The Addiction

I liked a lot of this; a lot, I didn't like. Really enjoyed some of the ideas, the b&w camerawork, (some of) the music. Some dialogue was a bit painful (perhaps it just went over my head?), and I really didn't think the pictures of genocide added anything. Taylor was very watchable - there was a lot to enjoy about her performance. Walken's cameo brought some levity, sort of, and a few scenes really worked. It ultimately felt a bit "film school", but I'd be tempted to go back for another look.

I'm not like you, you're nothing. Another great Abel addiction movie. Oh no it's not about a drug metaphor or aids or whatever it's an addiction to philosophy majors piling on holocaust footage to get quick easy this is deep and provocative gimme that easy A. The holocaust and other war crime footage totally undercuts the vampire addiction horror and it's a shame as the vampire stuff here is terrific but that other thing is horror.

I can't tell if this is laughably bad accidentally or if it's a brilliant satire of megalomaniacal philosophy grad students. Either way, the lead's acting is atrocious. Fortunately, halfway through, Walken briefly shows up for a delightful tete-a-tete. But ultimately, being well-read doesn't mean your philosophy-laden arthouse film is going to be worth two shits. Nor does shamelessly exploiting footage of mass graves lend your film any gravitas. The silver lining is the outstanding soundtrack.

Grad school sucks (literally).

Dull and blunt. I like philosophy but this is just droning on and on with no direction and the allegory aspect is not only absurdly overt, it's also really badly done.

Even though I am a big fan of Lili Taylor, this movie is full of nonsense philosophy and preachy nihilism. I also disliked most of the wretched rap music. It was sometimes an amusing twist on a vampire theme, but the pacing was awful and the story got pretty tedious by the end. There are only a few good scenes. Very poor handling of her disciples. It was a nice addition to have Christopher Walken, but he was totally underutilized. B&W production also subtracts heavily from the viewing enjoyment.

Who better than Ferrara, auteur of characters who don't choose -- they just live --, to depict our nature in tiny bedrooms? Drug addiction as a tool of self-discovery is wide spread here, but Lili Taylot's both intellectual and physical performance connects today's urban fever to more intimate desires -- for something more we are unable to name, something you may call evil or good. As images of past wars and slaughters slide, Kathleen lives what she's studied for her whole life -- nothingness.

Lacks a throughline for its philosophical ideas, the genocide pictures are unnecessary and the Christian redemption questionable, but still the film gets the pulpyness just right for the most part embracing its horror parts whilst still, with its black-and-white cinematography and gritty feel, being able to pull off the whole philosophical ramblings convincingly and Lili Taylor's journey is fascinating to watch as she finds herself dragged deeper and deeper into the darkness.

Walken has a showy role as a veteran vampire. Characters and motivations seem murky and arbitrary throughout this rage-cloaked exercise, but you have to credit the ever offbeat Ferrara and St. John for at least having the courage of their conniptions.

One of Ferrara's best. Vampires, drugs and moral issues presented in b&w? Great.

While lacking in subtlety, the film boldly wrestles with the human condition, grappling with the way addiction among the fringes of society actually speaks to a universal reality in all people. Couched in philosophical and theological terms, the story carries with it the notion that the only escape from such a problem is one that we cannot attain for ourselves. The grit and grime of mid-90s NYC give the film a tangible quality that helps to balance the philosophical monologues.

Probably my favourite vampirism acting as a metaphor for drug addiction while also featuring Onyx on the soundtrack film.

Through the guerilla filmmaking method it gives an interesting view on live in the backstreets in NY in the early 90s. The comparison with vampirism with addiction is original and interesting. Lily Talyor greatly conveys the difference stages of confidence of her character. But all the pseudo-intellectual philosophizing drags this down and make it much more pretentious than it should have to be.

I'm having a hard time really knowing what to say about this one other than I'll definitely need to revisit it soon. Apparently a philosophical and talky vampire film from mid-90s Ferrara is exactly my shit. Visually impressive, and definitely horrifying. Christopher Walken only needs one scene to nearly steal a movie. The most obvious metaphor is in the title but it's not really about drugs. We are not evil because we do evil things, we do evil because that is what we are

OK, Ferrara. I've given you plenty of chances, and all you seem to be able to do is give me a lot of dark atmosphere and heavy-handed, transparent and pretentious storytelling. Plenty of great actors like to work for you, and I like seeing them. But when are you going to make a movie that's more than derivative artifice? Even here, the admirably ambitious allegory wears thin fast, not that it even works on an accessible level to begin with.

(Viewed on 25/10/13): A little pretentious at times, and it's hard to figure out whether Abel/St.John are making fun of philosophical discourse and the people that take it seriously--the dissertation scene is painful in terms of how it's written--yet it is effective as a creepy, subversive, one-of-a-kind genre film that is different from anything else Ferrara has done but still belongs to his thematic universe. Christopher Walken's cameo is priceless too.

Low key, stark but quite effective vampire film has a nice, droll sense of humour to further distinguish it, along with a compelling, at times frightening lead performance from Taylor. Quite bizarre in the extreme at times -- and this even before Walken shows up!

This movie is horribly stupid, it's a whole bunch of pseudo-intellectual bull that only a philosophy student could come up with, fittingly the main character is a philosophy student. I really wanted to shove glass shards into my ears because the dialog made me cringe so badly. Direction wise, it's not horrible, well, only a little horrible.

Maybe interesting if you're a philosophy student, but I just found this fairly dull. It's only 80 minutes long, but the only scene interesting to horror buffs would be the party bloodbath with 10 minutes to go. The vampire-as-junkie thing is done as literally as I've ever seen, and it doesn't really work IMO - too heavy-handed. The B&W photography is nice, and Walken's one scene is a highlight. Other than that, it tries too hard and comes off as pretentious.

As a philosophy major I obviously digged the references, but as a film fan the plot is weak. Many philosophical ideas brought up lacked cohesion. Definitely not a film for most people. I actually didn't mind the Christian-flavored spirituality. Some people need to give themselves over to a "higher" power aka something bigger than themselves. Otherwise, they turn into a blood-drooling rapey psychopaths.

Drugs, philosophy and religion explored via the medium of Vampires!

in love with Ferrara and St.John :P

More like 'Christopher Walk On By'

The script has difficulty grappling with its philosophy, but, fuck me, there's no shortage of totally awesome.

80 minutes of black and white philosophy-inspired vampirism? Too intriguing to resist. Up its own arse, but the vintage vibe is diggable & curiously scored with hip-hop. Lili Taylor is a philosophy student by day, addict by night. After receiving the bite, she quickly finds her moral compass challenged, a need to justify her insatiable hunger, and to come to terms with guilt eternal. Interesting, cerebral, and compelling while also being a bit uneven and preachy.

Thematically similar to BAD LIEUTENANT, but no Zoë Lund, and with literary and philosophical references thrown in, mostly in a silly way. Still, quite an interesting variation on vampirism as succumbing to the (addictive) temptation to regress from desire to drive. Features two actors who will later appear in THE SOPRANOS. Heather Bracken, who plays the nurse and delivers the line, "nobody's going to let you die", was an addict who years later actually became a nurse, but herself died in 2018.

https://letterboxd.com/daveyjenkins/film/the-addiction/ fucking hell i think i'd rather live with kathleen. (the actual best review of this i've read is also on letterboxd by mmcc, which as far as my admittedly stirfried lapsed-philosophy-grad brain can tell basically solves the thing entirely.) (has anyone ever harnessed the niche appeal of an actor as comprehensively as ferrara did with walken?)

One of the more unique vampire movies to be made, & definitely has that certain Abel Ferrara-ness to it that's sometimes charming and other times rather offputting. Lili Taylor is tremendous in the lead, delivering heaps of uber-pretentious dialogue with the vigor and confidence of a 2010's hipster. Christopher Walken is magnetic in every moment of his brief appearance. The party scene is the most memorable thing about it, with good reason. I didn't love this, but it was decent with good ideas.

I heard someone call Taylor "an actor's actor" once, I think I might have a better idea what that means now. Frrzrq gb zr gung inzcvevfz jnf urer n zrgncube sbe frkhny ivbyrapr naq vg'f crecrghngvba engure guna nqqvpgvba. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I tend to detest vampire movies but this is one of the best I've seen. Granted, it's kind of a high-brow comedy rather than the usual erotic horror. Some of the bizarre vampire dialogue is simply scrumptious. There's no real depth to any of the philosophy references, but they are cutely savvy.

Ferrara transposes his existentialist angst onto a vampire film acting as a metaphor for heroin addiction. Weird, raw, at times wordy to the point of being maladroit -- it's Abel Ferrara, baybeeeeee.

Idk. Maybe I was in the wrong mood, and it definitely would've helped if my dumbass had read some of the philosophers mentioned, but this was a little bit of a disappointment. Lili Taylor is good and, as usual with Ferrara, audio and visuals are nice (tho less striking, to me, than some of his others). And it was interesting. Idk. Guess I'll just see how it fares on a rewatch. For now 65/100.

The black and white video, the nihilism, and the piano music made this quite moody. Christopher Walken barely appeared. A lot of different things going on so you can interpret this as many different ways as you'd like. Fav scene: attacking the party.

Se havia alguma dúvida que Ferrara é um dos maiores cineastas americanos vivos, não há mais. Só me lembrem de não fazer doutorado em filosofia. Box Versátil Vampiros no Cinema Volume 3

Abel Ferrara #1

A cool alternative B&W vampire flick, where the vampires are philosophy-spewing, 2Cool4School college kids -- it's just too bad that a lot of that is aimless and comes to not much of a conclusion.

73.500

When your entire premise consists of little more than "DRUG ADDICTS = VAMPIRES", no amount of handheld camerawork and black and white cinematography is going to rescue your film from its own banality.

A very creepy vampire film for grad students and other aspiring intellectuals. Christopher Walken is very good, and so is Lili Taylor.

This was not the Vampire Movie Revelation I was promised. Not very interesting, really.

I applaud the *idea* of a black-and-white vampire movie directed by Abel Ferrara. It just doesn't work all that well