Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Habit Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 13, 2015

Note: This title is currently available as part of The Larry Fessenden Collection.

You might think Larry Fessenden would be better known as a director, given the fact that entries in his filmography bear such iconic titles as Jaws, A Face in the Crowd and Chinatown . Of course Steven Spielberg, Elia Kazan and Roman Polanski might prefer to have someone pointing out the fact that Fessenden’s films with those titles are not the “famous” ones, so to speak, so there’s that. Fessenden has carved an interesting niche for himself as an indie horror meister, while also frequently appearing as an actor in not only his own films, but those by such iconic names as Martin Scorsese (Bringing Out the Dead) and Neil Jordan (The Brave One). Fessenden might seem like a somewhat odd subject for a “career retrospective” of sorts like the new four disc set from Scream Factory which assembles Fessenden’s films from a fifteen year span (give or take) bridging the 1990s to the 2000s. Fessenden may exploit an unabashedly (and unapologetically) lo-fi ambience in many of his films, but he’s also an (at times at least) unusually intelligent writer of horror. While each of these films has its own hurdles to overcome (as even Fessenden admits in his charmingly self deprecating commentaries), this set also provides an interesting example of an independent filmmaker growing and becoming more and more technically competent as his career progresses. There's at least some thematic consistency in play between these quite disparate films, including a recurrence of the traditional horror staple that Mother Nature doesn't take kindly to humans not respecting her enough.

Larry Fessenden’s kind of snaggle toothed and unkempt appearance might make him the kind of man you would shepherd your small children away from should you meet him on a city street or in a park, maybe whispering to your charges, “Don’t make eye contact with the nice man, kids.” Be that as it may, Fessenden at his most outré, which probably includes his work in Habit, doesn’t even come close to the bat guano crazy antics of Nicolas Cage in Vampire's Kiss (available in this double feature from Shout! Factory), a film which very well could have been inspired by Habit. In both films, a hero wonders if a woman to whom he’s attracted and with whom he becomes intimate might in fact be a vampire, and might in fact have “communicated” that vampirism to the hero. If Vampire’s Kiss tends to play things on the campy side, especially with regard to Cage’s completely over the top histrionics, Habit is a much more reserved, melancholic experience.

One of the salient difference between the two, aside from tone, is the fact that in Vampire’s Kiss, Nicolas Cage’s character at least seems to be able to cope with the modern day workaday world, initially if not consistently. In Habit, Fessenden’s character of Sam is pretty much a mess from the get go, a Greenwich Village vagrant of sorts who’s at least employed as a bartender, but who is psychologically out of prospects, reeling from some emotional traumas, and dependent upon steady doses of hooch to get through the day. That already gives Habit a gritty, depressive atmosphere that only makes the vampire angle kind of ironic—what self respecting blood sucker would want to contaminate themselves with Sam’s high alcohol content plasma?

Fessenden perhaps elides that slightly illogical element by exploiting a far more troubling ambiguity than Vampire’s Kiss is ever able to manage. Sam has a one night stand with a pretty if enigmatic brunette named Anna (Meredith Snaider). The sex with Anna is almost intoxicating, but Sam finds himself strangely knicked afterward and soon begins feeling weird.

While Habit finally gives in to a somewhat ridiculous seeming literalism, a lot of the film plays very smartly, with an uneasy, tenuous grasp on “reality”, as if seen through the alcoholic haze of Sam himself. The vampiric element actually turns out to be something of a McGuffin, kind of like the animal experimentation angle of No Telling (which is also included in The Larry Fessenden Collection) turned out to be. In both cases, a supposedly tangential issue becomes more dramatically compelling. Here the fact that Sam’s warped world view keeps him detached from reality turns out to be more interesting than what that actual reality is.

Habit Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Habit is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of IFC Midnight and Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. As Fessenden mentions in his informative commentary included on this Blu-ray, the film was shot in 16mm, and often in low to no light conditions on ASA 500 stock, which was then a fairly new medium. The results offer only baseline detail in scenes where, for example, Sam and Anna walk through the city at night lit only by the spill from a storefront. Blacks can tend to overwhelm both exterior shots at night and dimly lit interior scenes. Perhaps surprisingly, grain is not as heavy as seen in No Telling, but this film has occasional issues with splotchy yellow artifacts in some of the darker moments.

Habit Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Habit's lo-fi ambience means the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is only sporadically immersive, offering discrete placement of effects like ambient urban noise. There's a fair amount of force to some of the cues in a party scene, and dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly as well throughout the film. A DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track is also included as an option.

Habit Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Habit (1995) (1080i; 24:17) is another fun vintage trip down memory lane with some good behind the scenes footage and interviews.


• Music Video: Save You From Yourself (1080i; 3:40)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080i; 2:14)


• Habit (1981) (1080p; 17:42) presents the original short version of the story.


• The Making of Habit (1981) (1080p; 5:39)


• Music Video: Frankenstein Cannot Be Stopped (1080p; 7:26) also contains a contemporary Larry Fessenden introduction.


• Short Film: N is for Nexus (1080p; 4:11)


• The Making of N is for Nexus (1080p; 3:55)


• Audio Commentary with Actor/Director/Writer/Editor Larry Fessenden. Fessenden discusses this kind of gender swapped version of Dracula, with a female vampire and "Lucy" and "Mina" becoming males, while also mentioning how certain perhaps more mundane aspects of the screenplay are autobiographical.

Habit Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Habit is an unusually hypnotic film, even if Fessenden blows his ambiguity cover too easily. He's quite winning as the downtrodden Sam, and Meredith Snaider is a properly enigmatic would be vampire. The film is notable for its gritty urban atmosphere and its almost dystopian proclivities. Technical merits are generally very good and the supplementary package is very enjoyable. Recommended.