Cage Unleashed! He’s A Vampire! Long before he indulged in pure eccentricity in the psychedelic horror films Mandy and Color Out of Space, long before his hysterically stratospheric overacting in the remake of The Wicker Man and even before the la-di-da action extravaganza Face/Off, Nicolas Cage had earned a reputation of an actor with absolutely no sense for proportion in the horror comedy Vampire’s Kiss. It was this film that established the Cage Rage phenomenon and was the first grand manifesto of his acting method he calls Nouveau Shamanic. Both an homage to classic horror tales, and a deconstruction of the 80’s Yuppie lifestyle, the film tells a story of a hot-shot literary executive who thinks that he’s turning into a vampire. When looking for the ideal actor to play the narcissistic hero, Cage was definitely not the first choice. But when he was finally cast, he stole the entire film for himself. At the time, critics were scratching their heads over his performance, but today it is clear that it is thanks to Cage that the film still possesses a contagiously crazy drive.
