#13 - The Hunger (1983)

 

 

The Hunger (1983)

(dir. Tony Scott)

 

Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie star as Miriam and John Blaylock, a pair of vampires living in New York. Miriam is thousands of years old, while John is much younger (but still centuries old). Despite the promise of eternal life, John finds himself suddenly aging rapidly, going from 30 years old to an old man in a single day, and we learn that all of Miriam's previous companions have met the same horrific fate. Desperate for some kind of cure, John asks a scientist studying the aging process (Susan Sarandon) for help.

This is kind of a mixed bag. On on hand, it's got a really stylish '80s goth aesthetic that I love. The opening sequence features Bauhaus playing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" while the vampires feed on some unlucky people they picked up at the club, intercut with footage of violent caged monkeys. The costuming, sets, lighting, etc all look fantastic and there is some really great music on the soundtrack, including a lot of classical pieces I love (Bach and Schubert especially). It also features a very cool and memorable finale.

It feels like it's missing something though. Despite excellent performances from the three leads, I found it difficult to connect with the characters. We don't get a lot of time with John, and Miriam acts very cold. That's probably on purpose, but when a central part of the film is a romance between two characters and one shows no real emotion, it feels much less interesting. And despite how good it looked visually, I didn't really understand what was going on during the ending.

I give this a tentative recommendation - I enjoyed it, but it has some serious flaws (and for the record Julie didn't like it at all). I'm tempted to call it "style over substance", but I do think there are some interesting themes here about aging, death, and what it would mean to be immortal. Unfortunately, the flat and detached tone hurts the film. If you like vampire films though I think it's well worth giving it a chance.