The Hunger

A soft-core erotic horror film based on a novel by Whitley Streiber, The Hunger has ageless vampire Miriam (Catherine Deneuve ) holed up with her merely 200 year-old lover, John Blaylock (David Bowie) in a luxurious NYC brownstone the latter living on the blood of victims they pick up at discos. Into this situation enters Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon) who is a research scientist in the field of aging and who Miriam approaches when John starts inexplicably to show his years.

If you think that The Hunger sounds like B grade nonsense you'd be quite right.  Although that is in many ways the point, the film is somewhat dignified (or is shallowness made enjoyable) by the symptomatically slick 80s visual style brought to bear by debut British director Tony Scott (the brother of Ridley and best known as the director of Top Gun, 1986). Of course this same quality, particularly evident in the MTV-style opening sequence, also dates the film. Beyond the chic visuals there is little of interest here bar a fairly explicit lesbian sex scene between Deneuve and Sarandon which probably accounts for a fair portion of the film's cult status.

Displaying his lack of acting ability fulsomely, David Bowie might have walked off the set of Nicolas Roeg's 1976 classic The Man Who Fell To Earth and into this film but Dick Smith's makeup for his aging is.very effective, at least before he starts to look like he's wearing a rubber mask. If you like 80s style this film will reward you amply and vice versa.

 

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