Habit

This film is about a young man, with a sad family history consisting of suicide, parental abandonment and mental health issues, who finds a girl befriending him and taking him into a seedy world of sex parlors and cannibalism. He has to make a decision to become part of this group, who call themselves a family, or get out. The more he sees the more entrenched he becomes.

I'm not really one for cannibal horror. I did like the Hannibal Lecter series but I think it was due to how much psychology and intelligence played roles in the films. This isn't a very clever film. It relies a lot on the use of a sex parlor to draw their victims in and that just comes off kinda cheap to me. I would've prefered to have seen something a bit smarter than just the simple use of sex to catch prey. I mean, it works but it's just not very creative.

The quality of the film is not terribly bad. There were some scenes that leaned towards an artsy look. The actors seemed to be decent and the story was okay. There was some gore to it and they didn't mind rolling around in blood. So, if you are into blood covered boobs, this film has it.

All-in-all this isn't awful but it ain't great. Even though I don't care for cannibal movies, I want to be fair so I'm giving this 5 stars. If you like cannibal movies you may very well enjoy this much more than I did.

Gross, mean, with wall-to-wall brutal sex and death, 'Habit' hasn't got too much going for it above and beyond the raw meat, man.

Cutie Lee 'accidentally' runs into haunted (by his mother's suicide) Michael down the benefits office, and lures him into the racy sex industry/cannibal cult scene.

Great, right ?

Partly.

All the ingredients we slaver over are here, especially Roxanne Pallet as a cannibal hooker, but something's missing . . Lack of style, maybe? Even a guts-spilt entry like this needs style, but it just kinda rolls on flat. Perhaps Manchester is full of nookie-dens where you don't survive the encounter; folk maybe take it in their stride (Unlikely? With Burnham as Mayor? Who knows . . ?) ?

'Habit' needs a boot up the gusset, in other words.

Many will be sated by a blood-drenched Pallett (now - awesomely! - 'Carrion' !!) in her undies, dashing down fresh flesh (cough!) with her eyes blazing and her bits wobbling . . And while Rox (a smoke-show, I don't care what anyone says) now distressingly claims to have left this stuff behind her . . 'Habit' deserves at least something raising for conferring on us such a heartwarming image as her legacy.

A troubled young man living in Manchester, England, gets himself a cash in hand job working as a doorman at a seedy massage parlour (brothel) but finds himself mixed up with a cannibal sex cult. This film is a gritty, urban drama with strong horror elements of murder and cannibalism, an interesting idea but sadly it just did not really work for me. However it is well acted, has interesting characters, some very graphic gore and a fair bit of sex to make it worth watching.

As far as low budget British films go, this is a good one. It's very bloody and full of sex so if that's your kind of thing you will enjoy it. Had some decent actors in it, young and old as well as a few recognisable faces from the British soaps. It's not too long and keeps you interested long enough to enjoy it.

Its a game of three thirds well a film of three Thirds anyway.

I watched this as I from Manchester and the film is set in Manchester so it peaked my interest. Firstly it has a Film Noir kind of vibe about it but to be fair that is kind of what Manchester is like, its a bit rainy and dark and grey and full of old buildings and at night the neon shines brightly against low lit streets.

The film captures this really well so credit to the makers for that. I can't really fault anything in terms of its production etc. The acting was sound nothing outstanding, pretty solid but at times hammy.

The lighting and cinematography was again well done but nothing spectacular, Sound was again good. So overall a solid production.

The film is kind of spread over 3 thirds and I don't want to give away spoilers so will keep things as spoiler free as possible.

The first third ( we will call it the start ) serves as an introduction to the 2 main leads a young man and a girl. I found problems with this as the friendship progresses way to quickly. For me it needed more time to develop before moving to the next stage. Also the first third needed a catalyst or a mysterious element to keep you wondering where it was heading. Nothing major just something to peak the interest a little. Also one scene where a drunken fat lad shout aright darling and grabs a girl and instantly pulls her rather than get a stiletto to the head was really dumb and stupid ( I know Manchester i've seen Stilettoes to the head for much less " The good thing about the first third was that it set the tone and had some great outdoor shots of the streets of Manchester and just about ( only just ) keeps you interested for the second third ( lets call it the middle )

The second Third is when things really start to kick in, while the start was a bit slow and off pace the middle shows us where the film is heading. Now this is where they could have really gone balls to the wall and ramped it up a notch, which they did try to do but I mean come on. Get that music ramped up, add more cuts mess with the lighting etc. Get people out of their comfort zone and push it all a bit harder. The semi erotic scenes they tried to enact didn't really work as intended and I think a lot of that was just simply down to editing and lack of ambition. Still it wasn't bad just too understated.

On to the final third ( which I am going to call the Ending ) This is where there should have been the most tension and/or emotion etc. Unfortunately once again the pacing and editing were all wrong and it all just meandered along and lacked either emotion or tension. There could have however been something beautiful in there, a message, a revelation or just someone anyone giving us something to really think about. Instead it just passes by and easily forgotten.

This could have been an 8 or 9 out of 10 small budget British film with a bit more daring and ambition.

Instead we have decent start but which misses out the key elements to a start, a middle which was good but could have been brilliant and an ending that is average and misses out the key elements of an ending.

One scene really stood out that I liked and where we finally got a bit of a performance from the lead about an hour in down an ally. What we needed was more of that but in relation to the Habit !!

This was another problem, the film is called habit and uses a plot element to depict a habit yet this was poorly explored and hardly touched upon when it should have been the entire focus. The opportunity for a metaphoric meaning within this was sorely missed.

I give it a 6/10 as a lot of it is faultless apart from the way it all game together in the end. A wasted opportunity in my eyes but still worth a watch as it has many very good elements to it.