THE ADDICTION
A film review by Chuck Dowling
Copyright 1996 Chuck Dowling
(1995) NO STARS - C:Lily Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Paul Calderon.
Abel Ferrera, director of such mediocre films as "Bad Lieutenant" and "Body Snatchers", and of such awful films as "The Gladiator" and "Dangerous Game", adds another to his awful list. Basically, "The Addiction" is just another low budget vampire flick, although the term "vampire" is never used in the film. It tries to be some sort of psuedo-intellectual metaphor for drug addiction and even man's evilness upon his fellow man.
Taylor plays a college student who is attacked one night in a dark alley by vampire Sciorra. Sciorra bites her, and then for the next twenty minutes Taylor basically just gets sick and throws up blood all the time. Pleasant. Then Taylor starts to get "hungry" so she goes out into the city to get a "fix". At first, she apparently can't bring herself to actually bite anyone, so she brings along hypodermic needles and withdraws blood from homeless people. She then proceeds home and injects herself with the blood. All of which we get to watch. Boy o boy, at this point we've got vomit and needles, my eyes are GLUED to the screen. I wonder what other disgusting and unpleasant things we'll get to see.
Taylor soon gets the hang of biting people, so thankfully, no more needles. She meets up with Christopher Walken, who plays a sort of mentor vampire who has been around much longer than Taylor has. In his brief appearence he spouts out dialog about literature and about man's inhumanity throughout history. Then he leaves, and the carnage (and unpleasantness) continues.
The only new thing that "The Addiction" tells us about vampires is that if a vampire approaches you on the streets, he or she will give you the option of whether or not you want your life saved. The vampire wants you to tell it to "go away" with strength and confidence, like you really mean it, instead of just begging and pleading for your life like a little baby. Yes, that's right, I kid you not. In conclusion, the whole film is boring and unpleasant, two things that never add up to a good movie. The film is in black and white if anyone is interested.
Have A Question Or Comment? Email Me At chuckd21@southeast.net
-- Chuck Dowling
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