The Addiction [Blu-ray]

Director: Abel Ferrara Abel Ferrara

Overview

Director Abel Ferrara applies his eccentric vision to the vampire genre with this cerebral "Art" film about graduate philosophy student Kathleen Conklin (Lili Taylor), who is bitten by an aggressive female vampire (Annabella Sciorra) and soon spirals into a nightmarish world of blood addiction and existential angst. Driven by her merciless condition, she attacks several of her pretentious friends and classmates (even her professor) and mainlines their blood like heroin. Just as she becomes more bold in seeking prey on the streets of New York, she is waylaid by a potential victim -- actually a sophisticated vampire himself named Peina (Christopher Walken), who chooses to control his own blood addiction through fasting and meditation. Seeming to regain her self-control, she eventually completes her graduate thesis (helped by a bit of vampire nepotism) and holds a party to celebrate, inviting the entire faculty as well as members of her new "family" to join in the festivities. Although the parallels to heroin addiction are in plain view, this is also a study in the essential evil of humankind -- a theme evident in much of Ferrara's work.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/26/2018
UPC:	0760137133889
Original Release:	1995
Rating:	NR
Source:	Arrow Video
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:22:00
Sales rank:	17,454

Special Features

Audio commentary by Abel Ferrara, moderated by critic and biographer Brad Stevens; Talking with the Vampires, a new documentary about the film made by Ferrara especially for this release, featuring actors Christopher Walken and Lili Taylor, composer Joe Delia, Ken Kelsch and Ferrara himself; New interview with Abel Ferrara; New appreciation by Brad Stevens; Abel Ferrara Edits The Addiction, an archival piece from the time of production ; Original trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Lili Taylor	Kathleen Conklin
Christopher Walken	Peina
Annabella Sciorra	Casanova
Edie Falco	Jean
Paul Calderon	The Professor
Fredro Starr	Black
Kathryn Erbe	College Student
Michael Imperioli	Missionary
Jamel 'Redrum' Simmons	Black's Friend
Robert Castle	Priest/Narrator
Michael Fella	Cop
Louis A. Katz	Doctor,le médecin
Leroy Johnson	Homeless Victim
Fred Williams	Homeless Victim
Avron Coleman	Cellist
Lisa Casillo	Lisa
Frank 'Butch the Hat' Aquilino	Delivery Man,Delivery Man
Jay Julien	Dean
Chuck Jeffries	Bartender
Ed Conna	Waiter,Waiter
Nancy Ellen Anzalone	Dress Victim
Heather Bracken	Nurse
Susan Mitchell	Victim
Mary Ann Hannon	Victim
John Vincent McEvily	Victim
Bianca Pratt	Victim
Christina Campenella	Victim
Anthony Giangrando	Victim
Kevin Scullin	Victim
Nicholas De Cegli	Cabby
Chuck Jeffreys	Bartender
Joe Delia	Composer

Technical Credits

Nicholas St. John

Ken Kelsch

Abel Ferrara	Director
Denis Hann	Producer
Preston Holmes	Executive Producer,Executive Producer,Producer
Russell Simmons	Executive Producer,Producer
Fernando Sulichin	Producer
Nicholas St. John	Screenwriter
Meredith Jacobson	Casting
Ken Kelsch	Screenwriter
Hector Cordero	Sound Editor
Ray Karpicki	Sound Editor
Robert Larrea	Sound Mixer

Editorial Reviews

Although vampirism has been the subject of a great deal of re-examination and re-interpretation in books and comic books, motion pictures have tended to treat its vampires as minor variations on Dracula. Abel Ferrara's The Addiction is one of the rare exceptions, and it deserves credit for presenting a well-thought-out treatise on what it might mean to really be a vampire in contemporary America. Beyond this framework, Ferrara is actually exploring the problem of evil and humanity's attraction
epulsion (i.e., addiction) to it. While that is an interesting idea and admirable goal, the film presents its arguments in a fairly pretentious and sometimes irritating manner. The conventions inherent in the genre also prevent a believable exploration of these themes. In addition, the excessive goriness that is appropriate to the tale will scare off many, while most aficionados of horror movies will be bored by the between-bites philosophical debates. Lili Taylor turns in another impressive performance. She goes from victim to victimizer, innocent to monster, with convincing ease, and maintains audience sympathy almost throughout. Christopher Walken is authoritative and other-worldly, simultaneously exotic and mundane. Although the lighting is at times so dark as to actively obscure the images onscreen, most of the black-and-white photography -- alternately grungy and stark -- is stunning. It also makes the blood appear to have the color and consistency of thick black syrup, an appropriately gruesome effect. Ultimately unsuccessful, The Addiction is still a vampire movie unlike any other.