The Addiction

Year: 1995 Rating: NR Overall Evaluation: 8.0 Significance Suppositions Story Style 10.0 / 10 7.0 / 10 8.0 / 10 4.0 / 10 Click HERE for evaluation criteria.

Style

This is the weakest element of the film. As far as vampire movies goes this was certainly not the best. It is a bleak film, shot in black and white, with an artsy feel that strives for a depth that it might have had if the message (which was good) was not simply spoon-fed to the audience. It takes itself too seriously in some parts yet borders on goofiness in others. Gratuitous profanity is minimal and there is no nudity that I can recall. The violence is rather comical in some scenes and other than bloody faces and necks there's not much to turn the stomach.

Story

The story is based on the addiction of vampirism. This is highlighted by the junky-like manner in which the vamps can get their blood (needle injection rather than dental). The main vampire is a college grad student doing her work in philosophy. She is concerned with the problem of mankind's evil and her professors' inability to adequately deal with it. She gets turned by a female vampire and the fun begins. As the film progresses she not only gives in more and more to her thirst, but she enjoys it more and more as she comes to realize the inadequacy of all she has been learning in school to give her a reason to stop.

Suppositions

The only suspension of belief required here is due to the existence of vampires. This is simply a feature of the genre and has little to do with a real world view message. One interesting feature is that the only people who can overcome the vampire's power are Christians (this, plus the film's redemptive message, helped get the film listed in Arts & Faith’s Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films).

Significance

The theme is what really makes the film interesting. It is not the vampirism so much as the the main character's attempt to see just what makes vampirism wrong. In a relativistic society where everyone makes their own rules no one can argue for a moral position on anything. Humanity's inherent evil will rule the day under such conditions, so the main character gives everyone what they apparently desire - evil. The point is made loud and clear: humans do not fight evil that they find attractive, and even when they see just how evil evil can be, they lack the moral strength to overcome it. "We do evil because we are evil."

The movie has a very strong redemptive theme, however . . .

[SPOILER WARNING!]

. . . as the main character finally faces her own evil, repents before God, "dies", and (apparently) rises again in an interesting final scene where her new self visits the grave of her old self.

Overall an excellent message from a potentially great storyline that is almost ruined by bad storytelling.