Review of Habit (1997) by Eric R — 24 Feb 2012

Sam's life isnt exactly all roses. His father has died and his girlfriend has dumped him so he spends pretty much all his time hitting the bottle hard. He works part-time at a bar which helps but everything begins to change for him when he meets Anna, a mysterious girl, at a mutual friends party.

After that night he can't stop thinking about her and soon enough they begin to see each other. Only problem is that Anna could very well be a vampire. Larry Fessenden's Habit is a minimalistic vampire film that focuses heavily on character development.

The script is very well written and has a few truly memorable lines but it's how it paints this fully dimensional character in Sam which makes it truly stand out for me. As a viewer I completely bought everything Larry Fessenden does as Sam.

In subtle ways we learn about his fears and things from his past that make him the man he is. He is really an ugly human being whose down-troden attitude are both comical and kinda disgusting. The scene at dinner where he stuffs his face is a perfect example.

Of course the vampire aspects of the film are great as well. As Sam is first affected he has all sorts of strange sensory overloads which are well illustrated. There are also some truly eerie amazing dream sequences in the film when Sam begins to feel a transformation beginning and quite frankly they are quite the mind fuck.

Its a great example of what a low-budget film can be. It's creatively shot, focused and interesting.