Bring your plastic fangs and sink your teeth into this now-fabled cult classic, featuring Nicolas Cage at one of his earliest, most unbridled performances—and certainly most quotable. The motherlode of memes from the mid-2010s and a warped portrait of 1980s cosmopolitan New York, Vampire’s Kiss is a story about Peter Loew, a narcissistic literary agent whose encounter with a mysterious and beautiful vampire (Jennifer Beals) leads to his precipitous, exhilarating descent into laugh-out-loud insanity. What was first unhinged workplace abuse, privileged attitudes towards a therapist, and general obnoxiousness towards women soon turns into a surrealist caricature of monstrous behaviour. Cage’s maddening over-the-top commitment to his role—except for one infamous improvised scene involving a live insect—is frighteningly funny, drawing on references from German expressionist films and at the same time inventing a type of acting that is simply against categorisation itself. One can’t help but laugh at Vampire’s Kiss, where humour is fatally ridiculous.

Robert Bierman (b. 1949, England) is a film and television director known for his psychological and horror dramas. Bierman built his early career directing television commercials and debuted as a director with The Dumb Waiter (1979), a short horror film that showcased the atmospheric tension and taut storytelling later seen in the cult classic Vampire’s Kiss with Nicolas Cage. He is also known for adaptations of fiction such as The Rocking Horse Winner (1983), based on the eponymous story by D.H. Lawrence, and Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1997), from the novel by George Orwell. He has also directed episodes for well-regarded television shows such as Waking the Dead (2000–2011) and Holby City (1999–2022).