VAMPIRE’S KISS Review ~ The Vampiric Ways Of Nicolas Cage
The Vampiric Ways Of Nicolas Cage
by Lula Argante
It has always felt to me that playing a vampire, not the hollywoodified kind, but the more lost soul in exile misunderstood monster kind, would suit the acting sensibilities of Nicolas Cage. He has had two cinematic journeys into the world of the Vampire genre, as Peter Loew in 1988 film VAMPIRE’S KISS and as producer with his film company Saturn of the movie Shadow Of The Vampire. ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ is up there with my all time favourite Nicolas Cage and vampire movies. Far from a straight up vampire flick, Vampire’s Kiss operates on many levels simultaneously, often billed as a dark comedy – and it is hilarious to witness the descent of Peter Loew into his vampirism delusion and his adoption of the crazy eyed, claw fingered, shoulders up body language of ‘the movie vampire’ – it is also a psychological thriller of epic proportions which ensures the total obliteration of any temptation to call it a vampire parody, by compelling us to witness the deeply painful fall of a literary agent from all sanity. For me, whether it was a happy filming accident or not, the synthesis of this movie is a genius balance of dark humour and tragic horror, fun and pain. When Peter Loew finally leaves behind the world of neurosis to enter full blown psychosis, sleeping under his upturned leather sofa which he raises and lowers like a coffing lid, buys fake plastic teeth and eats a pigeon, tries to kill himself with wooden stake in the street whilst hallucinating wildly, it is both completely hilarious and utterly disturbing and sad simultaneously. As a viewer, what a uniquely powerful experience to have such extreme lightness and heaviness at the same time. Nic Cage’s homage to german expressionistic acting and the language of the original classic and first silent horror movies is also nothing short of a cinematic treat; with deliciious nods to Nosferatu and to the long fingered wide-eyed hunched and glorious first transformation of John Barrymore in the 1920′s silent adaptation of Robert Louis Stevensons’ ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. The photography and cinematography is clever and stunning, the New York buildings gothically sillhouetted against a bleeding sky, horrifically beautiful, and artistically brings the city of New York to life as a character of the movie. Have you seen Vampire’s Kiss? Share your opinion and discuss this Nicolas Cage film with other fans here!
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