"The Addiction"   The Addiction stars Lili Taylor as Kathleen Conklin, a NYU grad student studying philosophy. One evening Kathleen is attacked by a beautiful vampire in an alley. Kathleen then begins her journey down the road of blood addiction.   She uses philosophy to keep control of herself, and to sort out her addiction. Soon, however, she realizes that she cannot keep control and becomes like that of a junkie. The pain caused by her hunger becomes too much to bear, and she has to feed.   Christopher Walken makes a very memorable cameo as Piena, an darkly seductive elder vampire who attempts to teach the fledgling the art of self-control. Piena has learned to fast, taking only enough to survive. His lessons are lost on Kathleen, who doesn't have the strength to fight her addiction.   Kathleen fully succumbs to her bloodlust, and the film climaxes in a blood orgy with her newfound vampire kin and some unfortunate university professors and alumni.   The Addiction is filmed entirely in black and white, which adds to the despair of her addiction, and prevents the violence from becoming a gratuitous gore-fest.  I enjoyed this movie, but it does get a bit "artsy fartsy," especially since Kathleen feels it necessary to constantly quote modern philosophers in between her neck-biting episodes.

"I, Zombie - The Chronicles of Pain"   I, Zombie is another film that relates a classic movie monster to drug addiction. This 1998 British film revolves around the first person experiences of a botanist named Mark (Giles Aspen). Mark is bitten by a sick woman who he discovers in an abandoned house while out in the field.   Mark returns to London, and soon realizes that he has contracted a strange and horrible virus from the woman. He begins to feel violently ill, a feeling that can only be sated by cannibalism.   After severing all ties to everyone he knows, Mark spends all of his time trying to cure his illness. Initially, he feels that he can keep control of himself. As the weeks and months wear on however, the periods between his need to kill become increasingly shorter. His mind as well as his body gradually decay, and he loses the ability to disguise his appearance and behavior.   There are a few very unfortunate moments for poor Mark, which include a broken leg (he screws a metal plate to his bones to stick them back together), and (guys, stop reading now if you're really sensitive) pulling his penis off while masturbating to the thought of his lost love. (I warned you!)   The slow zombification of Mark is very much like that of an addict. First thinking he has control of his situation, later slowly losing touch with the world and reality, and finally lapsing into hopelessness, waiting for death to end the pain.

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