The Addiction [LAST SCREENING]


In collaboration with Panorama-Cinéma as part of our October cycle “Halloween at the Modern”

Restoration courtesy of Arrow Films and the American Genre Film Archive.

Genre cinema was fertile ground for Abel Ferrara in the 90s. In addition to tackling the sci-fi remake with Body Snatchers and the gangster movie with King of New York and The Funeral, the filmmaker made The Addiction in 1995, a daring and deeply dark work that dared to reinvent the vampire movie in an urban New York setting. Kathleen (Lili Taylor), a philosophy student, develops an uncontrollable bloodlust after a violent encounter with a stranger (Annabella Sciorra) who leaves her with a bite to her neck and a whole new worldview. Filmed in superb black and white in the streets of New York with a raw energy that evokes his earlier masterworks, The Driller Killer and Ms. 45, The Addiction offers us a unique blend of macabre pleasures and intellectual provocations.

* Competition – Berlinale 1995