The Addiction
Tags:
the addiction | abel ferrara | nicholas st. john | lili taylor | christopher walken | annabella sciorra | drama | vampires | united states | vampire | edie falco | paul calderon | fredro starr | kathryn erbe | michael imperioli | jamal simmons | robert w. castle
Film: The Addiction
Year: 1995
Director: Abel Ferrara
Writer: Nicholas St. John
Starring: Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken and Annabella Sciorra
Review:
Now this is an interesting film for me. I never heard about it and it was listed in the Horror Show Guide encyclopedia that I’m working my way through. This is also one of the first arthouse horror films that set me down the path that I’m on with them now. It is an interesting take on the vampire mythos for sure. I’ve seen this a few times now, with the most recent at the Gateway Film Center.
Synopsis: a New York philosophy grad student turns into a vampire after getting bitten by one, and then tries to come to terms with her new lifestyle and frequent craving for human blood.
This film begins with narration of slides. They are images from the Vietnam War of mass graves. We see that there are two students who stand up when the lights come on. One is Kathleen Conklin (Lili Taylor) while the other is Jean (Edie Falco). They are both graduate students in philosophy at New York University. They have a moral discussion about how one man was punished for this where Kathleen questions how far you go in punishing more people, like who sent him there and gave him a weapon. She makes a valid argument.
The two of them talk about the subject above and it shows how close to their college is a rougher area. There’s a bunch of guys who hassle those that walk past them and the film shows us the dissection of society. We have these pretentious students and people who will never leave the area.
Later that night, Kathleen crosses a street and encounters Casanova (Annabella Sciorra). She grabs Kathleen’s arm and drags her down a flight of stairs into a dark alley. She demands that Kathleen tells her to stop like she means and for her to leave. She cannot do it so Casanova bites her neck. It turns out that she is a vampire. Taylor goes to the hospital. She is checked out and they inform her that she does not have AIDS, as it cannot manifest that quickly. They think that she might have acute anemia that is now presenting. She is cleared to go home with a big bandage on her neck. Kathleen gets home and begins to clean the blood from her neck. She is visibly shaken and scared.
She then becomes sick. She goes to class the next day and has to get-up in the middle of her professor’s (Paul Calderon) lecture to go to the bathroom. She throws up blood and convulses on the ground. Taylor begins to wear sunglasses and has lost her appetite. She also has taken an even darker view of the world. Her first feeding is from taking blood from a homeless man with a syringe and injecting herself with it.
There is a weird scene where Kathleen and her professor go out. This is odd because he comes home with her and they shoot up heroin. He has two blood spots on his arm with one saying ‘in’ and the other ‘out’. She uses his blood to feed her addiction.
She becomes bolder after this. She meets an anthropology student in the library who is played by Kathryn Erbe. Kathleen takes her home and bites her neck. Her victim is confused as to what happened. Kathleen is cold and callous in her response. Another instance is when Black (Fredro Starr) comes on to Kathleen while she walks past and she seems interested. We will see the reason for that later.
Taylor’s addiction grows worse and worse. As she is looking for victims, this brings her to Peina (Christopher Walken). He is like her and he takes her back to his place. She wants to know more about their condition, but he doesn’t have answers. He has been able to keep his cravings under control and lives a normal life. He does feed on Kathleen and the pain is so great she wants to kill herself. He scoffs at her when she tries, knowing it has no effect. This encounter does re-invigorate her in school and leads her to her grand plan.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. I have to say that I didn’t know what to expect coming into this upon my first viewing, but I am glad that I watched this multiple times. This has an interesting take on the vampire mythos. From its title, you can get the idea that it is treated like a drug which it is. Kathleen was just a normal student before Casanova turned her life upside down. Part of this is the loss of innocence and there is also the idea of how an attack on you can completely alter the course of your life.
Kathleen being a philosophy student is intriguing. She has a bleak outlook on life to start this movie, but to be honest, I get it. The older I get, the more I realize how humans are garbage. I love using the backdrop of the war crimes from Vietnam as a way of looking at the vampirism here. Kathleen is upset with the treatment of the military officer, but she is doing the same thing that he is. I think the film shows us that we shouldn’t necessarily judge people when we live in glass houses.
There is also her new addiction. Her inability to control it is something else. Now in 1995 when this film came out, I was 8. I feel like this tells us about the epidemic of people using drugs. The film references AIDS, so that was a concern. I’m also thinking there was an issue with college students back then. Kathleen literally shoots up with her professor and it doesn’t seem that big a deal. I feel this shows us it’s a real problem. Kathleen can’t control herself as a vampire and it takes Peina to call her out. He couldn’t at first either. It is interesting, Casanova is the one that turns her and we don’t see her all that much. I’m not sure how bad her addiction to blood is. Her being a woman is disarming though so I like that angle.
The film has a low running time, so that keeps the film moving. It is deliberately paced. It’s interesting to see Kathleen as she descends into the madness of her addiction. There is a stimulating climax scene that is great at what she plans. I like what it is saying about higher education. The ending I’m not completely sure what it is saying outside of the death of the humanity of our lead.
Something that carries this film is the acting. Taylor is great as the lead here. As I’ve already touched on liking that they made her a philosophy student. They are already head cases and questioning everything around them. I love that as she is sinking deeper into addiction, her outlook becomes bleaker. Walken is solid in his small part as was Sciorra. She was also easy on the eyes. There are cameos by people who would go on to do bigger things and they rounded out the film for what was needed. Shout outs to Falco, Starr, Erbe and Michael Imperioli. The cast is good across the board here in a subdued way.
All that I have then is filmmaking. This is something that I’ve been waiting to cover as it is an arthouse movie. This is shot in black and white. This would have made me avoid this one growing up. It works for this narrative. It just adds a layer to it for me that I can’t describe. What makes it interesting as well is that it makes the effects better. The blood is dark and you know what it is. That also makes the attack scenes more visceral as well and I’d bet, helps to hide things as I don’t think this has the largest budget. The cinematography is also good. I love how things are framed. I’m more familiar with Abel Ferrara, seeing a handful of his films at this point. He also captures the grittiness of New York City.
The last aspect to talk about would be the soundtrack. It doesn’t stand out overall, but it does fit. I do like the use of rap music. We have a song by Cypress Hill, which I thought was great as it is talking about getting high. That fits the title and largest theme. They also use it a couple of times. There is also a song by Onyx that I thought worked well in the film. It doesn’t shock me to see that Russell Simmons is involved with production.
In conclusion, I like this movie. They decided to do something different with the vampire creature. Setting it in New York City is great because it isn’t as gritty as the 1980’s. There is still that aspect that this school of higher education is that close to a rough neighborhood. Big fan of the climax and the ending is intriguing. The acting was good across the board. This is well-made and I enjoy stylistic choices. Being filmed in black and white adds a layer to it and helps to make the effects look that much better. The soundtrack fits what the film is working for. Not one that I can recommend to everyone. I wouldn’t say to watch this regularly. One that if you enjoy arthouse films that periodically is good to check out with the social commentary and message it carries.
My Rating: 8 out of 10