Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A publishing executive is visited and bitten by a vampire and starts exhibiting erratic behavior. He pushes his secretary to extremes as he tries to come to terms with his affliction.
Vampire's Kiss is defined almost entirely by Nicolas Cage's unhinged, genuinely singular performance — one of the most extreme and committed pieces of screen acting in the late 80s, earning a rare 4 for Acting. The film's novelty is equally high: its blend of urban yuppie horror, dark absurdist comedy, and unreliable narrator psychosis creates a completely distinctive voice that has no real peer. The plot itself is serviceable but thin, essentially a vehicle for Cage's escalating madness with only modest dramatic architecture. Cinematography is competent with some effectively disorienting expressionist touches but nothing extraordinary. The ending deflates somewhat, resolving the psychosis arc in a way that feels anticlimactic and underwritten given the wild energy that preceded it.