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From the deranged mind that brought you Bad Lieutenant, Ms. 45 and King of New York comes a horror tale involving drug addicts, graduate students and vampires.

Not particularly scary or even bulging with production value, the film is still great fun for any fan of the vampire sub genre.

The story plays out as a cautionary yarn warning the audience of the perils of drug abuse(?). A University of New York (not N.Y.U.) graduate student (Lily Taylor) falls prey to a sexy blood sucker (Annabella Sciora) on the dark streets of Manhattan. The experience leaves Taylor in the depths of a horrible addiction; an addiction to human blood.

Unlike many films that portray modern vampirism, St. John’s script adds a bit of a twist in that he uses an unconventional means of blood consumption.

Shot on grainy 35mm black and white, Ferrara’s New York is at once gritty and beautiful. The contrast of dark to light serves the story well.

As in most of Ferrara’s films, we have a character or characters that are searching for redemption. Despite Taylor’s character’s need for human flesh, she fights the urge and tries to pose as a normal human being. Enter Walken. Although his appearance is just a cameo, he shines in one of his creepiest roles playing devil’s advocate to Taylor.

Rounding out the ensemble cast we have Fredro Starr as a street hood, Paul Calderon as Taylor’s professor and Edie Falco as Taylor’s friend and classmate. There’s even a cameo by Michael Imperioli as a Christian crusader.

Running at a mere 82 minutes, the film feels slim. What it needs, I’m not sure. But one thing that I’m sure of is that upon finishing the film I thought to myself, why didn’t I think of that?