Senses of Cinema: The Addiction

Join us as we launch the new issue of Senses of Cinema alongside a special screening of the new 4K restoration of Abel Ferrara's mid-nineties vampire film.

After a brazen attack by a seductive assailant, philosophy PhD candidate Kathleen (Lili Taylor) is left bloodied and alone on a New York street at night. In the time that follows, Kathleen begins feeling a hunger for human blood, and soon her cerebral concerns take a backseat to the physical.

Perhaps drawing on his own experience with addiction, Abel Ferrara's 1995 vampire film co-opts the subgenre, refashioning it into an allegory for addiction and the dark side of human nature. Produced at the height of the AIDS crisis, the film reinterprets vampirism less as a fantastical curse and more as a disease transmitted through ambiguous consent.

Written for the screen by Nicholas St John and shot beautifully in black and white by cinematographer Ken Kelsch the film reunites Abel Ferrara with two of his regular collaborators.

The Addiction premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and soon after screened in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival.