Arrow Releasing The Addiction

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Another announcement for June 2018.



NEW UK/US/CA TITLE: The Addiction (Blu-ray)

Amid the fangs and crucifixes, Abel Ferrara reunited with his King of New York star Christopher Walken for The Addiction, a distinctly personal take on creatures of the night.

Pre-order via Arrow: https://bit.ly/2pI9Gmx
Pre-order in the UK via Amazon: https://amzn.to/2uAl7Bo
US pre-order links coming soon!
Release date: 25/26 June

The mid-nineties were a fertile period for the vampire movie. Big-name stars such as Tom Cruise and Eddie Murphy flocked to genre, as did high-calibre filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, veterans Wes Craven and John Landis, independents Michael Almereyda and Jeffrey Arsenault, and up-and-comers Quentin Tarantino and Guillermo del Toro. Amid the fangs and crucifixes, Abel Ferrara reunited with his King of New York star Christopher Walken for The Addiction, a distinctly personal take on creatures of the night.

Philosophy student Kathleen (Lili Taylor, The Conjuring) is dragged into an alleyway on her way home from class by Casanova (Annabella Sciorra, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) and bitten on the neck. She quickly falls ill but realises this isn't any ordinary disease when she develops an aversion to daylight and a thirst for human blood…

Having made a big-budget foray into science fiction two years earlier with Body Snatchers, Ferrara's approach to the vampire movie is in a lower key. Shot on the streets of New York, like so many of his major works - including The Driller Killer, Ms. 45 and Bad Lieutenant - and beautifully filmed in black and white, The Addiction sees the filmmaker on his own terms and at his very best: raw, shocking, intense, intelligent, masterful.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• New restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative by Arrow Films, approved by director Abel Ferrara and director of photography Ken Kelsch
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Restored 5.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by Abel Ferrara, moderated by critic and biographer Brad Stevens
• Talking with the Vampires (2018) A new documentary about the film made by Ferrara especially for this release, featuring actors Christopher Walken and Lili Taylor, composer Joe Delia, Ken Kelsch, and Ferrara himself
• New interview with Abel Ferrara
• New interview with Brad Stevens
• Abel Ferrara Edits The Addiction, an archival piece from the time of production
• Original trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain


FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet containing new writing on the film by critic Michael Ewins

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Waiting on this new for years, about time! Such a brilliant film. Great set of extras. That footage of Ferrara editing in his apartment is sure to be one hell of a time capsule.

[Mark C. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark C.]

Very nice, big fan of this film.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Great movie. Used to have it on Laserdisc, it will be nice to see it back in the correct aspect ratio after the awful UK DVD that I currently have.

Plus it's the only time you'll ever hear Christopher Walken bragging about his ability to deficate.

[Lorne Marshall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lorne Marshall]

My favorite horror film of the 1990's.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I've never seen this. Seems like a love it or hate it deal. I typically lean pro-Abel so I'm excited to get to check it out in Arrow quality for the first time.

[Mark C. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark C.]

I wonder if they Arrow will release THE FUNERAL, which is another great Ferrara film from that same era.

[Bogart Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bogart]

I wonder why Arrow never released MS-45. Maybe they assumed (rightly so?) it would fall foul of the BBFC for sexual violence.

Regarding THE ADDICTION i watched the DVD and i think my thoughts about it were its so 90's it hurts.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

I've never seen this. Seems like a love it or hate it deal. I typically lean pro-Abel so I'm excited to get to check it out in Arrow quality for the first time.

I'm sure you'd like it, Ian. It's definitely a Marmite picture, but I think your tastes lean in its favour.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

I wonder if they Arrow will release THE FUNERAL, which is another great Ferrara film from that same era.

THE FUNERAL is one of my favourite films of all time. I adore that picture. There's a French Blu-ray which is sadly 1080i. I'd love to see it get a good Blu-ray release.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Regarding THE ADDICTION i watched the DVD and i think my thoughts about it were its so 90's it hurts.

That's one of the best things about it! It really is a product of its time, very late Saturday night IFC back when that channel actually played independent movies type of vibe. Plus with Cypress Hill and Onyx on the soundtrack, its difficult not to be transported back to the mid 90's.

I've never seen this. Seems like a love it or hate it deal. I typically lean pro-Abel so I'm excited to get to check it out in Arrow quality for the first time.

If there's one thing that might be difficult to digest on the first viewing it'd be the dialogue. For a lot of the movie it feels like you're getting beat over the head with on intricate philosophical dissertation after another which has led to many calling the movie pretentious but everything relates to the films treatment on vampirism which is wholly unique.

[Bogart Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bogart]

Cypress Hill and Onyx

Nuff said :)

[Mark C. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark C.]

THE FUNERAL is one of my favourite films of all time. I adore that picture. There's a French Blu-ray which is sadly 1080i. I'd love to see it get a good Blu-ray release.

A very tragic and overall sad film with great performances by Chris Penn and Anabella Scirorria, Another great thing about that film is the soundtrack, I really love the soundtrack! That Billie Holiday song they use is so sad :( I know these two films are kind of mixed feelings among Ferrara fans, for me along with BLACKOUT (1997) are "peak" Ferrara. As the decade progressed and early 2000's we saw lesser films from him overall.

[Mark C. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark C.]

If there's one thing that might be difficult to digest on the first viewing it'd be the dialogue. For a lot of the movie it feels like you're getting beat over the head with on intricate philosophical dissertation after another which has led to many calling the movie pretentious but everything relates to the films treatment on vampirism which is wholly unique.

That was one of the reason's I love this film so much, at the time I saw it I felt it was a very deep film, dealing with a lot of existentialism that I was totally into it when viewing it for the first time back in the late 90's.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

A very tragic and overall sad film with great performances by Chris Penn and Anabella Scirorria, Another great thing about that film is the soundtrack, I really love the soundtrack! That Billie Holiday song they use is so sad :( I know these two films are kind of mixed feelings among Ferrara fans, for me along with BLACKOUT (1997) are "peak" Ferrara. As the decade progressed and early 2000's we saw lesser films from him overall.

The Blackout is another one that's overdue for an upgrade. A real disorienting watch, that one. One of the few films that actually pulls off the feeling of being in a substance induced stupor.