HABIT (2021)
Label: LionsgateRegion Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 81 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English, French and Spanish Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Janell Shirtcliff
Cast: Bella Thorne, Libby Mintz, Gavin Rossdale, Hana Lee
This trashy slice of contemporary nunsploitation starts of with a young girl living in Texas who is a big fan of God and Jesus, talking to them on the reg. Then we flash forward a few years later and that sweet young Jesus-freak has turned into sexy party girl named Mads (Bella Thorne, The Babysitter) living in Los Angeles. In need of cash Mads gets a gig running drugs for a former actor turned drug peddler named Eric (played by rock Gavin Rossdale of 90's band Bush, Constantine). Things seem to be looking up for Mads with a steady supply of drugs and cash, but when she and her roommates Evie (Libby Mintz) and Addy (Andreja Pejic, The Girl in the Spider's Web) host drug party her 20K drug cash-stash goes missing. When Mads breaks the news to Eric she tries to be casual about it and play it off cool but Eric freaks out, and with good reason. Later when psychotic drug queen-pin Queenie (Josie Ho, Dream Home) and her quirky henchman Tuff (James Hince, of garage rockers The KIlls) visit Eric looking for their cash they're quite disappointed that it's gone missing, so they torture and kill him.
Realizing that they're next on Queenie's kill-list Mads and her roomies pulls a Sister Act and repurpose their sexy nun costumes from the party the night and luck into finding refuge in a mansion owned by a nun-friendly, blind millionaire named Sunny (Ione Skye, Say Anything). There they do a poor job of laying low, Mads seduces a model-gorgeous young priest (Aarón Díaz) and embark on drug-fueled escapades with her roomies until Queenie and Tuff finally catch up to them.
Habit is a fun time if not necessarily a great film, it's wildly uneven but I kind dig that about it. It's super trashy and has an drug-fueled energy to it that I find entertaining. It's also quite stylish and attractively lensed with colorful neon-pastel color scheme and I like the trippy visuals during the myriad of drug binges. Now the drug-fueled plot doesn't have much of any depth to it, but c'mon man, I just shotgunned two Jess Franco films this afternoon and loved them both - you think I care about plot? Threadbare though it may be it's dressed up with some fun character touches and some life-in-L.A. narration from Bella Thorne, that along with mélange of the seedy characters, drug-culture, and black humor filled dialogue does have a certain Tarantino-lite vibe about it.
Audio/Video: Habit (2021) arrives on Blu-ray from Lionsgate in 1080p HD framed in a screen-filling 1.78:1 widescreen. It looks aesthetically pleasing on Blu-ray, the image has a lot of garish lighting techniques and filtering that add a soft pastel surreal quality to the proceedings, I dig it. I believe this is a digital shot film and it looks very good, clarity and depth was and wane with the amount of filtering and color-grading being applied to it, but it's colorful and reasonably sharp looking flick on Blu-ray.
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles. Dialogue always sounds clean and precise with a surround mix that offers nice atmospherics that throw you right into the madness. The score from Paige Stark and Luke Paquin also sounds great as do needle drops from Duran Duran, Gavin Rossdale and Billy Idol.
The only extras is a 2-minute trailer for the film and an HD digital copy of the film. The single disc release arrives in an eco-friendly keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. We also get a slipcover with the same artwork with some metallic and raised features.
Special Features:
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- HD Digital Copy
Habit won't be a movie for all tastes, but for a first-time director it was stylish, trashy good fun with sexy nuns - and do not get a lot of nunsploitation these days; let alone a drug-fueled candy-colored romp like this one. Not a horror film, and not particaurly violent, but a fun, unapologetically sacrilegious popcorn muncher that I would recommend if you're a fan of weird L.A. stories like Netflix's Brand New Cherry Flavor or Under The Silver Lake.
Screenshots from the Blu-ray:
Extras:
