Year: 1983
Director: Tony Scott
Screenplay: Ivan Davis and Michael Thomas, based on the novel The Hunger by Whitley Strieber
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon
Running Time: 97 minutes
Genre: Horror
New York City, the 1980s: Miriam Blaylock (Deneuve) is a vampire who has existed since at least Ancient Egypt, her first encountered her current partner, John (Bowie) in the 18th Century, when he became the latest in a long line of lovers. However, while Miriam doesn't age, all of her lovers, however, while their ageing process is delayed, they do eventually begin to age very suddenly and at a highly accelerated rate, leaving behind dried out husks. However, they do not die, but Miriam, who refuses to kill them, condemns them to a kind of living death, locking them up forever in coffin-life boxes. This time, however, Miriam and John set their sights on research scientist Dr. Sarah Roberts (Sarandon), who is engaged on research to delay ageing. However, the question is whether she will be able to save John, or if she will become Miriam's latest companion.
The Hunger is a stylish, sensual vampire film, based on the novel by horror writer Whitley Strieber, who is probably best known for his book Communion (1987) which describes his allegedly true encounters with aliens. While this is a vampire film, the word "vampire" is never mentioned in the film, and the vampires are different to the more commonly depicted bloodsuckers: John and Miriam feed off blood, but instead of biting their victim's necks with fangs, they cut the throats with daggers hidden in the ankh pendants that they both wear. They can also survive in sunlight, and their main power is that they are stronger and harder to kill than humans, and also that their ageing is stopped or at least delayed. This is the debut film from Tony Scott, brother of director Ridley, who went on to direct stylish action films and thrillers such as Top Gun (1986), True Romance (1993) and Man on Fire (2004). The film feels very much a product of its time, with the stylish visuals, and the film is stylised to a fault. Characters are often filmed backlit, so they appear as silhouettes, there are constantly billowing, diaphanous curtains and drapes, there are doves flying throughout John and Miriam's cavernous New York town house (full, of course, with antiques), there is slow motion, fragmented editing, and most of the interiors are filmed in half shadow, with shafts of light illuminating the characters. The problem is that the film is so stylised, it never really gets scary, and despite the amount of sex and blood, there is very little actual passion, it feels like everything comes second place to the visuals. Before making The Hunger, Tony Scott had been interested in making a film of the Anne Rice novel Interview with the Vampire, and the film does have something of an Anne Rice feel to it, with it's focus on the loneliness of immortality and the angst of becoming a predatory vampire. Even the hospitals and research laboratories seem to favour mood lighting. Catherine Deneuve is impressive as statuesque, bisexual vampire Miriam, David Bowie is effective as the increasingly desperate John, acting under layers of increasingly heavy make-up, and Susan Sarandon is good as the scientist Sarah, who becomes drawn into the Blaylock's world. Willem Dafoe makes a brief, early appearance as one of a pair of teenage thugs who harasses Sarah at a phone booth. The film had mixed reviews at the time of its release, however it has become a cult film, particularly among Goths. The song "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by the band Bauhaus, which is sometimes cited as the first goth rock record, plays over the opening credits, and Bauhaus appear as a band in a night club.
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