Habit (1995): Grim Addiction Horror and Creep Fest [Review]

Habit premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1995, later receiving a limited theatrical release in 1997. This independent horror film, written and directed by Larry Fessenden, is an allegory of how addiction (and self-destruction) takes hold of a person, using the framework of vampirism. With one week until Valentine’s Day, it makes for an unconventional seasonal watch: a story centred on a relationship between a troubled man and a woman who may—or may not—be a vampire. Rather than romance, Habit offers intimacy as something corrosive. It presents a one-sided relationship that is unstable and difficult to escape. Though...