The incredible demons that addiction entails are not easy to capture in art, because there is always going to be a risk of oversimplifying something highly complex, marked by a relationship of very intense ups and downs. A recent example that is very topical that approaches it in an interesting way is ‘Never Let Me Down Again’ by Depeche Modewhich has an important presence in the first episode of ‘The Last of Us’.
Another great example has just been added to the Amazon Prime Video catalog for streaming (it can also be seen on Filmin). Is about ‘The Addiction‘ by Abel Ferrara, a fascinating reimagining of the vampire myth in the key of expressionist-influenced independent cinema. an overwhelming movie who makes wonderful use of the fantastic to talk about real and very personal problems.
hunting in the night
Lili Taylor plays a college student who is unexpectedly approached by a woman who ends up turning her into a vampire. A junkie desperate for fresh blood that quenches your intense thirst and also intensifies your sensations. It will end up in a spiral of addiction along with other underground vampire circles, in which we will also see people like Christopher Walken (a regular Ferrara collaborator).
Ferrara he dumps his own experiences as a heroin addict here for years, trying to explore the hodgepodge of sensations experienced while hooked. The high, the desperate search, the extreme decisions that are made during this period, the impossibility of escaping until a small loophole is found that supposes salvation.
‘The Addiction’ does not fall into the most sentimental tendencies of addiction cinema, although it cannot avoid the religious background when it comes to seeking escape and redemption. Here we find a rethinking of a fantastic classic made in a very urban key, using the New York night as another character charged with danger and tension to maintain a terrifying pulse expected in a vampire work.
‘The Addiction’: uncontrollable impulses
Taylor is dedicated to bring to life this complex and fascinating character with whom the director is obsessed. The film is not overloaded with plot because it is not essential in a film that seeks to study a complex sensory experience. Ferrara takes the most radical independent route, pure guerrilla and experimental cinema with a meager budget but which does not renounce a fabulous visual personality.
The black and white, the location on the streets of New York, the nightclub aesthetic. ‘The Addiction’ is full of cleverly used visual details that help make it a fascinating whirlwind. Interesting precursor of ‘problem every day‘ in showing the sexual drive that also marks the thirst for blood. Undoubtedly, one of the most unique vampire movies you will ever see.
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