The movies Nicolas Cage hates the most: “I think they’re disgusting”

Across the length and breadth of his career, Nicolas Cage has plied his trade in pretty much every genre you could imagine. He’s been in dramas, action films, comedies, epic war movies, martial arts pictures, superhero movies, romances, and absurdist fare. Another genre that he’s always seemed to gravitate toward, though, especially in the latter part of his career, is horror. However, there is one sub-genre of horror that Cage doesn’t love at all. He hates it passionately and thinks those kinds of films are disgusting.

Cage’s first foray into the world of fright flicks came with 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss, a batshit insane horror-comedy that cast him as a literary agent who descends into madness while thinking he’s turning into a vampire. Critics widely derided the film at the time of release, with Cage’s over-the-top performance coming in for particular criticism. Over the years, though, it’s become a cult classic precisely because of Cage’s go-for-broke approach to the character, and these days it’s one of the most heavily mocked films ever.

It took a long time for Cage’s next attempt at horror: 2006’s remake of The Wicker Man. Once again, Cage embraced the wackiness at the film’s heart, which rubbed fans of the original British film the wrong way. After all, it was a low-key, sinister folk horror that built to a devastating ending, not an off-the-wall farce. In 2013 Cage told The Guardian that he felt the film had been misunderstood, though. He claimed, “There’s a need by some folks in the media to think that we’re not in on the joke. But you don’t go around doing the things that character does – in a bear suit – and not know it’s absurd.”

In the late 2010s, Cage’s horror output increased dramatically and with wildly different results. There was the modern classic hallucinogenic nightmare Mandy; his deeply unnerving turn in Longlegs; the upsetting Lovecraft adaptation Colour Out of Space; more balls-to-the-walls comedy horror efforts in Mom and Dad, Renfield, and Willy’s Wonderland; and whatever Pay the Ghost was.

With all these films, Cage explored many different areas in horror: serial killers, cults, cosmic terrors, rage-infected humans, ghosts, and the Lord of Darkness himself. However, conspicuous in its absence is a long-standing sub-genre of horror which can usually be relied upon to generate a hit: the slasher. This is no accident, either, because Cage has admitted that he despises slasher films.

During that 2013 interview with The Guardian, Cage was asked about Jim Carrey, who had recently disavowed Kick-Ass 2—a film he had starred in—because of its level of gun violence. Cage was one of the stars of the original Kick-Ass, and his movies have always had their fair share of blood and guts, so the interviewer wanted to know if he understood where Carrey was coming from. Cage’s answer was a fascinating mix of artistic expression and politics, and it unexpectedly led him to take a shot at slasher movies.

“You know, Jim’s gonna do what Jim’s gonna do,” mused Cage. “I believe in freedom of speech. I don’t believe in putting a gag on creative expression. Don’t go to the movie, if you don’t want to see violence. That’s your choice. I hate slasher films, for example. I don’t watch slasher films; I think they’re disgusting. But I think it’s important to live in a world where there’s that freedom to create whatever it is you want to create.”

It was a strong statement from a man known for following his muse wherever it may take him; we now know it will likely never take him to a Halloween or Scream sequel. But a horror film like The Carpenter’s Son, which finds supernatural terrors being visited upon Jesus Christ as a child in Roman Egypt? You bet your bottom dollar that’s a horror picture Cage can get behind.

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