Cravings (I) (2006) User Reviews

Note: the !'s indicate something stupid. SPOILERS

[anxietyresister · 2/10 · 7 December 2009]

The clue should have been the rows and rows of preowned copies at Cash Converters. Nobody wanted them so they had to be reduced from £5.00 to £2.50 within weeks. However, the front cover looked alluring with sexy Jaime Winstone and Donkey Punch was an enjoyable film, so how far wrong could I be? The answer is: VERY.

Let's start with the main character, a doctor. This bloke is a complete idiot. His wife commits suicide in a bath, but after her death she constantly comes back as a spirit to warn him of danger by turning the taps on and letting the place flood(!) He knows this as he is told by a psychic plumber (!!) but chooses to ignore the advice. He then finds himself treating a teenager who likes to suck her blood and other people's (!!!) later on having an affair with her mother(!!!!).

Wait you haven't heard the best part. After he finds out she's a psychopath and nearly beyond help, he LET'S HER INTO HIS HOME FOR THE NIGHT (!!!!!) where he drinks a Valium filled cup of tea she makes for him (!!!!!!) this allows her free access to all of his drug paraphernalia, and while left alone the next day, she chucks his dog in the blender (!!!!!!!) and has a nice doggy blood shake (!!!!!!!!) All while this is going on, he NEVER thinks to contact the police, social services, the loony bin etc. Instead, he keeps sleeping with Mummy, popping his anti-depressants and behaving like a complete moron. This guys elicits NO sympathy from me whatsoever, which makes it impossible to care about his inevitable fate.

Oh yes, the ending *MAJOR SPOILERS* Now normally I don't go into a lot of detail about the conclusion to films, but in this case I'll make an exception. Basically, the psychiatrist dude has been suspended from his job for being a 100% tw*t and no-one believes his stories about canine goulash or Ms psychos friends being cut so she can have her precious haemoglobin. Why they think he's lying when there's so much evidence is beyond the pale, but AANNYYWAY...

He's finally doing the right thing (being too stupid to live) and killing himself with an overdose in the bath. But just before he meets the Grim Reaper, guess who happens along to 'save' him? That's right, lil miss Vampire. Not because she likes the guy you understand, she just wants to sample some of his red nectar.Her feeding is interrupted by an estate agent who is trying to flog the doctor's property.. She promptly murders him. Then, her mother shows up.

Now, this is the 'interesting' bit. The twist is, in a completely radical character shift, rather than dispose of her disgusting offspring, mummy actually helps carry the poor guy back to her flat (!!!!!!!!!) there, they plan to keep him alive but in a very weakened state (!!!!!!!!!!) so that Dracularette can feast on him whenever she feels like it. (!!!!!!!!!!!) Of course, everyone suspects him of the murder the estate agent so even if he did escape he'd face justice (!!!!!!!!!!!!) and BLAH BLAH BLAH enough. *END SPOILERS*

I think back to that great picture of Jaime Winstone on the front cover. Aside from the fact she is an absolutely awful actress in this, I can see why they put her on the front, despite only being third billed. She's very attractive, even when dressed up as a chav as she is for the majority of the film. Shame everything else sucks even more than she does in the role. If I was really public spirited, I would walk into Cash Converters Northampton now, buy every spare copy of this and use them as lighter fuel. But I never was the community caring type.. :) 2/10

Sinister, Original and Underrated

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 12 May 2018]

The psychiatrist Stephen (Richard Harrington) has just returned to his work in a hospital after his wife and former patient committed suicide in the bathtub of their apartment. His mother is in the hospital with a serious illness and Stephen is vulnerable and dependable on drugs and is trying to sell his apartment. The director and his friend Eisner (Mark Lewis Jones) offers more days of medical leave to Stephen but he refuses. He is assigned to treat Nina (Jaime Winstone), a teenager that self-inflicts cuts on her body and her mother Liz (Louise Delamere) does not help, giving no information about her daughter. Stephen gets involved with Nina´s problem and learns that she might have Reinfield syndrome. What will Stephen do?

"Daddy's Girl" is a sinister, original and underrated vampire film. The plot is very well developed, making the story believable, and the surprising conclusion is absolutely non-commercial. This film is for adults that look forward to original movies and it is easy to understand the apparently silly attitudes of Stephen. He is absolutely vulnerable with the losses of his wife and mother; wants to help his patients; is needy and is easily seduced by Liz; cannot call the police since he was unethical and with the investigation, he would lose his job and his license. It is funny and ridiculous to read that he has a psychic plumber and prefers to ignore his advices. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Sede de Sangue" ("Thirsty for Blood")

A fascinating, and shocking, study of illness and medical ethics!

[pranakhan · 8/10 · 8 August 2009]

This movie was a pleasant surprise for me! If you are debating about watching this film because you think it its a "vampire" movie (due to inaccurate reviews/synopses in many locations) i am happy to tell you this movie has nothing to do with the vampires and only minimally dabbles in issues related to the supernatural.

Cravings (Daddy's Girl in UK) is actually a well written, acted, and cerebral thriller about a psychiatrist trying to help a mysterious teenage girl he believes may be suicidal. However, this doctor has some emotional issues of his own to deal with, and he gets to deeply and personally involved with the patient and her single Mother. The girl initially appears in the hospital as a possible suicide attempt because she cut hr wrist, and he believes the girl may be suffering from depression.

The shocking, stomach churning, and very dangerous truth behind his patient's increasingly bizarre and dangerous behavior is far worse than depression. When the doctor finally realizes the shocking and very serious depth of the girls illness, he finds that he has become trapped with the girl and her increasingly dangerous manipulation. When he finally asks for help, its too late, because he allowed himself to break the rules of medical ethics and crosses the line. The ending is a satisfying and completely unexpected twist! The movie starts moving quickly, and I enjoyed the director's skillful method of steadily ratcheting up the tension from beginning to end a PERFECTLY steady pace. I mean there is no lull or boring parts. It snagged me in within the first few minutes. The movie truly felt like it was accelerating, exposing me to a few mildly disturbing events at first but then things get continuously more shocking, disturbing, and eventually rather gory right until the credits roll.

Excellent movie! If you like deep psychological thrillers or horror films then this is a must pick up!

A boring sick piece of junk

[Mikel3 · 10 January 2010]

This was a boring and sick film about a girl that likes to drink blood...and no she isn't a vampire.

The movie was painfully slow moving and had some totally sick scenes in it. For instance, if you're a dog and animal lover like me avoid this piece of garbage at all costs. They had some scenes in it the film's makers should be ashamed of. Even if you don't care about innocent animals being tortured and eaten, the plot is still full of stupid illogical moments.

Plus it has one of those endings so popular now a days where nut cases triumph and horrible things happen to the good people. My advice is to avoid this piece of trash unless you're a sadist or like pointless dull films that throw in scenes of animal cruelty for cheap shock value.

Definitely, she's not a daddy's girl!

[mario_c · 8/10 · 26 February 2008]

This movie was much better than I initially expected, because it was much more disturbing and psychological sadistic that one can think at the beginning.

The plot is about a psychiatrist, Stephen (played by Richard Harrington), whose wife committed suicide, cutting her pulses. To get even worse his mother is also laid in a hospital bed waiting to die. Of course he's not alright and he needs to take a lot of medication himself. But then he meets a new patient, a teenage girl (Nina, played by Jaime Winstone) that is in the same hospital than his mother. She's there because she apparently tried to commit suicide. The doctor starts studying his patient process and behaviour and concludes she has an attraction for blood! She had cut herself to suck her own blood! He will involve himself deeper and deeper in this case, but the result will be no good to him…

That's a very dark and disturbing story about vampirism, but not in a traditional or lyrical way. In fact this story is quite realistic and treats vampirism as a psychological disease. In the film it's called as Ranfield Syndrome and it's described as a disease that appears in the puberty and makes the person feel the need to drink blood (I don't know if this syndrome really exists or not). She has an attraction for blood that she can't contain, even if she has to hurt herself or another person. The girl's mother, Liz (Louise Delamere), also has an important role in this movie, especially in the end when it has an interesting twist…

Another good feature of this movie is the melancholy and poetic style it has at parts (especially in the beginning and the end). The music also helps to create this melancholic and poetic ambiance. It has a very nice soundtrack by the way.

However, I must warn you it has some disturbing images/scenes, especially on the psychological side… One good gore scene is when Nina transforms the psychiatrist's little dog in a "blood milkshake"…

A good surprise!

Outstanding

[TdSmth5 · 8/10 · 7 February 2015]

A girl named Nina is hospitalized for cutting herself. The hospital psychiatrist is called to treat her. The girl says it was an accident. The mother is afraid they'll take away the girl from her, so she's a bit hostile even. She thinks he'll think of her as a bad mother.

We learn more about the psychiatrist. His wife killed herself by cutting herself in the bathtub. Now someone or something keeps opening the bathtub faucet every night. The plumber thinks it's the spirit of the wife that's trying to communicate with the dr. The dr's mom is in the hospital gravely ill from some type of blood disorder. So the guy isn't in the best of shape. He's taking anti-depressants and is being treated by his boss.

As Nina walks around the hospital at night, we learn that she's attracted to blood. She meets a boy who's getting a blood transfusion and asks if she can have some. She also walks into the room of the dr's mother. Later that night the woman dies. That just turns him more into a wreck. Nina's mother empathizes. They sleep together. His boss warns him no to get involved with patients. As it turns out, the dr's wife was also a patient of his.

Now though, Nina completely flips out. She cuts another girl to drink her blood. And she starts obsessing with the dr. and stalking him. During psych sessions she blurts out that he's sleeping with her mother. The sessions are monitored and recorded. That gets him suspended from work. And now Nina gets more aggressive. We do learn more about her and how she came to be that way.

Cravings was a big surprise. It's not some lousy vampire movie. It's highly original and well-made. It's basically a dramatization of the hoax-diagnosis Renfield's syndrome. Nina would be the classical case of a patient with this disorder, if it existed. And the movie is very effective in portraying it. Unfortunately because Nina is likable when she's sane, it's not fun to see her go off the deep end. The portrayal of the mother in her time of need getting together with the dr. in his time of need was well-handled. Some surprising things happen along the way. The ending, too, is unusual and courageous.

Cravings is so much better than the score on IMDb would lead you to believe, as long as you don't expect a crappy vampire movie. A shame also that D.J. Evans, the writer/director hasn't gotten more work. Considering that he had little experience prior to this movie, it makes Cravings even more remarkable.