THE ADDICTION (1995)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
(Originally viewed in 1996)
Forget the cartoonish mentality of "From Dusk Till Dawn," "The Addiction" is the best, most original vampire film I have seen since "Near Dark." Independent queen of film Lili Taylor stars as NYU philosophy grad student Kathleen Conklin, who at the start of the film is seen watching a documentary on the My Lai Massacre. While returning home from class one night, she is assaulted and bitten by a woman dressed in a slinky outfit (Annabella Sciorra). Kathleen is nonplussed and shocked by the large bloody wound on her neck and begins to get sick. She also begins to stare at other female students, develops a craving for blood, refuses to eat food, and starts collecting blood by using syringes. Gradually Kathleen starts to bite anyone in sight, including her amorous teacher, her fellow student friend, neighborhood street kids, etc.
Director Abel Ferrara ("Bad Lieutenant") brings an eerie sense of menace to the streets of New York (mostly filmed at Bleecker Square) and to the superb Lili Taylor, who manages to make Kathleen both pitiful and sympathetic. Her "addiction" centers on drinking blood but she nearly overdoses during a climactic Orgy of the Dead sequence. Ferrara's intent is to show this addiction as a state-of-mind where one does not blame the victimizer - one actually blames the victim for allowing themselves to be victimized. "Just tell me to go," says Kathleen before she sinks her teeth into a helpless anthropology student. Ferrara also blends in footage of the Holocaust as a metaphor for vampires eating themselves away. In one of the most delirious comments ever uttered by a vampire, Kathleen says: "I am rotting inside but I am not dying."
"The Addiction" is a decadently frightening companion to Ferrara's masterful "Bad Lieutenant." It is also subtle, complex, horrifying, scary, and flawlessly performed by everyone. And check out the sinister vampire played by the equally ominous Christopher Walken, who teaches Kathleen a few tips about her condition and how "The Naked Lunch" applies to vampires, in addition to claiming she is in fact...nothing. Of course, Walken bites her offscreen. This is not just any vampire film - this is a provocative commentary on the nature of addiction.
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