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Habit

Habit

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Haunting Vampiress in a Sad Story
Review: I trully loved this picture. I'm a big fan of vampires, but also a big fan of movies that are well acted and this movie had both. When I saw Anna, my heart sunk in my chest I saw the power this woman had, especially over Sam. I really felt sorry for this fella, because he was trying to get over the death of his father and the breakup with his longtime girlfriend. When this vampire woman took over his life, it created even more problems for him...for his life was at stake(no pun intended...). What worse could happen to someone? Sure, he was really enjoying what he was having at the time...the attraction of Anna and the wild uninhibited sex, but he got more sick the more times he had encounters with her, until he finally put 2 and 2 together and found out that something was definitely wrong with this woman. The ending was very disturbing and had me feel really bad for Sam and very angry at Anna, for she didn't see his life to be of any importance. She thought of him as a man who wouldn't get out of his rut and she was there to put him out of his misery.

The sex was very entertaining to watch and Anna's power, her glances and her mysterious life was mesmeriing. She had the dark looks of a blood sucker and the more you saw her, the more you believed that bad things were going to happen (or good things...it's according to how you view it).

Out of the 70+ vampire movies I own, I rank this one in the Top 5. This movie was very believeable and it leaves me wondering what would've happened if the conclusion didn't end the way it did.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Haunting Vampiress in a Sad Story
Review: I trully loved this picture. I'm a big fan of vampires, but also a big fan of movies that are well acted and this movie had both. When I saw Anna, my heart sunk in my chest I saw the power this woman had, especially over Sam. I really felt sorry for this fella, because he was trying to get over the death of his father and the breakup with his longtime girlfriend. When this vampire woman took over his life, it created even more problems for him...for his life was at stake(no pun intended...). What worse could happen to someone? Sure, he was really enjoying what he was having at the time...the attraction of Anna and the wild uninhibited sex, but he got more sick the more times he had encounters with her, until he finally put 2 and 2 together and found out that something was definitely wrong with this woman. The ending was very disturbing and had me feel really bad for Sam and very angry at Anna, for she didn't see his life to be of any importance. She thought of him as a man who wouldn't get out of his rut and she was there to put him out of his misery.

The sex was very entertaining to watch and Anna's power, her glances and her mysterious life was mesmeriing. She had the dark looks of a blood sucker and the more you saw her, the more you believed that bad things were going to happen (or good things...it's according to how you view it).

Out of the 70+ vampire movies I own, I rank this one in the Top 5. This movie was very believeable and it leaves me wondering what would've happened if the conclusion didn't end the way it did.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Film!
Review: I was absolutely impressed with HABIT. If you only want gallons of gore horror flicks, or shot-on-video lesbian vampire goofiness, avoid HABIT. HABIT is a mature, intelligent, believable, and completely entertaining vampire film. The characters and the plot hook you in. You can't wait to see what happens next. The pacing is tight, never letting you get bored. This is a fantastic genre film for intelligent horror fans. Romero's MARTIN was one of the best vampire films to ever give you the "vampire in modern times" treatment. I am a big fan of that movie and I would rank HABIT right up there with it. Go rent or buy HABIT now! I highly recommend it!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Fessenden's interesting vampire film goes dead
Review: I was expecting a couple of things from this movie. For 1 I was thinking Fessenden should do something about that gap tooth and put some gel in his hair and 2, it would be creepy as hell, but it wasnt. It had some parts in it that were eery but the movie becomes boring as it goes and it only survives because of the final showdown and Fessenden's strong performance. Starring Meredith Shaider, Aaron Rell, Patricia Coleman, Jesse Hartman, Heather Woodbury and Larry's father Hart Fessenden, who in this movie plays his father, hmm, what a coinceidence. That scene where Fessenden was running in the boat naked shouldnt of been him naked, it should of been him in clothes. The dead cat was a shocker scene and that's when it starts to become good. So-so on a planetary level.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A movie that grows on you - like an addiction
Review: I watched this over the space of three or four nights. Thought it was a little slow and disjointed at first - couldn't see where it was going. Then, little by little, layer by layer, fragment by fragment, the horror and the madness began to unfold. I was - and still am - hooked. Haunting, erotic, subtle and unpredictable, Habit is a minor masterpiece that belongs right up there with the best of the modern vampire genre.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An excellent film, delightfully oppressive, have a partner.
Review: If you've ever been in a failed relationship this is a beautiful interpretation of the vampryic tale. I'm sure this movie is excellent beyond my ability to understand. Nonetheless I enjoyed it immensely

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It'll Drain You...
Review: It's strange that I should find myself, a fan of independent film and the use of the medium, someone with an interest in the subject matter of this movie, absolutely hating it. I am completely unable to understand how anyone could survive this film. There is no action...there is no ANYTHING. If it is believable, it is only due to the fact that the film moves at the same pace and feels about the same way as the most boring day of your life. Maybe I was missing something, but be aware that not everyone loved this movie...It may be a waste of your time...it was most certainly a waste of mine.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Lady IS a Vamp...Isn't She?
Review: Over the past fifteen years or so, talented indie writer and auteur Larry Fessenden has earned a reputation for creating high-quality, highly aesthetic films within the constraints of extremely meager budgets. Many of his films have been short works and have, unfortunately, gone unnoticed by the public at large, but in recent years, he has written and directed a handful of low-budget but high-quality feature-length horror films that have pushed him further and further into the limelight. HABIT is the second of these films, and it is his first work to have garnered both a high level of public attention and major critical acclaim (including a three-star "thumbs-up" from the venerable Roger Ebert).

The movie examines a small slice from the life of Sam (portrayed by the writer/director himself), a somewhat hapless part-time nightclub manager who has just split with his live-in girlfriend. At the Halloween party of some friends, a drunk and grungy Sam is inexplicably singled out by the attractive yet dark and ethereal Anna. In spite of the seeming mismatch, one thing leads to another, and Sam hastily plunges into a hot but reckless sexual relationship at the urging of this mysterious dark-haired beauty. During the next few weeks, they have sex in a park, sex on the rooftop of a New York apartment building, sex in a hospital examination room, and sex in numerous other bizarre situations and places. It isn't that Sam has a problem with copulating in risky environs; it's just that he's a bit put off by Anna's habit of biting and nipping him during the act. After every lovemaking session, Sam falls into a deep sleep, only to wake up the next morning, alone, with a new collection of bloody scrapes or bite-marks somewhere on his bod.

Sam has been feeling week and sickly as of late, though he at first attributes it to late-night work schedules and excessive drinking. But when his close friends start openly commenting on his increasingly gaunt appearance--or pointing out the freakish cuts and bites all over his arms and face--a light clicks on in his head. It suddenly dawns on him that he's never seen Anna in the daylight, he's never known her to perform common bodily functions like peeing or taking a crap, and he's never seen her eat or drink anything...that is, anything other than blood--HIS blood! As crazy as it seems, Sam can't help but ponder the possibility that Anna might be a vampire.

Once the vampirism seed in planted in Sam's own alcohol-saturated, sleep-deprived gray matter, he's unable to shake it off, even when his good friend Nick (Aaron Beall) points out the blatant absurdity of the idea. And the more obsessed Sam becomes with his belief, the more Anna reveals her true undead, bloodsucking nature. Or does she?

Fessenden is a master at subtly weaving the main themes of his stories into scenes that appear to be little more than visual records of common, everyday details. Perhaps it can be attributed to the human propensity for voyeurism, but these slice-of-life scenes are usually written and acted out with such objectivity and realism that the audience is compelled to keep watching, unaware that they are subliminally soaking up Fessenden's real message or theme. Then, when the audience is unwittingly hooked, Fessenden reels 'em in to an intensely emotional climax.

Now, even though the closing scene of HABIT is quite intense, it is still ambiguous enough to leave the movie open to interpretation. As mentioned above, the surface details of his films are starkly realistic and objective, but Fessenden nonetheless has a strong predilection for building these details around subtle and subjective themes. When a film reaches its conclusion, Fessenden wants the audience to discover for themselves--or, more accurately, to DECIDE for themselves--the underlying truth of that final scene, how that truth re-colors earlier events in the film, and what that truth ultimately means for the film's primary characters.

In one of the "making-of" featurettes on the HABIT DVD, Fessenden refers to this approach as his version of "interactive" cinema. This is a sort of cyberpunk way of saying that, like an expressionist painting or a cubist sculpture, a movie is more satisfying for the viewer if they have to do a little thinking and decide for themselves what the filmmakers are trying to say. Films that do so become more personal, more moving, and ultimately more important to the individual viewer. With HABIT, Fessenden excellently bears out this theory. The audience is allowed to decide on their own if Anna is a vampire or if Sam is just experiencing a mental breakdown. And interestingly enough, the details of the film are such that a cogent argument can be made for either interpretation, or even for a combination of the two.

The DVD from Fox Lorber/Glass Eye Pix offers a great transfer of HABIT in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The disc also contains the original theatrical trailer, several mini "making-of" featurettes, and a really cool music video for the song SAVE YOU FROM YOURSELF by Just Desserts, one of the songs featured in the film. (Larry Fessenden plays sax for Just Desserts, and he also worked on the filmmaking side of the humorous video featured on the disc.)

Indie films don't get much better than HABIT, and it will make a fantastic addition to the collection of any horror fan or film lover. And at amazon.com's excellent asking price for the DVD, it's a real steal!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Impressive independent vampire flick
Review: Sexually charged vampire flick (reminiscent of The Hunger at times) is mostly satisfying throughout. In my old age, I find it harder and harder to stay awake through an entire film while sitting on my comfy couch, but somehow this kept me awake all the way through in one sitting. Not "edge-of-your-seat" scary, and not much in the way of special effects or gore, but the storyline and characters keep you interested in what will happen next.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: ?
Review: The acting was horrible and the characters unlikable, they spent most of the time talking using big words and saying nothing, don't waste your time


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