The other night I found myself jonesing for some ABEL FERRARA. He does that thing where he makes movies about stuff he's actually interested in rather than crap that panders to lame-o's. I love when people do that. It reminds me of art! Our pal has plenty of masterpieces under his belt. DRILLER KILLER, MS. 45, KING OF NEW YORK…aces all. But do you know the movie of his I hold closest to my heart? Why it's THE ADDICTION.
You should not be surprised by that because it stars LILI TAYLOR, is shot in black and white and is so morose it makes Eeyore look like RICHARD SIMMONS. It's my favorite vampire flick besides THE HUNGER. Lots of folks tell me it's an allegory for drug addiction but I think that's only one casket at this mass funeral. FERRARA gets all up into humanity's addiction to evil and he's not afraid to point an accusing finger at the victims who stand back and allow or even invite evil to occur. I can understand this movie not being for everyone, it goes a little overboard with the quoting of philosophers and there are a few scenes that are truly barking mad. I don't care though, because that's what gives this strange movie is singular personality. In any case you have to witness CHRISTOPHER WALKEN's delivery of the line, "You know nothing!" and the bit where TAYLOR, confronted by an image of Christ on a pamphlet, goes mega beserker equating goodness with slavery ripping off her clothes and screaming, "I will not submit!" Plus it's chock full of New York night life and mid-nineties rap. Who isn't craving some "I Wanna Get High" from CYPRUS HILL? You're lying. Watch THE ADDICTION below, it's regrettably not on DVD at least not in these parts.
Aaaaaah! Thank you so much for posting this! I was just recently remembering how good The Addiction is (having seen it only once when it was still brand-spanking new), but when I went to look for it, I discovered just what you mentioned – no trace of it on DVD, or anywhere else for that matter. I even looked for it on Youtube; that must have been around 6 months ago, since I see the video was posted in late December. My timing stinks.
I can't say I'm in the right mood for watching The Addiction today since it's been a bad week and you're right, parts of the movie are pretty heavy; but I know I really enjoyed it the first time around, and I'll probably enjoy it even more the second, so I'm bumping it to the top of my list.
Viva Lili Taylor and Christopher Walken! And thanks again for another great review, Unk!
Thank YOU Karswell!
Btw- I noticed Ferrara's FEAR CITY is on Youtube too! I may be watching this tonight. The soundtrack is too awesome.
I enjoyed The Addiction when it first hit the theaters back in the 90s. It's one of the three East Village vampire films that I think is underrated. Nadja being another one but a bit on the surreal side. I forget the name of the third.
The East Village vampire sub-genre definitely needs more development. Thanks for the memories, unk.