Habit

New York restaurant owner Sam (Larry Fessenden) meets the sexy, mysterious, short haired Anna at a Halloween party and falls head over heels in lust over her. He dumps his bland girlfriend and proposes a relationship, but eventually discovers that Anna's strange, kinky behavior (like blood cravings and never eating, smoking, drinking or going out in daylight) is actually attributed to the fact that she's a vampire.

Good use is made out of various NYC locations, the unknown actors are decent, the songs are good and the script (by the director) is well written. Fessenden, who is missing a front tooth, is also a refreshingly anti-Hollywood type of leading man. He also served as editor and did the sound for this respectable, but often bland, effort, which played several film festivals, including Sundance.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good this film was despite it's serious lack of budget. The film follows the trail of an alcoholic restaurant manager, emotionally distraught over the recent death of his Hemingway-esque father and a break up with a girlfriend. He succumbs to an innocent-looking yet mysterious woman at a party and his "downward spiral" begins. There are a few flaws I saw in this movie, namely that if one is going for the "is this real or all in his head?" angle perhaps more should have been developed for the vampire girl. Was she really a vampire or wasn't she? It seems fairly obvious in some scenes that she was but it could be argued that the lead character's shaky hold on sanity made him imagine some of this. A tighter script could have helped. Good sex scenes, which one rarely finds in a horror film, and some better-than-average acting make this film really enjoyable despite some of the script's flaws.

A great vampire film full of realistic eroticism, Habit is one of the best small-scale independent films ever made. The film is stunning on many levels- narrative ambiguity (is she a vampire or not?), incredible visuals and a beautifully detailed soundtrack all combine to make a dark and mysterious film that is more interested in character than in gore.

Bar manager / lush whose life is collapsing around him thinks he may have a chance for a better life when he falls in love, but then he notices that his girlfriend likes to bite and drink blood. As the relationship grows more sexual, the more paranoid he is about her being a vampire.

Fresh take on the vampire legend offers new ideas and is well made on an ultra low budget. It has strong character development and is presented in a realistic manner. The sexual scenes in the film also make you wonder, was it real of faked?

Fessenden embodies much that is great about no-budget, maverick filmmaking. I appreciated his color palette of browns and blacks, and like Polanski's `Repulsion' he manages to place you into the heart of a character on a downward spiral while referencing back to the vampire film. The lingering question for much of the film is, simply, is he going bonkers because of emotional stress or is she a blood sucking vampire draining him dry?

Wisely, Fessenden avoids any overt references to vampirism for almost the entire film, allowing the viewer to determine what is happening. He avoids the clumsy exposition which populates so many films. In a brief moment when Sam encounters his ex at a Halloween party, they make no reference to breaking up or ever having been together; he simply asks her how her apartment hunt is going and offers to help her move, and the way theyinteract says it all. The film is filled with moments like this.

It also helps that the film is shot in such a creepy way, giving the mundane aspects of his life a jolt. The major setpieces at a masked Halloween party or at a carnival evoke mystery and dread without resorting to vampires jumping out at you.