In the last few years, it seems there has been a Nicolas Cage renaissance, just this week it was announced that Cage would be playing Dracula in the upcoming Renfield, which focuses on the infamous, bug-eating servant of Dracula. This year alone he has appeared in multiple productions that have set film fans talking, not least his turn in the meditation on grief and loss Pig. Cage has also been making a name for himself in the horror genre, making several strange and scary movies over the last few years.
With a career that spans 40 years, Nicolas Cage is a household name, for better or worse. Part of the Coppola film family dynasty, Cage has had an eclectic career, to say the least. He has won the Oscar for Best Actor twice for his role in 1995's Leaving Las Vegas and was nominated again in 2003 for his role in Adaptation. In 1998 he was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has become somewhat of a meme for his over-the-top delivery in some roles. For all of this, Cage seems to be having the most fun when he is playing oddball characters in weird situations so let's examine his best and most outrageous horror performances to date.
Mandy - Red Miller
In 2018's Mandy, Cage plays Red Miller, a man living a happy and peaceful life in 1983 with his artist girlfriend Mandy Bloom (played by Andrea Riseborough). Their life is quiet and idyllic until Jeremiah Sand, leader of the Children of the New Dawn cult, takes a liking to Mandy and enlists a biker gang called the Black Skulls to obtain her for himself. Not only are the Black Skulls a violent and sadistic crew, but they are also extremely partial to potent LSD. What follows is an avant-garde, highly stylized revenge movie with Cage at his best as a man driven mad by an all-consuming need to destroy those that have wronged him.
The first act of the movie shows Cage as a doting and affectionate man, a man who holds his girlfriend up in reverence. He is in awe of her and her art and it is a wholly believable performance. After Mandy and Red's abduction and Red's subsequent escape, the movie becomes a neon-soaked nightmare as Red's rage consumes him and his mental state becomes more and more unstable. If the first half of Mandy is Cage at his most restrained and understated, the back half is him at his most over the top and deranged.
Prisoners of The Ghostland - Hero
This year's Prisoners of the Ghostland is a hard film to categorize. Part horror, part sci-fi, part western, and part samurai saga, the movie centers around Cage's character, named only as Hero in the credits. Hero is a bank robber, who has been in hiding since a robbery went bad when his partner snapped and started shooting. Hero is kidnapped and tasked to find the missing 'granddaughter' of the Governor. He is then stuffed into a leather suit laced with bombs that will explode if he doesn't find her within a set amount of time.
The Ghostland itself is a wasteland filled with mutated men and actual ghosts. Cage plays an extremely reluctant hero who is haunted by what happened during the robbery. This is a more subdued and stoic performance from Cage, with the only real instance of his trademark 'Cage Rage' apparent when one of the bombs on his suit goes off, exploding a very sensitive part of his body. Prisoners of the Ghostland shows a more contemplative, haunted character from Cage, one struggling with his demons and trying to atone for his past sins.
Color Out of Space - Nathan Gardner
Color Out of Space is another example of the emerging genre "Nicolas Cage bathed in neon lights while bad things happen." An adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story of the same name, the film follows the Gardner family after a meteorite falls from space and lands in their yard. The influence of the space rock slowly permeates the family's land and their minds, turning everything a shade of magenta and warping minds and bodies.
Playing the devoted husband and father, Cage once again showcases a terrifying descent into madness whilst all around him crumbles and shifts. As the land around him transforms, as does he and throughout the movie, he becomes more and more disconnected from reality. His performance here has been called by some as too over the top, however, his extreme portrayal fits perfectly with the character of a man who is slowly losing everything he loves to an extraterrestrial evil and can only watch.
Vampire's Kiss - Peter Loew
Finally, it's time to look at the other time that Cage has played a vampire, 1988's Vampire's Kiss. In one of his first major roles, Cage stars as Peter Loew, an ad executive who believes he is turning into a vampire after a chance encounter with a mysterious woman. The film shows from the beginning that Peter is not doing well mentally. He frequents a psychiatrist, who becomes afraid of his nonsensical rants, has numerous one-night stands and steamrolls through cocaine. Throughout the film, Peter convinces himself he is turning into a vampire, believing that a shaving wound on his neck is a vampire's bite.
With his behavior becoming increasingly erratic, Peter begins wearing sunglasses and false vampire teeth. The pull of the plot is that the entire vampire transformation is the delusion of an extremely unwell man. He is frequently seen interacting with nobody at his apartment in the aftermath of their encounters. At one point, Peter finds a cockroach in his apartment and hungrily stuffs it into his mouth. Cage revealed that it was a real cockroach and he had to re-take the scene several times.
The finale of the film sees Peter completely break from reality and begin living entirely in his constructed world. At its core, the story is about a man who doesn't want to take responsibility for his own life and actions and so palms them off onto a supposed mythical evil. Vampire's Kiss is also the movie that has launched a thousand memes, endured critical panning, and gave the world a scene where Cage just shouts "boohoo" instead of crying, creating the foundation of the icon he has become.