Habit (1997)

Habit began life as writer, director and star Larry Fessenden's student film project which was released as a short film in 1982.  Fessenden expanded the script into a feature and began working on it in the mid-1990s, finishing in 1995 and self-releasing in 1997 after failing to find an actual distributor.  Despite the difficulties in getting it seen Habit fell perfectly into the indie film scene of the 1990s even if Abel Ferrara's more well-known The Addiction beat it to theaters by a couple of years.  It's too bad it got ignored at the time as Habit is the much more interesting and engaging film.

Sam (Fessenden) is an alcoholic artist dealing with the death of his father.  His girlfriend Liza (Heather Woodbury) is leaving him, and his best friends Nick (Aaron Beall) and Rae (Patricia Coleman) are having their own issues.  As things are looking their worst he meets a strange woman named Anna (Meredith Snaider) at a Halloween party and they hit it off.  Only problem, she disappears when he goes back to get his coat. 

Sam makes an effort to find her without much success, but eventually runs into her in Little Italy a few days later.  They begin a whirlwind relationship, but Sam begins to sense strange things about her.  He never sees her in the daylight, she never eats and, when they have sex, she bites him and drinks his blood.  Soon his health begins to suffer and he begins to suspect that, despite all his logic telling him the contrary, that Anna is a vampire who is slowly killing him.

Although there is a point where Nick lectures Sam about vampirism in society Fessenden doesn't try to bludgeon the viewer with any kind of subtext.  Rather he lets the story play out in its own time and way, letting the audience figure out what is going on along with Sam.  Though there is supposed to be some vagueness in whether Anna is or is not a vampire there are several scenes that are played as straight horror that, at least in my opinion, leave no doubt. 

Fessenden does an excellent job on the direction and as Sam and, in a refreshing change of pace, the acting and writing is pretty good as well.  It is a low-budget picture but Fessenden was able to use his connections with the acting and art community in New York to find people who worked well, including the memorable Meredith Snaider, who played Anna in the original short film and reprises the role here.  Her portrayal is subtle with just enough of a hint that something is horribly off with her. 

Habit is a bit longer than it needs to be but doesn't lag in the middle as badly as many shorter films.  Unlike The Addiction, or many of Abel Ferrara's films, Fessenden manages to create a connection between the audience and the lead character even if Sam is quite selfish and frustrating.  There is still the usual New York sense of alienation and nihilism, but none of Fessenden's characters become insufferable.  These all feel like real people, both in the way they talk and, in a number of scenes between Sam and Anna, a bit more realism in the clumsy lovemaking.  

I also realized how much I miss the filmmaking of the 1990s.  It had its big blockbusters, many of which were a lot of fun, but a good portion of the decade was defined by independent writer/directors who went on to various levels of success and left us with a number of interesting movies, even if some are heavily flawed or disturbing.  Habit is a great example, though it is less flawed than many, but it still reflects a time of great creativity that is sadly missing today. 

Habit (1997)

Time: 112 minutes

Starring: Larry Fessenden, Meredith Snaider, Aaron Beall, Patricia Coleman

Director: Larry Fessenden