Director: Simeon Halligan
Writer: Simeon Halligan
Producers: Rachel Richardson-Jones, Nick Leese

Starring: Elliot James Langridge, Jessica Barden, William Ash, Roxanne Pallett, Joanne Mitchell, Andrew Ellis

Director Statement: 

HABIT is stark and grimy. Lurid and ugly, with flashes of gaudy surrealism. Like Ken Loach shot a horror movie with gory inserts by Abel Ferrara, this is gritty, dark, real world stuff that uses the seedy underbelly of Manchester city as its backdrop. Much of the film takes place at night within the former Garment District area of the Northern Quarter, an area that is architecturally interesting with great alleys and side streets, almost like New York in places. Beneath the trendy bar and bohemian coffee shop exterior lies a layer of grot and sleaze, in the best way. Like the novel, the film has a low-key feel, offering fleeting glimpses of something really disturbing lurking behind something that is, well, pretty seedy and ugly to begin with. HABIT should leave the audience thinking “What the hell just happened?” It’s an elusive feeling captured so well in the book which focuses on character, atmosphere and mood. Cinematographer James Swift’s neon lit colour palette helps to conjure a garish enticing night time world that contrasts sharply with the cold blue saturated world that Michael leaves behind. Chris Gill’s editing skills have given the film rhythm, instinct and emotion. The subliminal power of his editing has helped to create a cumulative sensory event. Claude Foisy’s composed score, is at times, murky, oppressive and trance like, often suggesting the soundscape of Manchester at its most sordid and dangerous.