"Actually, I'm committing suicide on the installment plan."
Larry Fessenden's masterpiece. A raw, unforgiving depiction of loneliness, psychosis, and dependency shot through the guise of a vampire film. Now, IMDB happens to describe writer/director/star Fessenden's enigmatic and possibly dangerous lover Anna as a succubus, which wouldn't be inaccurate, but there's a scene late in the film where two men are arguing and you're practically yelling at the screen as they dance around the 'V' word. It's finally uttered and you get the sense Larry's just been toying with his audience.
This is the kind of New York indie for which the word 'gritty' was invented. It almost feels superfluous and predictable to describe it as such, yet the footage, shot in a surprising 1:33:1 ratio and often featuring real New Yorkers going about their days and nights, feels miraculous and bursting at the seams with life. Cinematographer Frank DeMarco described "stealing shots" as "New York City moments would unexpectedly cross through the plane of our fiction." Fascinating that Abel Ferrara's similarly-themed but more straightforward The Addiction was released the same year.
There are a few mannered performances from the supporting cast and it's debatable whether co-star Meredith Staider's understated, kitten-ish work is either too subtle or the calculated facade of a savage predator, but the intense, psychological drama and enervating ambiguity at play make for one of the strongest entries in the vampire genre.
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