Vampire's Kiss is an American dark comedy/psychological horror film released in 1989. It was written by Joseph Minion, who also penned Martin Scorsese's darkly humorous After Hours, and stars actors Nicolas Cage, Maria Conchita Alonso, Jennifer Beals and Elizabeth Ashley.
Plot summary
The title might make the viewer expect a traditional vampire story, but Vampire's Kiss is not that kind of movie. It is the story of Peter Loew (Nicolas Cage), a driven yuppie literary agent, who is slowly but inexorably going insane.
Loew plays the consummate businessman by day, and club hops by night, with little in his life of any importance but one night stands and the pursuit of money and prestige.
As the film opens, Loew tells his therapist (Ashley), whom he sees frequently, about his latest sexual conquest. During these sessions at the psychiatrist's office, the viewer is first introduced to Loew's declining mental health through a series of increasingly bizarre rants that eventually begin to scare even his psychiatrist.
Early in the film, Loew meets Rachel (Jennifer Beals) at a night club, and takes her home. It is never made clear whether the encounter with Rachel is real or solely a figment of Loew's deranged mind, but she pins him down, reveals vampiric fangs, and feeds on him. At home, Loew's fits of rage gradually reduce his apartment to shambles. Throughout the movie the apartment's decline mirrors the protagonist's own increasingly chaotic mental state. In one scene, perhaps the film's most infamous, Loew catches and eats a cockroach in his apartment. Soon thererafter, Loew begins to believe that he is changing into a vampire. He stares into a bathroom mirror and fails to see his reflection; he wears dark sunglasses during the day; and, when his "fangs" fail to develop, he purchases a pair of cheap plastic vampire teeth and uses them to attack a woman at a nightclub. All the while, his sexy vampire girlfriend, Rachel (possibly) visits him nightly to feed on his blood.
A subplot concerns a secretary working at Loew's office, Alva Restrepo (Maria Conchita Alonso). Loew torments her by forcing her to search through an enormous file for a 1963 contract. When she fails to find the contract, he at first browbeats and humiliates her, then visits her home when she calls in sick to avoid him, and finally attacks and rapes her. The movie spends some time showing a small slice of the lives of the working poor immigrant through Alva's character.
Loew has a brief, ambiguous encounter with Rachel in a dance club: she admits to knowing him, but gives the impression they've not been in contact for a long period. He accuses her of being a vampire, and is expelled from the club. By the film's conclusion, Loew is so far gone he is one of New York City's walking crazies; wandering the streets in a blood-spattered business suit, talking to himself, and using his now disastrous apartment as a vampire's cave where he hides from the sun by crawling under an upturned sofa. Loew may have murdered someone the night before, and he may have raped his secretary. However, he mentions both "achievements" to his therapist, who isn't really present, in a hallucinatory exchange. Loew has by this time become so deranged that it's difficult for the viewer to separate fantasy from reality. Alva, however, also believes she's been raped, and the film ends with Loew's fitting yet curiously pitiful death at the hands of her brother.
Response
Critical responses have been mixed, but mostly positive, with a 68% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.com,[1] with many critics praising Cage's unhinged performance.
Trivia
- The original script called for Cage's character to eat raw eggs. Not believing this to be shocking enough, Cage suggested cockroaches. He later felt sorry for them.
- Cage actually ate three cockroaches for the film, as the scene reportedly required three takes.
- Cage's strange, quasi-English accent seems to come and go through the film, and this was deliberate. According to the IMDB, Cage decided the character would affect an accent to seem more intelligent and refined. This was during a time when Cage was making a name for himself with performances that often featured strange voices, such as his raspy voice in Peggy Sue Got Married and his Elvis impression in Wild at Heart.[2]
- There's a picture of Czech existentialist writer Franz Kafka at Loew's office. The movie certainly has kafkaesque undertones.
- Cage orinally wanted to cast a real bat for one of the early scenes. Since Animal Rights activists were already giving them a hard time for the cockroaches, they had someone design a robotic bat. The bat was made in England and broke during the long flight to the US. They managed to fix it and were able to use it for the film.
- Loew's fireplace, with a small clock placed on top, is reminiscent of the one in René Magritte's painting La Durée Poignardé or Time Transfixed.
- The band Say Hi To Your Mom referenced the movie in their song "Poor Pete is A Bit Self-Conscious" on the album Ferocious Mopes.
- In the opening scene, Nicolas Cage enters a nightclub. The exterior location shown in the film is a doorway on 7th Ave South, below Christopher Street. The interior location in the following scene was actually shot at Mondo Cane, which was on Sullivan Street just north of Bleecker Street.
- The band in the opening scene is ESG. All of the individual band members appear in the cast list as "Band Member", except for Leroy Glover, who failed to sign a release form on the day of the shoot.
Cast
- Nicolas Cage .... Peter Loew
- Maria Conchita Alonso .... Alva Restrepo
- Jennifer Beals .... Rachel
- Elizabeth Ashley .... Dr. Glaser
- Kasi Lemmons .... Jackie
- Bob Lujan .... Emilio
- Jessica Lundy .... Sharon
- Johnny Walker .... Donald
- Boris Leskin .... Fantasy Cabbie
- Michael Knowles .... Andrew
- John Michael Higgins .... Ed
- Jodie Markell .... Joke Girl
- Marc Coppola .... Joke Guy
- David Hyde Pierce .... Theater Guy (as David Pierce)
- Amy Stiller .... Theater Girl
- Helen Lloyd Breed .... Secretary in Ladies Room
- Sol Echeverría .... Alva's Mother
- Jill Gatsby .... Victim Girl
- Rex Robbins .... Sidney Langdon
- Robert Dorfman .... Editor #3
- William De Acutis .... Editor #2
- David Holbrook .... Editor #1
- Yanni Sfinias .... Cursing Cabbie (as Yanni Sfinnias)
- Rogerio Triandade .... Dr. Glazer's Lover
- Robyn Knoll .... Friday Secretary
- Jorgen Schiott .... Coffin Bystander
- Christopher Sluka .... Hanger Out
- Stephen Chen .... Fang Vendor
- Jennifer Butt .... Marriage Girl #2
- Jennifer Spinner .... Marriage Girl #1
- Paul Sansone .... Waiter
- Cheryl Henry .... Judy
- Herschel Rosen .... Man in Diner
- Phil Ballou .... Black Crooner
- Reggie Rock Bythewood .... Church Bystander (scenes deleted)
- Mark Oates .... Apache Dancer
- John Epperson .... Apache Dancer
- Jerry Rector .... Larry
- Pamela Dean Kelly .... Bar Girl
- Jonathon Gentry .... Boy
- Renee Scroggins .... Band Member
- Helen Scroggins .... Band Member
- Valerie Jean Scroggins .... Band Member
- David Miles .... Band Member
- Jacques Sandulescu .... Ukrainian (as Jacques Sandlescu)
- Scott Pastore .... Bouncer (uncredited)
- Debbie Rochon .... Bar Girl #2 (uncredited)
References
- ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vampires_kiss/
- ^ BSB: Nicolas Cage runs lines from VAMPIRE'S KISS
External links
