Habit (1997)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The bad movie against which I measure all other bad movies. Nothing else ever comes close to bumping it off the worst position. The director seems overfond of shots of himself peeing. Perhaps a fetish for urination is what's required to enjoy this. What ever it takes seems to be something I'm missing. I have never walked out of a movie, but this would have been the first. I was ready to get up and leave after half an hour, but that's when I realized my companion (usually an insomniac)was sleeping peacefully. I felt obligated to finish the the movie so she could sleep, and I've never let her forget the things I'll endure for friendship!

I'll try to be very brief. I think Fessenden could have made a much better movie if he had paid a little more attention to its narrative flow. Film is not medium in which everything that happens on the screen needs to be explained to the viewer. I do think, however, that a director and screenwriter (and to a lesser extent the actors) need to be make an effort to maintain a degree of narrative coherence for the sake of maintaining a connection with the audience.When the characters Rae and Anna, for example, simply disappear from Rae's grandmother's property on Thanksgiving night their absence is tantalizing because of the sexual tension between them and the question of whether Anna is or is not a vampire. If Anna is a vampire she might have attacked and killed Rae and then, perhaps, fearing discovery returned to New York. Or, she might have returned to the house and the next morning, when everyone was awake, claimed that she had left Rae outside and returned to the house alone.What Fessenden chooses to do instead is quite odd. The following morning he lets the camera tell us that the two women are not in the house; in fact, he allows the camera to intimate that something unsettling or dreadful has probably happened. The two men, Seth and Nick, sort of stumble around the house babbling incoherently about the fact that the women had not come back to the house. Nick sort of speculates that they probably took the train back to New York. He and and Seth clean up the house and drive back to the city.At this point I decided that Fessenden was either being too coy or he had lost touch with reality. In other words, the director, screenwriter and lead actor had become confused about who was responsible for doing what. Having two main characters, one of whom might be a vampire, simply disappear into the woods on a full moon night and their boyfriends/ husbands aren't greatly alarmed the next morning is a bit of stretch. Days later both women reappear but, by then, I had stopped caring.

I evaluate the film as a successful film within the criteria of limited budget of an independent film. Making a film about vampires and aiming to make a different one at the same time is not so easy in the hegemony and co-action of Hollywood vampire films. In my point of view, Fessenden makes a great job encouraging independent film makers to force the limits of any kind of subject and scenario and showing that anything can be shot in the spirit of independence. He has a stylish photography of scenes and a normal perspective in showing NY life in a paranormal scenario in its genre. His playing integrates his full motivation in the film. Moreover the film shall not be considered as an experimental low budgeted vampire film, but a mirror of depression and suffer in man's mind.

A very good, kind of disturbing modern vampire story. Its hero is a guy on the rebound who has a circle of friends, a small inheritance, and no direction in life. He meets an alluring woman who seduces him into sado-masochistic sex addiction, and the film continues to play with the concepts essential to Vampirism and modern life. Good performances from all, particularly Fessenden (also the director) and Aaron Beall as his hypocritical friend. Chilling atmosphere on a very low budget. Some obvious writing, but well executed style pulls it off. Particularly memorable is Fessenden's desperate meat fix, where he licks the drainings out of the bottom of a supermarket meat container. Fans of vampire movies of quality should definately check this out.