The Addiction (1995)
Kathleen Conklin, a doctoral student in philosophy, finds herself with a new perspective on the nature of evil and humanity after being bitten by a vampire in New York City. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Abel Ferrara
Written By: Nicholas St. John
Starring: Christopher Walken, Lili Taylor, Michael Imperioli, Annabella Sciorra, Paul Calderon, Edie Falco, Kathryn Erbe, Fredro Starr
Country: USA
Stream it now
Powered by 
Loading...
The Addiction belongs to 27 collections
1. Features under 91 minutes (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 56 stars)
2. Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time (public: Ross - 36 stars)
3. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 31 stars)
4. Post-1960s black & white photography (collaborative: moderated by djross - 21 stars)
5. Vampire (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 13 stars)
6. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)
7. New York (collaborative: moderated by djross - 10 stars)
8. Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films (collaborative - 10 stars)
9. Arthouse Horror (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 7 stars)
10. Slant Magazine's 100 Greatest Horror Films of All Time (collaborative: moderated by edsu - 5 stars)
11. Capsules, guest reviews, list candidates... (366weirdmovies) (collaborative: moderated by sesito71 - 5 stars)
12. Slant Magazine's 100 Best Movies of the 1990s (collaborative: moderated by edsu - 3 stars)
13. High contrast black and white cinematography (collaborative: moderated by juandr - 2 stars)
14. Sight and Sound 2002 (Single Vote) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 1 star)
15. aflickering searches for new capital F favorites (collaborative: moderated by AFlickering - 1 star)
16. Cinetheque (public: allegreller - 1 star)
17. Movies to See: Horror/Suspense (public: Lady Moe - 1 star)
18. Ultra-high contrast black and white (collaborative: moderated by juandr)
19. October Films (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed)
20. Abel Ferrara/Christopher Walken collaboration (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed)
21. 1995: Year in Review (public: polanski28)
22. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 25 (public: PeaceAnarchy)
23. Lucbapt (public: lucbapt)
24. Forrest Watch List (public: ForrestQ)
25. Films seen in Halloween 2016 (from 23rd) (public: tipar)
26. Cahiers du Cinéma - 70 films -70 ans (public: Thegoodboy)
27. My ratings (public: tpbradbury)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 4 |  |
terrymac | 67 50th |
|
I liked a lot of this; a lot, I didn't like. Really enjoyed some of the ideas, the b&w camerawork, (some of) the music. Some dialogue was a bit painful (perhaps it just went over my head?), and I really didn't think the pictures of genocide added anything. Taylor was very watchable - there was a lot to enjoy about her performance. Walken's cameo brought some levity, sort of, and a few scenes really worked. It ultimately felt a bit "film school", but I'd be tempted to go back for another look.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 35 2nd |
|
Dull and blunt. I like philosophy but this is just droning on and on with no direction and the allegory aspect is not only absurdly overt, it's also really badly done.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
amerigo | 62 10th |
|
I can't tell if this is laughably bad accidentally or if it's a brilliant satire of megalomaniacal philosophy grad students. Either way, the lead's acting is atrocious. Fortunately, halfway through, Walken briefly shows up for a delightful tete-a-tete. But ultimately, being well-read doesn't mean your philosophy-laden arthouse film is going to be worth two shits. Nor does shamelessly exploiting footage of mass graves lend your film any gravitas. The silver lining is the outstanding soundtrack.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
Icarus | 85 79th |
|
While lacking in subtlety, the film boldly wrestles with the human condition, grappling with the way addiction among the fringes of society actually speaks to a universal reality in all people. Couched in philosophical and theological terms, the story carries with it the notion that the only escape from such a problem is one that we cannot attain for ourselves. The grit and grime of mid-90s NYC give the film a tangible quality that helps to balance the philosophical monologues.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
KMcNeil | 9 94th |
|
One of Ferrara's best. Vampires, drugs and moral issues presented in b&w? Great.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
BillyShears | 80 77th |
|
I'm not like you, you're nothing. Another great Abel addiction movie. Oh no it's not about a drug metaphor or aids or whatever it's an addiction to philosophy majors piling on holocaust footage to get quick easy this is deep and provocative gimme that easy A. The holocaust and other war crime footage totally undercuts the vampire addiction horror and it's a shame as the vampire stuff here is terrific but that other thing is horror.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
JakeAesthete | 94 94th |
|
Grad school sucks (literally).
|
|||
| 2 |  |
moraesfelipe | 91 96th |
|
Who better than Ferrara, auteur of characters who don't choose -- they just live --, to depict our nature in tiny bedrooms? Drug addiction as a tool of self-discovery is wide spread here, but Lili Taylot's both intellectual and physical performance connects today's urban fever to more intimate desires -- for something more we are unable to name, something you may call evil or good. As images of past wars and slaughters slide, Kathleen lives what she's studied for her whole life -- nothingness.
|
|||
| 2 | moviesinhell | 63 21st |
|
|
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.
|
|||
| 2 |  |
eCitizen | 40 32nd |
|
Even though I am a big fan of Lili Taylor, this movie is full of nonsense philosophy and preachy nihilism. I also disliked most of the wretched rap music. It was sometimes an amusing twist on a vampire theme, but the pacing was awful and the story got pretty tedious by the end. There are only a few good scenes. Very poor handling of her disciples. It was a nice addition to have Christopher Walken, but he was totally underutilized. B&W production also subtracts heavily from the viewing enjoyment.
|
|||
| 2 | Nepeta | 70 44th |
|
|
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.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
Luna6ix | 50 8th |
|
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.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
inhmn | 99 92nd |
|
in love with Ferrara and St.John :P
|
|||
| 1 |  |
gsb | 70 43rd |
|
As a philosophy major I obviously digged the references, but as a film fan the plot is weak. 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.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
Frosty | 55 33rd |
|
Drugs, philosophy and religion explored via the medium of Vampires!
|
|||
| 1 |  |
FancyMike | 5 90th |
|
I'm having a hard time really knowing what to say about this one other than I'll definitely need to revisit it soon. Apparently a philosophical and talky vampire film from mid-90s Ferrara is exactly my shit. Visually impressive, and definitely horrifying. Christopher Walken only needs one scene to nearly steal a movie. The most obvious metaphor is in the title but it's not really about drugs. We are not evil because we do evil things, we do evil because that is what we are
|
|||
| 1 |  |
glumpy_99 | 80 60th |
|
Low key, stark but quite effective vampire film has a nice, droll sense of humour to further distinguish it, along with a compelling, at times frightening lead performance from Taylor. Quite bizarre in the extreme at times -- and this even before Walken shows up!
|
|||
| 1 |  |
afx237vi | 35 17th |
|
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.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
deep_green | 80 86th |
|
The script has difficulty grappling with its philosophy, but, fuck me, there's no shortage of totally awesome.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
Yiannos | 73 77th |
|
(Viewed on 25/10/13): A little pretentious at times, and it's hard to figure out whether Abel/St.John are making fun of philosophical discourse and the people that take it seriously--the dissertation scene is painful in terms of how it's written--yet it is effective as a creepy, subversive, one-of-a-kind genre film that is different from anything else Ferrara has done but still belongs to his thematic universe. Christopher Walken's cameo is priceless too.
|
|||
| 1 | Zipster | 65 8th |
|
|
OK, Ferrara. I've given you plenty of chances, and all you seem to be able to do is give me a lot of dark atmosphere and heavy-handed, transparent and pretentious storytelling. Plenty of great actors like to work for you, and I like seeing them. But when are you going to make a movie that's more than derivative artifice? Even here, the admirably ambitious allegory wears thin fast, not that it even works on an accessible level to begin with.
|
|||
| 1 | Lonewolf2003 | 78 69th |
|
|
Through the guerilla filmmaking method it gives an interesting view on live in the backstreets in NY in the early 90s. The comparison with vampirism with addiction is original and interesting. Lily Talyor greatly conveys the difference stages of confidence of her character. But all the pseudo-intellectual philosophizing drags this down and make it much more pretentious than it should have to be.
|
|||
| Average Percentile 53.67% from 449 Ratings |  |