Habit

Rating:
Summary: Haunting and Mesmerizing
Review: This is a film for people with a high degree of imagination and intelligence. The story is not necessarily what it seems, or perhaps it is, it's for the viewer to interpret. Sam may indeed be the prey of the mysterious and beautiful vampire, Anna; or he may be imagining more than there is due to his own draining excesses of despair, loss, isolation, and alcoholism. This is what makes the film so interesting. If you want a cut and dry, highly special effect-laden vampire flick, this is likely not for you. For those that like their mind challenged, see it.

Filmed on a relatively low budget (and based on an earlier video work) Larry Fessenden has achieved a more engrossing film than I've seen on the big budget screen (as an example, while "The Hulk" was a nice exercise in special fx, it bored me in comparison to "Habit"). Habit's history is nicely chronicled in the bonus features on the DVD.

Meredith Snaider is wonderful as the mysterious Anna. She remains a mystery in life. All we know about her in the bios included in the disc is that this is her only film; there is no background info on her at all; I did, however, learn that she became a social worker in real life after this film. I hope she is aware that her talent is truly appreciated in her one screen appearance.

Amaze your friends, invite them for a showing of a truly innovative and often disturbing film. Let the independant fimmakers show how they pioneer the art, especially Larry Fessenden. See "Habit."

Rating:
Summary: Finally a smart & frightening vampire movie
Review: This is one of my favorite movies in recent years. Habit is a powerful movie on many levels, and one of the few horror movies with some real life horrors. Scary without being cheesy or cliched. It also manages to capture an element New York City life lost or badly fabricated in most other films shot in Manhattan.

Rating:
Summary: Whoa - hooked me in immediately.
Review: This is probably one of the best relationship movies I've ever seen. A couple falls in love, it's intense, but she's hurting him. Is it on purpose? Is she a vampire? The vampire metaphor makes for an amazing comparison to modern realtionships. In the beginning of an intense relationship, real issues of trust and paranoia can arise. How vulnerable do you want to make yourself to this new person? This movie captures those feelings and so much more in an exciting, fresh way.

Rating:
Summary: A haunting, entertaining surprise
Review: This movie really got me with its strikingly original story and performances. Fessenden manages to make a genuinely convincing and terrifying vampire movie while working in other themes like fear of intimacy, alcoholism, grief, and friendship without ever getting heavy-handed with any of them. And he does a better job here than any director I can remember at blurring the line between truth and illusion in a character's mind.

Rating:
Summary: Graphically enchanting
Review: this, with THE ADDICTION second, is the best vampire movie ever made. larry fessenden is excellent as actor/director. very unsettling

Rating:
Summary: Even better than the real thing.
Review: Though not for most, this was an exceptional piece of work. Most vampire films have bad characterization and the gross sensuality of romance novels shot through gauze and sepia filters. This story was more tangled and raw. Outside of the predator-prey aspect, both the main characters were isolated, damned and hungered for escape through another. In fact it seems that this story characterized the vampiric relationship with their prey as the least like the quest for a snack. The film presented a very believable and desperate random collision between these two with the course of their contact having a sexual energy and charmed hunger that made far more sense in a modern context than any hyper-stylized neo-victorian impotence ever could.

Rating:
Summary: I mean this is FRESH
Review: Well, it's been about five years since I've seen Habit but it's always stuck with me. I plan to buy the DVD and was a liitle put put back by some of the reviews that went so, so deep into the plot. Reviews should be about what the film did to you not what the film was about. At least not specifically and not in great detail, at least not without first warning the reader.

Well what I got from the flick was something new as far as experiences. I'm looking at this guy who's hair is falling out right in front of me and is he???yeah he's missing some teeth.
Is this our HERO, is this our protagonist? Some said the acting was bad. I don't know but what I saw was the complete absence of acting. I mean, man, this was FRESH ! ! I thought I was watching a real party in action. I was floored to find out that Larry was the everything to this little gem, writer, director, star and who knows what else.

Now, I am a big fan of horror movies but I've never been much of a fan of vampire movies. I didn't like Bela or Christopher or even The Addiction, which was heavily touted. I find most of them to be really cornball. The few exceptions are of course Murnau's Nosferatu and few others but for me not much exist in the genre between 1922 and 1997.

A bunch of people mention(even the good reviews) that it's slow but I don't remember that. I think maybe my memory is not serving me right or it was just that I found the whole thing so engrossing, time had no relevance(a real good indication of good filmmaking).

The best I can do to explain it is Little Fugitive meets Shadow of the Vampire. Somewhere in between that you'll find this most indie of Indie films, Habit. If you liked Slacker or Smithereens or Shadows or Kenneth Angers' films or Laws of Gravity or Repo Man or even Return to Salem's Lot, you might find this very satisfying. This is a real good answer to what "slick" really is when compared to, let's say, Jerry Bruckhiemer sense of "slick" which is really only "gloss". Well, I hope memory served me well enough to be seeing the gem I vaguely remember and I hope I don't let you down if I spurred your curiousity enough to watch this very different experience. If I remember correctly, it's well worth the time. All 112 mins.

(Addendum)
I got it and memory serve me very well but I did forget how much sex(for my money, really good)there is in this hot little movie that puts to shame so many productions costing ten or even a hundred times as much. As much as I like Innocent Blood and Devil's Advocate, this is a much better movie on a small fraction of the budget. This ain't cornball. Also, it's got REAL good music.

Rating:
Summary: About HABIT.
Review: While I absolutely agree that this is a good and intelligent film (and a good transfer to DVD), I have to warn those who long for at least some escapism in a vampire flick: there is none! The story is as believable as cinema verité, and I'm afraid not frightening at all, notwithstanding the ending which starts to move quite nicely after the first hour of dragging action, ugly surroundings, and boring people, for whom a spectator like me is absolutely incapable of feeling sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Well Crafted Character Study
Review: Writer/Director/Actor Larry Fessenden has created a minor masterpiece in this compelling movie. Although this film deals with vampires and is classified as horror, its objective is to do far more than merely frighten and titilate. Rich in well-crafted characters and vibrant dialog, the hapless denizens of Fessenden's world are utterly believable, their relaitionships and conversations completely convincing. It is a testimony to both the writing and the acting that the ultimately catastophic nature of the character's flaws is done with such tenderness, humor and compassion. Fessenden loves his rouges, his demi-monde, and can portray their minor heroism with great humanity. This film does what horror was meant to do -- it makes the protagonist, not the monster, the center of the story and allows his faults and talents to determine his fate. Fessenden uses the camera deftly, employing clever angles, intimate positioning and wondeful visuals. The film does suffer somewhat from a low-budget video quality but based on the significant attributes of this work, Fessenden will, I'm sure, secure a higher budget with future projects. He deserves it.