Vampire's Kiss

Cage gives a manically mannered performance as Peter Loew, a literary agent whose obsession with a missing contract pushes him over the edge. Increasingly alienated, he alternates between harassing his timid secretary (Alonso), clubbing all night, and visiting his shrink (Ashley). One night, in a moment of orgasmic pleasure, the mysterious Rachel (Beals) bites his neck. Obsessed with the idea that he is a vampire's victim, he starts pulling down shades, hunches over in a grotesque parody of Max Schreck's Nosferatu, and - sporting plastic fangs - stalks the dark streets and pulsing discos in search of necks to bite. Cage's excessive acting style has been called neo-expressionist, a term that might also be applied to the moody, burnished colours of Stefan Czapsky's photography, which transforms New York into the Gothic city of Loew's distorted imagination. A viciously funny study of yuppy alienation, scripted by Joseph Minion (who wrote After Hours), Bierman's striking first feature leaves one trembling between corrosive laughter, edgy terror, and a residual sadness at Loew's pitiful plight.