First time I heard about Larry Fessenden’s Habit (1995) was through a glowing Roger Ebert review I remember reading. As a low budget indie with zero stars, it never received an Australian cinema release, or even a video release, or possibly I just missed out since I was in high school. There’s an indie movie quality that feels very specific to the 1990s and to capturing a New York that generally isn’t there anymore, or just feels more grungy and lived in. Particularly with Fassenden in the lead role, young and messy, with his widow peak, longish hair and missing tooth, somewhere between Keith Carradine and Jack Nicholson.
As a NYC-based riff on the vampire mythos with metaphorical gestures towards alcoholism and unsafe sex, Habit still strikes a different chord than Abel Ferrara’s similar film, The Addiction. There’s the tone where it could just be a character-based drama about a man spiralling due to drinking and making a mess of his life, but with growing paranoia over whether the girl (Meredith Snaider) he’s sleeping with is a vampire. There are coy referential moments, like when she silently reacts to a bundle of garlic hanging in his kitchen, or veering into the campy, like wolves being pacified in Central Park.
Overall, there’s a humanist, melancholic air to this fuck-up growing sicker and losing his grip, getting sweatier and more unhinged. The sex scenes are interesting in their physicality, often happening in public spaces, clandestine couplings with an emphasis on Fassenden’s grunting and the awkward contortions necessary. There’s also the music featured in Habit, a lot of Jeff Tweedy sounding indie rock folk songs, which add to the melancholy air within the narrative and ensures there’s a lingering emotional impact when all is said and done.
Rented on iTunes.
VHS Tracking 