The Addiction is about vampires. The Addiction is about evil and how it is connected to the human condition. The Addiction is about self-justification, and whether philosophy actually describes human interactions, or just rationalizes evil.
Buy The Addiction 4K UHDShot in stark black and white, The Addiction begins with a lecture on the My Lai massacre, where American soldiers killed an entire Vietnamese village. Images of war atrocities and murders occur throughout the film; they’re the central character Kathleen’s (Lili Taylor) major interest, as she studies for her philosophy doctorate. But it’s abstract to her until she is directly invited into the world of violence. A female vampire attacks her.
She grabs Kathleen, pulls her into an alley, and demands: Tell me to go away. Kathleen says please, so that’s not good enough. The vampire bites. And finds balancing going to college and her normal life with becoming a sun-fearing, blood-drinking vampire is not easy business.
If you’re making a black and white movie in the ’90s, you’re almost certainly making an art movie. Art movies are presumed to be pretentious and presumed to be metaphors before they are stories. The Addiction seems to go this way, as Kathleen mutters (sometimes so low it’s impossible to hear) about philosophy as she steals blood and bites necks. But for every scene of apparent pretense, of high-falootin’ dialogue about Nietzsche or Kierkegaard, there’s one of hardcore neck-biting.
There’s a fascinating interlude in the center of the film where Kathleen picks out the wrong victim. Christopher Walken, who is obviously a vampire, smacks her down immediately and tells her everything she’s doing wrong with her life. He’s a functional vampire, like a functional addict. He is in control because he accepts his condition. He has a job. A life. He only drinks when he wants to. Happens he wants to right then, and nearly drains her dry.
The Addiction looks like an annoying pretentious art film. It acts like one, most of the time, until it becomes an arresting horror film. It doesn’t conform to any specific genre but is constantly an Abel Ferrera film. He’s a director who is obsessed with his peculiar visions. Though he regularly works around genres, his films rarely conform to the specifics of the genre.
The Addiction is a horror film about vampires. But it’s also about how obsession and monomania can drain the humanity out of anybody, and how that leads to parasatism. If you’re not concerned with people, then people become objects for your use. At one point, Kathleen lectures her latest victim that her worry about being bitten is more interesting than Kathleen’s indifference about victimizing her. It’s academic, and strange, but also indicative of how the addict’s obsession dehumanizes those around her. Kathleen’s cope is philosophy, so she philosophizes about those she destroys with her vampirism.
That’s all thematics. For those who haven’t seen the film: is it good watching? Well… it’s 82 minutes long, so it doesn’t outstay its welcome. It’s consistently interesting. But ultimately, despite its vacillating tone, this is an interesting art film. It’s for those who want to engage intellectually with their cinema, because viscerally this might leave an audience wanting more vampire shenanigans disappointed.
Visually, the deep blacks and harsh contrast of the cinematography are beautifully rendered in this 4K release. It was shot cheap and looks cheap, but also stylish, like some kind of creepy New York Nosferatu home movie of the ’90s.
The Addiction is a strange film. It inhabits the odd world of the art horror film. There are no special effects extravaganzas: we get a lot of unconvincing blood pooling around necks, no cool horror movie stuff. But there’s an underlying feeling of dread and violence. And a very unexpected finale which works directly against the nihilistic evil that much of the film is steeped in. It’s not a Halloween film to watch with friends. It’s also not just an arty metaphor. The Addiction is a vampire film.
The Addiction has been released on 4K UHD by Arrow Video. Extras include a commentary by director Abel Ferrera, moderated by Brad Stevens. Video extras include “Talking with Vampires” (31 min), a new documentary about the film; “Interview with Abel Ferrera” (16 min); “Appreciate by Brad Stevens” (9 min), an overview of Ferrera’s career, and “Abel edit The Addiction” (9 min), vintage footage of Abel Ferrera editing the film.
