Kate's Addiction (1999)

The atmosphere of the movie is sensational, the characters are well developed, although soap-opera's at times. Unfortunately, the editing was poor, bordering on laughable. I am not a person who picks apart movie editing (this is the first time I've had to comment on it); however, there were a couple of obvious flaws that just jumped out at me, and I had to review them at reduced speed to confirm I just saw what I did.(1) Kate is having a bath, and getting angry by herself. As she gets up and leaves the bath, the waist-strap from her underwear is fully visible. Her privates were in no danger of being exposed, it was just a poorly edited shot. If she is capable of all the carnage she causes, that's one thing; but taking a bath with your underwear on is just plain warped.Also? (2) It was quite nice of her friend "Zoey" to help drag her own body out of the car, as Kate disposes of her. You can clearly see Zoey elevate her right leg, then firmly plant her right foot on the ground as she is being removed. She really was a friend after all.Other than that, I did enjoy the movie. It was a challenging effort to portray a dark plot on the sun-washed California coast, with marina and sailboat in much of the film.

I thought this was going to be another "Skin-amax" flick that pops up late at night on cable and stars Shannon Tweed. But this is basically a low budget thriller with the emphasis on low budget. Film is about a woman named Kate (Kari Wuhrer) who is totally infatuated with Sara (Farrah Forke) but she lives in California. Kate tells her lesbian lover Zoey (Natalie Radford) to come with her to the west coast and gives her a phony reason to come. Sara is living with Dylan (Matthew Porretta) and planning on getting engaged which spoils Kate's plans on buying a flower shop with Sara in New Orleans. Kate gets Zoey to help her kill Dylan and make it look like a robbery. Kate stays with Sara to console her and creep back into her life! They decide to open a flower shop in Los Angeles and Kate blackmails a man named Jack (Joel Gretsch) so he will seduce Sara and then dump her but Jack really learns to like her instead. Kate's also been giving Sara the date rape drug to knock her out at night and take advantage of her. This film was directed by Eric DelaBarre and for his first effort its adequately made. There are about two scenes where characters are talking to one another but you cannot hear them and you only hear the background music. I thought these scenes were well filmed and it shows a spark of real creativity. Wuhrer and Forke and...oh hell, everyone in this film is good looking. Thats why this has the appearance of one of those soft porn films late night on cable. I was surprised by the small amount of nudity in certain scenes. Even in the lesbian love scene they both keep their clothes on. There are some quick shots of breasts but fans of Wuhrer might be a tad disappointed. Not a bad late night thriller and Wuhrer is always worth a look. But the overall script is silly and goes way over the top! Fans of Wuhrer have a head start.

Beware--some plot spoilers to follow. OK. Bravo for Eric DelaBarre in getting his indie project to the screen for under six figures. It this was easy, everybody would do it.That said, it's a lame little "Fatal Attraction" rip-off. In his defense, Mr DelaBarre has an eye for camera work. There's a genuine budding director here. He does the erotic thriller bits well. But his writing just ain't makin' it. Why would FBI agents rather than local cops be investigating a sex crime allegation? Why would they enter a home without permission or warrants? Why do they talk like cartoon cops? Why is a free-lance photog living aboard a quarter-million dollar yacht while seemingly never having a paying job? Why are these people supposedly from New Orleans but can't pronounce it like locals do (noo-WAW-linz)? The cast of little-knowns and complete unknowns are no threat to the Oscars. Leading ladies Kari Wuhrer and Farrah Forke turn in competent performances, but the supporting cast gives the impression they paid DelaBarre to get into this movie. But as bad as it is in places, it's a guilty pleasure to watch. "Kate's Addiction" is one of those so-bad-it's-good kinda movies. Prop your feet up and pour a cold one. It's gonna be a steamy night.

Kate goes to Los Angeles to visit her college friend Sara. The two women promised each other to open up a flower shop in New Orleans, their home town, but Kate finds out that the plans are foiled because Sara found a man and settled in LA permanently.Kate, it seems, is in love with her old friend. Showing how all lesbians are supposedly deceiving, calculating, crazy bitches, Kate and another of her college friend proceed through a roller-coaster of murder, love, drugs, sex, blackmail, and a final round of killings. In that order.The first half of the movie is quite nice. Though Kate & Co does kill Sara's fiancé, you almost get the feeling that it might work out in the end. Then the New Guy(NG) comes along. Things go downhill from there. It turns out the NG was blackmailed by Kate to befriend Sara and the dump her, proving to her that men are not to be trusted. Unfortunately for Kate, NG *can* be trusted. By Sara, anyway.The craziness ensues and we find out that all of Sara's headaches during their college time together was due to Kate feeding her rape drugs, which has a hangover-like side effect. More cement to the 'evil/crazy lesbian' cliché.I'm kinda curious as to why no one cared that Sara killed Kate in the end, when she could easily have turned her over to the police instead.