Teeth. They did not even change the city¡¡¡¡