The Addiction

Released Oct 4, 1995

1h 22m

Horror

List

74%

31 Reviews

Tomatometer

68%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

A vampiric doctoral student tries to follow the philosophy of a nocturnal comrade and control her thirst for blood.

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Critics Consensus

Abel Ferrara's 1995 horror/suspense experiment blends urban vampire adventure with philosophical analysis to create a smart, idiosyncratic, and undeniably odd take on the genre.

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Steve D

It isn't as clever as it thinks it is but it is interesting and beautifully shot.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

09/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The Addiction, a black and white arthouse vampire flick, revolves around a philosophy student developing a thirst for blood after being bitten by a mystery woman while walking along the street. The film, for some bizarre reason, led critics to speculate that the story night be a metaphor for drug addiction. I don't say this because that's one of many interpretations, but because the metaphor is so blatant that there's absolutely no way a person can possibly miss it. The word addiction is literally in the movies title! Also, director Abe Ferrara has himself struggled with drug addiction in the past, so it makes sense why he'd want to make a film with this subject matter. Its not a film with which I was especially enamoured. The performances are good and there's a palpable sense of escalation in terms of our lead's vampiric tendencies, but so much of it is just philosophical prattling, like the filmmakers took pieces written by Sartre, Aristotle, Descartes, Marx and the likes and simply lifted quotes and placed them into the script. It felt like a film I seen a few years ago, I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, where the majority of the dialogue was just 2 people trying to see who could say the smartest thing. The images of holocaust victims feels unnecessary and even tasteless, and not a lot was done to make our lead a sympathetic character. The best element was, unsurprisingly, Christopher Walken, who could do nothing but read out of the phone book for an hour and a half and you'd never lose interest. But his appearance is just a glorified cameo, a chance to inject yet more exposition into a story where every character already explains way too much. It didn't feel too long, and I wasn't ever bored by it, but I feel the film did a disservice to itself by having its metaphors be so on the nose as to be redundant. An interesting concept, but a result that just didn't appeal to me.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

kevin c

Shot in black and white this film sees a college student played by Lili Taylor who is attacked one night and bitten by a vampire turning her. She struggles with her newfound craving for blood. I liked this. Kind of an art house take on a modern vampire movie by director Abel Ferrara. Taylor is excellent in this. Film is peppered with great actors including Christopher Walken, Edie Falco and more.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The first hour was a good antidote to umpteen other vampire movies in which they are portrayed as either mindless bloodsuckers or toothed renaissance intellectuals who cannot stand light because of its affiliation with good. B&W made a huge difference to the realism - you can imagine all you want without colour - and the acting was largely beyond compare. A scene of apparent direct conflict with god took the shine off it. Then the party scene reverted to much we bored of long ago though thankfully Dante made an entry soon after and, unusually for a vampire movie, it became more interesting. As a physicist it's reassuring to see philosophers who spout nonsense get sucked dry of the little sense they possess.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Inspired by a mind transfixed by philosophical gibberish and vampire fetish has produced this weird monochrome tedium. Walked as ever acts well, I would struggle to recommend the rest of the film.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It's a cool little indie flick that one again uses Vampirism as symbolism for addiction. It's the kind pretentious little film that you expect to show at a smokey jazz club with a bongo playing in the background while you drone on psuedo-intellectually about philosophy. That said, there are some cool ideas and visuals working in it, and it raises some interesting points of discussion.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/11/19

Full Review

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Abel Ferrara

Director

Lili Taylor

Kathleen Conklin

Christopher Walken

Peina

Annabella Sciorra

Casanova

Edie Falco

Jean

Paul Calderone

Professor

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Manohla Dargis

Spin

Bloody fun, the film is classic Ferrara -- stomach-churning, infuriating, sublime.

Dec 27, 2022

Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

No matter, without exactly transcending the awful material, Ferrara puts it across with astonishing poetry and conviction.

Oct 20, 2009

Full Review

Time Out

Scary, funny, magnificently risible, this could be the most pretentious B-movie ever -- and I mean that as a compliment.

Jun 24, 2006

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Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

One of Abel Ferrara’s interesting failures.

Rated: C-

Sep 1, 2022

Full Review

Lisa Nesselson

France24

You can look at it as an allegory for addiction...or you can enjoy the sexy and unnerving tale.

Mar 30, 2021

Full Review

C.H. Newell

Father Son Holy Gore

Ferrara looks at the deeper truths of what it is to be right or wrong. How do we live with ourselves if we choose to embrace the darker side of our nature? Better yet, can we?

Rated: 4.5/5

May 1, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

A vampiric doctoral student tries to follow the philosophy of a nocturnal comrade and control her thirst for blood.

Director: Abel Ferrara
Producer: Preston L. Holmes, Russell Simmons
Screenwriter: Nicholas St. John
Distributor: Polygram, October Films
Production Co: October Films
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 4, 1995, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 1, 2017
Runtime: 1h 22m
Sound Mix: Surround