Vampire's Kiss (1988)

After an encounter with a neck-biter, a publishing executive thinks that he's turning into a vampire.

Director:

Robert Bierman

Writer:

Joseph Minion

Stars:

Nicolas Cage, Maria Conchita Alonso, Jennifer Beals

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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 (as John Walker)
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

Storyline

A publishing executive is visited and bitten by a woman and starts exhibiting erratic behavior. He pushes his secretary to extremes as he tries to come to terms with his delusions. The woman continues to visit and as his madness deepens, it begins to look as if some of the events he's experiencing may be hallucinations.

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Plot Keywords:

vampire | secretary | boss | impalement | sex scene | 

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Taglines:

Seduction. Romance. Murder. The things one does for love.

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Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy | Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

2 June 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

A vámpír csókja

Filming Locations:

Apple Core Theatre, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$725,131 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Magellan Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

New York locations in the movie getting a special mention during the film's closing credits included The Tunnel; the Mondo Cane Blues Bar; the Man Ray Restaurant; Magickal Childe; the Apple Core Theater; the Circle-in-the-Square Theater and and The New Museum of Contemporary Art.

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Goofs

During the sex scenes between Rachel and Peter in Peter's bed, they are both wearing exactly the same clothes (underwear), indicating that both scenes were filmed at the same time.

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Quotes

Peter Loew: [as he runs down the sidewalk of residential part of town] I'm a vampire! I'm a vampire! I'm a vampire!

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Connections

Featured in Conan: Everybody Wang But Don't Chung Tonight (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Moody"
Performed by ESG
Written by Renee Scroggins

User Reviews

A brilliant psychological study of a jilted lover.

Okay, so Nicolas Cage eats a real cockroach. So the majority of the people who've seen this film don't understand the plotline. So black comedy is new to a late eighties audience. These points are minimal considering the great lengths to which the filmmakers go to to reveal the downfall of a hideous relationship between two people. A relationship gone so wrong that the male has to commit himself to therapy and conversely...murder.

Imagine a relationship wherein the woman was so soul sucking, so evil in her ways that you now feel as if she has sucked you dry - literally and figuratively - you are left as nothing but (in this case) a shell of a man - a walking corpse, yearning for the life's blood that she has stolen from you through your very own veins!

Cage gives the performance of his career and should have received an Oscar as the twisted, quintessential jilted lover who now desperately tries to recapture the joy of his most passionate and influential relationship by revisiting the empty, vampiretic bar hopping lifestyle where he found her - working his way through subsequent women, then just as unsatisfactorily moving his way through rape, suicidal tendencies and ultimately, murder.

It's tone is unforgiving alternating comedy and tragedy, confusing us as to whether he is really a vampire or just thinks he is. By flipping from his therapeutic sessions to his bitter and pathetic reality we see just how badly his male ego has taken rejection.

Here is a film where the simple plotline of a man being bitten by a vampire and believing he has become one becomes one where we see a man disintegrating before us, sliding into madness because he is forced to face his empty life.

His obsessive attention to detail, penchant for house bugs, absence of reflection in the mirror and avoidance of sunlight all match the prerequisites for vampirism, but his clumsy attempts at finding another woman and to fill the void that is left by a woman put so far onto a pedestal he cannot reach are overshadowed.

This is not a film for the feint of heart but for anyone who has ever been screwed over by a woman they have loved (or imagined they did) this is a welcome little cult revelation that makes them laugh and brood at the same time.