Vampire’s Kiss, starring Nicolas Cage, falls into two distinct camps: those who hate it for the star’s incredibly outlandish overacting, and those who love it for that very reason. It is, at the end of the day, a very unique beast. Nothing about it is frightening, and as far as horror goes, the horror within is quite tame. As a comedy, or dark comedy, there are some who think it comedic gold while others think it falls completely flat. It is a film that appeals to a person’s specific taste, and there seems to be no real middle ground, or at the very least, few people who find themselves there. Whether you consider it a horror film or a comedy, it tends to fall somewhere in that happy medium.

In this outing, Cage plays Peter, a yuppie playboy who enjoys a one-night stand with the best of them. One day, he takes the wrong lady home as she turns out to be a vampire, a bloodsucker who has her way with him. From that moment on, Peter’s life changes and not for the better. Where before he was selfish, egotistical, rude, and uncouth, he is even more so now. He takes out his frustrations on a woman in his office when he discovers he needs a contract that is buried in the archives, and over the film’s nearly two-hour runtime, he treats her as badly as he can. Peter’s life goes from good to not-so-good to terrible as things move along, and by the end, he is on a collision course with fate and woe for anyone who encounters him along the way.

Cage is a great actor and, believe it or not, he proves it here with his incredibly jarring performance as a man you love to hate. There are no redeeming features about him, or specifically about Peter, the man he portrays. He is a terrible person and even though he goes to therapy all the time, it does not seem to help as his ego is simply too large to suppress or get a handle of. Peter is better than everyone else, yet he is lonely, and the only way to cure that loneliness is to lower himself among the commoners. As he starts to believe he has been turned into a vampire, those traits become even more pronounced, and that is when Cage really starts to go off the rails and far more over-the-top than one could imagine. When this movie ends, you either breathe a sigh of relief or beg for more, and you cannot deny Cage is captivating, no matter how annoying he gets.

Rounding out the cast are Beals, fantastic in the small role she plays as the vampire, and Kasi Lemmons, a somewhat romantic interest who tries to ride it out with Peter but gives up after being stood up multiple times. Elizabeth Ashley would play the therapist and, last but not least, María Conchita Alonso would portray Alva, the target of Peter’s barbs, harassment and madness. There would come a point where Peter is so far into his mania that he rapes Alva, giving this movie at least one real point of horror, though not the kind that the audience was probably looking for. Alonso is also fantastic, playing it straight-laced against Cage’s manic performance and giving the audience someone to latch onto, since there is no empathy for Peter.

When the movie ends, a few questions remain, such as whether Jennifer Beals was actually a vampire or whether Cage was simply imagining it. There are strong indications that it is the latter, as the man has completely lost his mind by the end of the picture, but there is also the possibility that, as a vampire, she can hide her true self among mortals. One has to hope Alva is okay after everything she went through and, on the same note, that no one other than Alva will ever think of Peter again after what fate has in store for him.

Joseph Minion’s script is good, Robert Bierman’s direction is better, and Cage, Cage is hard to pin down. Vampire’s Kiss is a hard watch on one hand, but it is hard to turn away once it gets going. Call it the mark of a good film and a good performance, or the hallmarks of a car crash you have to see to the end.

2.5 out of 5