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★★★★★
Directed by: Robert Bierman
Written by: Joseph Minion
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Jennifer Beals, Elizabeth Ashley and Maria Conchita Alonso
Throwback Film Review by: Rachel Pullen
Vampire’s Kiss (1988) Film Review
I was chilling with my homie the other day and he showed me a 4-minute video on YouTube where someone made a montage of Nick Cage having breakdowns on screen. It was beautiful, an emotional offering from the internet gods, but a lot of the clips were from a movie I had never seen, and when I saw him running down the street screaming ''I'm a vampire'', I knew I had to hunt it down.
Turns out that film is Vampire's Kiss, and turns out, Vampire’s Kiss is the number one source of Nicholas Cage memes, so to say I was pumped was an understatement, but nothing could have prepared me for one of the greatest movies from the 80s I have ever seen.
Vampire's Kiss is about a man who has a brief encounter with a bat, when it flies into his apartment one evening when he was entertaining a lady, essentially the bat cock blocks him, which in turn leads him down a path of psychosis whereby he is convinced he is turning into a vampire, and day to day life becomes harder and harder for him to conduct, as his blood lust grows.
He starts to fear the light, sleeps under a couch which becomes his makeshift coffin, he starts to try to suck blood from people wearing fake plastic teeth...it’s breakdown central for old Mr Cage!
Yet his main focus is to harass his secretary about a contract that he needs her to find, she becomes more and more fearful of him not just as a boss but as a person, as he constantly oversteps the line of professional relationships, she, and the unfound contract, seem to be a huge drive for his breakdown; the longer she takes to complete the task, the more insane he becomes.
All that aside, this movie is a gem! And while we could watch it and simply just laugh at the funny acting man and his shouting style, what we are really watching is a study of psychosis, we see someone at the top of their game fall deeper and deeper into an absolute fantasy, and any sense of reality falls further and further away, which is somewhat profound.
Vampire's Kiss has the subtle madness of shows such as Twin Peaks, that David Lynch vibe oozes off the screen, and couple that with the eccentric acting style of Cage and you can get a feel for what I'm talking about here.
Did I love this movie? Yes. Would this movie be for everyone? No, but for any fans of comedy horror or films such as Fire Walk With Me or Mulholland Drive then Vampire's Kiss is a film you can enjoy again and again.
This week we can learn...
Bats can cock block
Plastic vampire teeth can kill
And compilations of Nicholas Cage breakdowns soothe the soul.
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