By: James T. Cunningham
Habit (1995), Directed by Larry Fessenden, Written by Larry Fessenden and stars Larry Fessenden, Meredith Snaider, Aaron Beall, Patricia Coleman, Heather Woodbury, and Jesse Hartman.
“Did you bite my lip in Battery Park?”
Vampires may not appear in mirrors or direct sunlight, but nevertheless their shadows loom large over the cultural milieu. They continue to evolve over time as new fears and anxieties arise with each passing decade, but their inception can be traced back to a single event. There is no debate or speculation to be had. The modern vampire was born out of Bram Stoker’s seminal work of fiction, Dracula, in 1897. The cape, the fangs, and the dark castle on the hill were all introduced in this text.
The night, as we know it, was born.
Over time the tale of the vampire has become a game of telephone. Each time the story is retold, something changes a little bit. It becomes an urban legend, and eventually, you start to forget what the original story was like. Now, it’s actually surprising when we see a Dracula-type vampire in a modern film or book. It feels as though a subliminal itch is being scratched. Like cold water on a hot summer day.
Today, they act more as storytelling devices than children of the night. They serve as a vessel for writers and artists to weave their allegorical ideologies into a world governed by established rules. Even if you don’t like vampires or, dare I say, are afraid of them, you are privy to the laws in which they must abide. They burn in sunlight, suck the blood of humans to live, hate garlic, and hiss at the sight of crosses. Again, these rules exist in many vampires, but not in all. Think of them like tools in a toolbox. You take what you need for the job and leave the rest.
By the time Larry Fessenden sets out across Manhattan to shoot Habit in 95’ the fanged baddies have already been chewed up and spit out for nearly a century. So, what does this young, scrappy, inventive filmmaker decide to do?
Something different.
Habit brings the mythological idea of vampirism down to the street level. Or at least to the level of our lead character Sam (Fessenden), a down-and-out drunk reeling from the complicated feelings surrounding his father’s death and the dissolution of a long-term relationship simultaneously. We catch Sam at the beginning of a downward spiral. An intoxicating descent that finds him stumbling into the apartment of close friends Nick (Beall) and Rae (Coleman) for their Halloween party at the beginning of the film. Between lighting cigarettes in the kitchen and spilling beer on the floor, Sam locks eyes with a beautiful woman he doesn’t recognize. A short haired, brunette with a mesmerizing gaze. Her name is Anna (Snaider).
Sam enters a courtship with Anna for the rest of the film, but as things begin to heat up, so does the biting. At first, it was just a nibble on the lip, maybe a snack on the arm, but it wasn’t scary. It was hot. As Sam says later in the film, “It felt like warm milk running through my veins.” But every bill needs to be paid, and as Sam’s world starts to deteriorate, he comes to realize the cost of this tab is his life.
There exists a certain kind of realism in Fessenden’s vampire film that is so specific to mid-90s Manhattan. Days when dingy hip-hop vocals emanated from ghetto blasters on front stoops. When the subway fare could still be paid in tokens. Even though Giuliani had already been elected as mayor of New York City, it felt like a city untamed in 1995. Unbound by the corporate oligarchs and the shackles they would tether to legs of that statue sitting at the mouth of the Hudson River. A time when the World Trade Center still loomed large over the Southern Manhattan skyline in all its phallic glory.
Habit depicts a city in a state of evolution. Not unlike the life changes that Sam faces in the film. 30-something years old, managing a bar, drinking too much, and still searching for his purpose or place while old friends wilt and fall away. There’s an argument to be made that Habit is a film more about friendship than anything else. More than the AIDS epidemic or our quiet battles with addiction, this is a movie that examines the way friends seem to dissolve as we get older. A topic that has continued to remain an unspoken sadness not often explored. I’m speaking from experience. Habit is unafraid to tackle the subject head-on, and Fessenden is fearless as the creative lynchpin bringing the story to life.
The other overarching element that separates Habit from most other vampire films is its authenticity. Every single space feels worn and lived in because they were. The Halloween party where Sam meets Anna was the actual apartment of actors in the film. The sequence when Sam is reunited with Anna at the fair was shot without permits during New York City’s annual San Gennaro Festival. No sets, no bullshit. New York was his canvas and a 16-millimeter camera was his brush.
There is an honesty in the drinking taking place in the film as well. Subtle hints and ticks that lead the viewer to believe Fessenden had walked a mile or two in the shoes of Sam before. The way he buys coffee in the morning to reheat on the stove after an attempt to sleep off his hangover. Fessenden’s acting is exceptional, but his drunk acting is especially noteworthy. Actors tend to struggle with intoxication on screen. An actor friend of mine once said, “It’s because they are trying to act drunk, but when you are drunk, you are trying to act sober.” This push and pull is a difficult task to pull off unless you’ve had ample practice yourself.
But once the party is over and the last bottle of booze has been drunk, you look around and ask yourself, do I really know any of these people? Do I even know myself?
And after all, isn’t that our greatest fear?
Leave a Reply