User Reviews

The Addiction is one of the more thoughtful films about vampirism available today.

While the film is incredibly thoughtful, with loads of subtext at every corner, it borders, and sometimes crosses into, pretention. There are times where the narration is attempting to add subtext, but it's so heavy-handed that the film loses sight of the fact it's a horror film. I'd argue it's thought piece first and horror film second, honestly. Maybe that makes it even more frightening.

Christopher Walken is wonderful, and Lili Taylor does a fine job, as well. The choice to shoot the film in black and white was a great idea, as well. There's a real focus placed on the ideas the film is pursuing.

Even though the subject of the horror in this film are vampires, the movie is truly describing humanity.

Sublime, intriguing vampire flic from the very weird mind of Abel Ferrara, the man who brought the world The King of New York, Driller Killer, and Nine Lives of a Wet Pussy. This moody, stylish, esoteric treatise mixes vampires, drug addiction, and Kierkegaard. A bit too talky for some, and more than a little pretentious, The Addiction nonetheless delivers some very disturbing imagery and beautiful b/w cinematography. For those who prefer their vamps with more of a philosophical..bite. Lili Taylor is wonderful as the bookworm innocent drawn into a world of hopeless addiction and bloodletting. But Ferrara's night children are not Anne Rice's brooding, romantic loners - they are as brutal and savage as any street addict, jonesing for another fix. Christopher Walken provides yet another classy cameo, this time as a ray of vampire hope, showing Taylor's character that the addiction can be controlled, that humanity, while not restored, can be at least mimicked. This moovie will not be for all...tastes, but the MooCow says show it to yer artsy-fartsy friends & watch them recoil. :=8)

"The Addiction" is a weird film directed by Abel Ferrara with wonderful black-and-white cinematography and cast with Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken and Annabella Sciorra among others. However the story is boring and pretentious for those that are not connected to philosophy with reference and citations of many philosophers. Therefore recommended only for very specific audiences. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Vício" ("The Addiction")

'The Addiction' is one of the most original vampire movies ever made. In fact, I can't think of another one quite like it. Abel Ferrara has made some strange and disturbing movies in his time, and this one is as strange and disturbing as any. Lili Taylor ('I Shot Andy Warhol') is brilliant as a troubled, soul searching philosophy student who has an unexpected and life-changing encounter with a mysterious stranger ('Cop Land's Annabella Sciorra). Dark, deep, sometimes blackly humorous, and frequently too obscure for its own good, this can be heavy going at times, but is never less than interesting. Christopher Walken, who did some superb work for Ferrara in his classic 'The King Of New York', has only a cameo here, but what a cameo! Walken is terrific and unforgettable. The rest of the supporting cast includes 'The Sopranos' Edie Falco and (briefly) Michael Imperioli, Paul Calderon ('Girlfight'), and Kathryn Erbe ('Stir Of Echoes'). This is a unique movie that will be appreciated by those with an open mind and preference for "difficult" viewing. Recommended.

I haven't seen THE ADDICTION in ten years, but I do recommend it from what I remember. And the list of attractive concepts are, envelope please: Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Anabella Sciorra, black and white meta-fictional film, and of course vampires galore! Abel Ferrara has directed other well known movies such as Bad Lieutenant, California, and the Funeral. Of these movies, I mildly recommend the first two but definitely not the third. The Funeral is plain boring and dreary, while the other two entertain by showing the gritty side of human nature.

Caution, if you're the type of vampire fan who must have each actor decked out in fangs and yellow contacts, then steer clear of this movie, since it's really questionable whether the characters in THE ADDICTION are actually vampires or are just plain junkies in nice clothes.

Lastly, there is a very complex philosophical feel to THE ADDICTION, as Lili Taylor muses about life and death in deep conversations in different venues around New York City: a college book store, movie theater, etc. I recommend any philosopher out there to grab THE ADDICTION off the shelves as soon as possible.

Speaking of the mid-90's, that short-lived era was a golden age for indie actors like Lili Taylor and Parker Posey. Taylor got a taste of vampire-hood early on in this movie, and fortunately for us, and for the committee, Posey got her fangs in Blade 3, which I was very happy to see happen. I mean, come on, all those party girls are really vampires at heart.

JY

Jimboduck-dot-com

Abel Ferrara's moody, allegorical vampire tale makes fascinating and pointed statements on sin and redemption, spirituality and the nature of good (there's precious little of it) and evil (no one is safe from it). And unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it was relatively ignored in America.

Lili Taylor gives a brooding, glib and haunting central performance as Kathleen Conklin, a New York University grad student who is pulled into an alley and bitten by a seductive female vampire (Annabella Sciorra), from which she emerges uncontrollably drawn into a world of violence and insatiable cravings for human blood. Ferrara's irredeemable urban hell landscape is more immediate and frightening than a million Transylvanias and by contrasting Taylor's "addiction" to the horrors of the past (war atrocities, the Holocaust) and present (heroine, AIDS), the film has more bite and impact than any fang-bearing, gore or special effects could even attempt to muster up. Nicolas St. John's intriguing philosophical screenplay and Ken Kelsch's gorgeous black and white photography (creating a world solely of light and dark, which is a key element in the plot), are not to be overlooked either.

Call it pretentious for the philosophy references (Sarte, Nietzche...) if you want, but this highly intelligent and disturbing low-budgeter is one of the most accomplished and well-thought out horror films I've ever seen. Don't let over-hyped, attention hogging Hollywood productions like BRAM STOKER'S Dracula or INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE keep you from seeing it.

After a freak attack on a city street by a strange woman, a philosophy student develops a hunger for human blood ...

This starts out right in the audience's face, with footage of a US army massacre in Vietnam, leading to counter-balanced reactions between the protagonist and her friend - but which don't seem connected to the title of the movie. Then straight on to the attack, which is done with style and does connect directly ... in to the thematic jugular, so to speak.

So we're set up for a reflection on the strange phenomenon of addiction, right? Well, through a jumble of philosophical aphorisms and paradoxes casually tossed out through dialogue the movie shifts to an exploration of the will to power, then to original sin, and ends with an off-the-shelf rite of religious redemption. But even if the line of inquiry were clear - say, by just settling on Nietzsche's version - none of this philosophy is brought to life on the screen. I couldn't find it in the structure of the story, or the dilemmas faced by the heroine, or in the cinematography or music (although I did appreciate being introduced to Eine Sylvesternacht).

The performances are mostly casual, with the protagonist going through a crude flip in personality before ripping off her clothes in a frenzy. Thankfully there is Christopher Walken, who provides the only real bite as a mannered, pitiless vampire - in the context of the climax, really a fallen angel.

The cinematography is mostly bland, the flat B&W shoved in as a gimmick with little thought for light and shadow. There are several episodes where footage of massacres is just plonked on the screen - contrast that with the emotion in the record of human violence as presented to Leeloo in The Fifth Element, when we see the reaction in her face. That's how to do it in a movie. On the other hand, the seedy energy of the streets is well captured, and the pace is OK.

What the film-maker sets up is the depravity of humankind, but solely for the purpose of ramming home his preferred brand of salvation. Not at all philosophical - just an exercise in scolding the audience for the sake of his own justification. So that would be a sermon, then.

Overall: Quite a mess. Amen.

A New York philosophy grad student (Lili Taylor) turns into a vampire after getting bitten by one (Annabella Sciorra), and then tries to come to terms with her new lifestyle and frequent craving for human blood.

The film has been considered an allegory about drug addiction, as well as an allegory of the theological concept of sin. It contains philosophical, theological and other intellectual content, including references to Husserl, Nietzsche, Feuerbach, and Descartes. The film also features a vampire quoting the highly conservative Reformed Theologian R. C. Sproul, who is a critic of Roman Catholicism.

Its connection to drug addiction and the parallels it draws are obvious, and it is not alone in doing so. Notably, Larry Fessenden's "Habit" also covered this ground. But the philosophy angle is new, especially with how far it goes. The references are not subtle at all, and as a philosophy graduate I appreciated them... I would love to see an analysis of the topics discussed and see if there is something deeper here, or just a superficial use of more profound thoughts.

Abel Ferrara does a great job of capturing New York City in all its gritty goodness. While not quite "guerilla filmmaking", most (if not all) of the scenes are uncontrolled -- no actors, no direction. Just Lili Taylor walking through real life, which makes this something of a time capsule in a way.

As someone who really likes vampire movies, from old classics to new, even cheap but entertaining ones, I watched The Addiction again after 20 years. While I couldn't remember much besides it being somewhat weird and a few scenes with a great Christopher Walken, I wanted to see how it was going to hold up now.

God, what a drag most of the time. While scanning other reviews I read the word presumptuous at least twice. That's the perfect word to describe this flick.

Non-stop pseudo-intellectual blah blah, no matter which philosophic approach the student and then reborn vampire decides to follow. In that regard it seemed more like a parody of how some young "brainiacs" from universities turn out.

Some love The addiction, some hate it. Obviously, I strongly sympathize with the latter.

While the acting is good the script is not, and the director Ferrara is mediocre at best. I can only repeat what this movie is: It is presumptuous!

Rated it a 4 just because of the actors, especially Christopher Walken who did a fine job. Still, there is no real reason to watch it, unless you love to listen to nonsensical tirades.

While trying to finish her thesis, a college student finds herself bitten by a vampire and tries to come to grips with the deadly affliction as she's mentored in the ways of their species and tries to avoid giving away her new identity.

This one certainly has some pretty decent ways to go here, mainly through the use of the clever gimmick that gets this one over by having her compare vampirism through philosophical queries, but unfortunately that only has a two-pronged effect that doesn't do anything for the film at hand. On the one, it makes the film just incredibly boring and not really all that interesting, since she spends the majority of time simply doing nothing but complaining about the utterly useless knowledge given to her by the school and relying on other means to get through the change. Eventually, it all just comes across as pretentious nonsense that makes no sense at all and just tends to sound whatever it needed to do to agree with their principle ideas. The other factor, as mentioned before, is that not a lot happens in here and it tends to just ramble on, like she does, and nothing gets done because of that. Even the novel Black-and-White can't save this one.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, drug use and Brief Nudity.

I respect the user reviews here a lot.

I am genuinely in the minority in not admiring this movie. I admire the work of Ferrara and many of the actors in it. However, I thought that the great Lily Taylor sounded fed-up and was simply reciting memorized pages of Philosophy for Dummies.

There has to be some connection between the director and Dick Wolf or w/LAW AND ORDER FOR so many of the L&O actors to have been involved w/this project. Maybe it's D'Onofrio's connection w/Taylor and their masterwork, HOUSEHOLD SAINTS.

I am pleased so many people find this an amazing work, but I just didn't get it.

This movie was even scarier for me since I spent 2/3 of my life in New York City and all the settings were in my family's neighborhood!

The acting was first rate, as was the storyline and cinematography, but all the philosophical dissertations annoyed the HELL out of me because it reminded me of some of the intellectual snobs I went to school with who had lower IQ's than my cat.

Upon reading the previous review, it just occurred to me that all the snobbery made perfect sense.

The character was probably in shock for several weeks. In HER mind, a vampire wouldn't resist his or her impulses they would just become feral. As such, to her, this constant internal dialogue of trying to figure out whether or not her addictions are psychological or supernatural somehow proves her normalcy (at least in her universe).

Christopher Walken was GENIUS and so convincing that I never EVER want to meet him in person! His explanation of his adaptation to his vampirism made it seem so normal (it REALLY felt like he was giving the audience a confession under the guise of acting) that you got the sense that he WASN'T acting!

I have to say that the graduation scene is one of the single most disturbing things that I have ever seen in my life! I saw it coming, but never really acknowledged before seeing this, that horror movies are realistic because all the writers/directors have to do is open up the local newspaper to see what a real monster is!

This is a strange one--on one hand I love this movie for its beautiful imagery and dark and somber feel but on the other hand the ENDLESS philosophy talk drove me crazy.

An anthropology student (Lili Taylor) is bitten by a vampire (Annabella Sciorra). She doesn't die--she lives but has a need for blood. When she doesn't get it she gets extremely weak. But she can't overcome her horror at ripping open people's throats for their blood.

Sounds a LOT more interesting than it plays. The story is interesting and the acting is superb but the story turns into one long and dull philosophy lesson. Characters walk around endlessly expounding on various philosophical theories or sayings. This might be interesting if I cared about philosophy--but I saw this expecting a horror film. That's NOT what I got. It's endless droning on and on about philosophy and life...on and on... More than once I wanted to turn off the sound. It really got to me and--just when you think it can't get worse-- Christopher Walken pops up giving another one of his zombie-like performances.

There are some good things about the movie. The whole cast is great but Taylor is superb in a VERY difficult role. The film is shot in moody black and white which totally fits the story. There's also a climatic party sequence which is easily one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen. It gets a 7 for all those things. But if you're looking for a horror movie be prepared for TONS of philosophy. Maybe next time they can leave the endless lessons off and concentrate more on the story.

I found this movie to be such an accurate reflection of the way society functions. Vampirism could easily be seen as an economic transaction, in the way we feed off one another (i.e., we rob each other of blood/money, both of which are needed to survive). From a Marxist perspective, we can see that capitalism is economic and social barbarism.

For so many reasons, I cannot stop recommending this movie to everybody I know. Dialogue, cinematography, cast choice, lighting, set/setting, I cannot think of one factor that was left to chance.

Stimulate your brain and see this movie NOW!

This turn the great directon made a wrong move, this picture no make sense over a usual vampirism genre, probable an intangible variaton implied by the director, so the results are fulsomely unsatifactory, in fact the picture goes to nowhere, the casting don't have any guilty for this flop, because the whole thing already fated to failure, all things are desconected by reality to say something, recommended by twisted mind that insist to see art in a surreal approach!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6

It's an OK film and it makes it's point but it has long periods of nothingness - periods when the story isn't moving in any direction - comes to a full stop to labour a point.

I really like watching low-budget art-house inspired films, but perhaps this could have been a lot more watchable and engaging if it didn't rely so heavily on philosophical quotes.

This film is very much a matter of taste.

I loved this film. I was an NYU grad student and the process of getting my doctorate and writing the dissertation and dealing with the committee were perfectly captured by all the aspects of the vampire's experience and transformation. The hunger she felt was so accurate. I recall those days of struggle and grad student doubts about ever finishing and feeling as if no one would appreciate what I had written. The writers captured all that perfectly in the scenes of her trying to write and focus, all while something else was pulling on her and transforming her.

The film itself was well acted and the emotional atmosphere was captured perfectly. The street scenes incorporated the neighborhood beautifully, especially in the way people in the village actually live there. It was a dark wonderful film and I have recommended it to many people, especially those currently in grad school, writing their dissertations. I hope it is released on DVD soon. I keep looking.

Addiction is for a vampire based film a watchable time in front of screen,but that doesnt say a lot about quality of this film more about that almost every vampire film is full of romantic staff and themes that are completly out of place for its genre,addiction however was a film that focused on vampires for most of time and for that i admire and respect it,but story and acting wasnt nothing special to me and in some scenes film is acting to be smarter then it actually is and its messages and lessons are very on nose and they dont work on me which is shame since i would want to see films like this to change my way of seeing life or even changing it