Maybe interesting if you're a philosophy student, but I just found this fairly dull. It's only 80 minutes long, but the only scene interesting to horror buffs would be the party bloodbath with 10 minutes to go. The vampire-as-junkie thing is done as literally as I've ever seen, and it doesn't really work IMO - too heavy-handed. The B&W photography is nice, and Walken's one scene is a highlight. Other than that, it tries too hard and comes off as pretentious.

As a philosophy major I obviously digged the references, but as a film fan the plot is weak. However, I felt that the many philosophical ideas brought up lacked cohesion. Definitely not a film for most people. I actually didn't mind the Christian-flavored spirituality. Some people need to give themselves over to a "higher" power aka something bigger than themselves. Otherwise, they turn into a blood-drooling rapey psychopaths.

This film reaches too high, and reeks of pretension even as its blunt allegory attempts to beat you over the head with the correlations between vampirism and drug use. It makes it very clear how clever Ferrara and St. John are, unfortunately this understanding does not come with a particularly enjoyable experience. That said, I enjoy its gritty atmosphere, and both Taylor and Walken have interesting roles that would have worked well in a less ostentatious film.

Lacks a throughline for its philosophical ideas, the genocide pictures are unnecessary and the Christian redemption questionable, but still the film gets the pulpyness just right for the most part embracing its horror parts whilst still, with its black-and-white cinematography and gritty feel, being able to pull off the whole philosophical ramblings convincingly and Lili Taylor's journey is fascinating to watch as she finds herself dragged deeper and deeper into the darkness.

Sickly simple-minded.

Look, Ferrara, nobody's blaming you. Well, nobody is blaming you "entirely". Unless you're David Foster Wallace, it's pretty hard to showcase something new about addiction/addicts. And when your entire premise consists of little more than "DRUG ADDICTS = VAMPIRES", no amount of handheld camerawork and black and white cinematography is going to rescue your film from its own banality.

this movie is horribly stupid, it's a whole bunch of pseudo-intellectual bull that only a philosophy student could come up with, fittingly the main character is a philosophy student. i really wanted to shove glass shards into my ears because the dialog made me cringe so badly. direction wise, it's not horrible, well, only a little horrible.

in love with Ferrara and St.John :P

I applaud the *idea* of a black-and-white vampire movie directed by Abel Ferrara. It just doesn't work all that well

One of Ferrara's best. Vampires, drugs and moral issues presented in b&w? Great.

This was not the Vampire Movie Revelation I was promised. Not very interesting, really.

Walken has a showy role as a veteran vampire. Characters and motivations seem murky and arbitrary throughout this rage-cloaked exercise, but you have to credit the ever offbeat Ferrara and St. John for at least having the courage of their conniptions.

Drugs, philosophy and religion explored via the medium of Vampires!

A very creepy vampire film for grad students and other aspiring intellectuals. Christopher Walken is very good, and so is Lili Taylor.