Miriam Blaylock is a vampire, seen in flashbacks drinking from victims in Ancient Egypt, promising specially chosen humans eternal life as her vampire lovers. Her current companion is John, a talented cellist whom she met in 18th-century France. In a nightclub in New York City, they connect with a young couple whom they bring home and feed upon by slashing their throats with bladed ankh pendants. The victims' bodies are disposed of in an incinerator in the basement of Miriam and John's elegant New York townhouse, where they pose as a wealthy couple who teach classical music.
Now, 200 years after he was turned, John begins suffering insomnia and ages years in only a few days. John realises Miriam's promise – that killing and feeding upon human victims would give him immortality – was only partially true; he will have eternal life, but not eternal youth. He seeks Dr. Sarah Roberts, a research gerontologist who, with her colleagues Charlie and Tom (also Sarah's boyfriend), are studying the effects of rapid ageing in primates, hoping she can reverse his accelerating decrepitude. Sarah assumes that John is delusional and ignores his plea for help. As the angered John leaves the clinic, Sarah is horrified to see how rapidly he is ageing and offers her help, but John rebuffs her.
One of the Blaylocks' students, Alice Cavender, drops by their townhouse to say that she cannot attend the next day's lesson. In a last attempt to regain his youth, John murders and feeds upon Alice, whom Miriam was grooming to be her next consort when she came of age. However, her blood does nothing to restore him, so John begs Miriam to kill him and release him from the agony of his decrepit body. Weeping, Miriam tells him there is no release. After John collapses in the basement, Miriam carries him into the attic, which is filled with coffins and places him in one. Like John, Miriam's former vampire lovers suffer an eternal living death, helplessly moaning and trapped in their coffins. Sarah comes looking for John at his home, and Miriam claims that her husband is in Switzerland. Sarah asks to be updated on John's condition. Later, a police official comes to the residence, looking for the missing Alice. Miriam feigns ignorance.
Sarah returns to Miriam's home to again inquire about John. Miriam, who feels alone after losing both John and Alice, initiates a sexual encounter with Sarah, during which Miriam bites her arm and some of Miriam's blood enters Sarah's body. Miriam attempts to initiate Sarah in the necessities of life as a vampire, but Sarah is repulsed by the thought of subsisting on human blood.
Sarah returns home and goes out to dinner with Tom, who becomes argumentative when she rejects food and is not forthcoming about her three-and-a half-hour disappearance to the Blaylock residence. The next day at the lab, the team investigates Sarah's blood and reveal she has some kind of infection, in the form of a foreign and inhuman type of blood, that is taking over her own. Confused, Sarah returns to confront Miriam. Still reeling from the effects of her vampiric transformation, Sarah allows Miriam to put her to bed in a guest room.
Tom arrives at Miriam's home, looking for Sarah. Miriam shows him to the upstairs bedroom, where Sarah, starving and desperate, kills and feeds upon him. Miriam assures her that she will soon forget her old life. As the two kiss, Sarah drives Miriam's ankh knife into her own throat and holds her mouth over Miriam's, forcing Miriam to ingest her blood. Miriam carries Sarah upstairs, intending to place her with her other boxed lovers. A rumbling occurs and the mummies of Miriam's previous lovers, including John, emerge from their coffins, driving her over the edge of the balcony. As she rapidly ages, the mummies become dust.
The police investigator returns to find a real estate agent showing the townhouse to prospective buyers. Sarah is now in London with two new companions, standing on the balcony of a flat in the Barbican Estate's Cromwell Tower, admiring the view as dusk falls. From a draped coffin in a storage room, Miriam continually cries Sarah's name.
English gothic rock band Bauhaus appear during the film's opening credits as a group performing at the nightclub, with Peter Murphy onscreen, where they play their single "Bela Lugosi's Dead." Silent film star Bessie Love makes her final film appearance as an elderly fan at Sarah's book signing.
Production
The final scene of Sarah on the balcony was added at the studio's behest, with a view to leaving the film open-ended and allowing for possible sequels.[6] Sarandon later expressed regret that this sequence seemed to make no sense in the context of the rest of the film: "The thing that made the film interesting to me was this question of, 'Would you want to live forever if you were an addict?' But as the film progressed, the powers that be rewrote the ending and decided that I wouldn't die, so what was the point? All the rules that we'd spent the entire film delineating, that Miriam lived forever and was indestructible, and all the people that she transformed [eventually] died, and that I killed myself rather than be an addict [were ignored]. Suddenly I was kind of living, she was kind of half dying... Nobody knew what was going on, and I thought that was a shame."[7]
Bowie was excited to work on the film but was concerned about the final product. He said "I must say, there's nothing that looks like it on the market. But I'm a bit worried that it's just perversely bloody at some points."[8]
Music
Howard Blake was musical director on The Hunger. Although a soundtrack album accompanied the film's release (Varèse Sarabande VSD 47261), this issue omits much of the music used in the film.
Blake noted on working with director Tony Scott, "Tony wanted to create a score largely using classical music and I researched this, many days going to his home in Wimbledon with stacks of recordings to play to him. One of these was the duet for two sopranos from Delibes' Lakmé, which I recorded specially with Elaine Barry and Judith Rees, conducting my orchestra The Sinfonia of London. Howard Shelley joined with Ralph Holmes and Raphael Wallfisch to record the second movement of Schubert's Piano Trio in E flat. Ralph recorded the Gigue from Bach's Violin Partita in E and Raphael the Prelude to Bach's Solo Cello Sonata in G, to which Bowie mimed. I was persuaded to appear in one scene as a pianist, for which I wrote a 'Dolphin Square Blues'. Tony wanted to add a synthesizer score and I introduced him to Hans Zimmer, then working at The Snake Ranch Studio in Fulham but Tony eventually used a score by Michel Rubini and Denny Jaeger with electronics by David Lawson. It is hard however to exactly separate these elements."[9]
Reception
The Hunger was nominated for two Saturn Awards for Best Costume and Best Make-up, while receiving mixed reviews upon its release: its pacing and plot were felt to be unsatisfactory, with more emphasis seemingly being placed on cinematography and atmosphere. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described the film as "an agonizingly bad vampire movie," remarking that the sex scene between Deneuve and Sarandon is effective, but that the film is so heavy on set design and scene cuts that any sense of a story is lost.[10] In a brief review in Rolling Stone, Michael Sragow similarly called it "A minor horror movie with a major modern-movie problem: director Tony Scott develops so many ingenious ways to illustrate his premise that there's no time left to tell a story."[11]
Christopher John reviewed The Hunger in Ares Magazine #15 and commented that "Beautifully filmed, but boringly void of substance, The Hunger is (was) a film to be avoided like the plague."[12]
Camille Paglia wrote in Sexual Personae (1990) that while The Hunger comes close to being a masterpiece of a "classy genre of vampire film", it is "ruined by horrendous errors, as when the regal Catherine Deneuve is made to crawl around on all fours, slavering over cut throats", which Paglia considered an inappropriate focus on violence rather than sex.[13] Critic Elaine Showalter called The Hunger a "post-modernist vampire film" that "casts vampirism in bisexual terms, drawing on the tradition of the lesbian vampire...Contemporary and stylish, [it] is also disquieting in its suggestion that men and women in the 1980s have the same desires, the same appetites, and the same needs for power, money, and sex."[14] David Bowie later commented about the film that "the first twenty minutes rattle along like hell – it really is a great opening."[15]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Hunger holds a 59% approval rating based on 39 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The consensus reads: "Stylish yet hollow, The Hunger is a well-cast vampire thriller that mistakes erotic moments for a satisfying story."
The film grossed $6 million in the United States and Canada and $12.3 million worldwide.[16][1]
Legacy
Hollywood just hated that movie. They called it, "Esoteric, artsy-fartsy".
The Hunger has been listed as a cult film.[18][19] A retrospective review of the film by Film at Lincoln Center concluded: "With its famously bold visual aesthetic—featuring high-intensity lighting, expressionistic production design, and thrillingly intimate perspectives—and the melodramatic intensity of the three lead performances, the film is an ultra-stylish time capsule, an archetype of the high-gloss, high-concept storytelling mode that prevailed in early 1980s Hollywood."[20] The film is popular with some segments of the goth subculture and inspired a short-lived TV series of the same name, although the series has no direct plot or character connection to it.[21]
The film has been cited by publisher Fred Berger as an influence on the creation and direction of his gothic subculture zine Propaganda, and by showrunner Bryan Fuller on his television series Hannibal.[22][23]
Catherine Fabienne Dorléac, known professionally as Catherine Deneuve, is a French actress. She is considered one of the greatest European actresses on film. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her as one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Susan Abigail Sarandon is an American actor. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for six Primetime Emmy Awards, and nine Golden Globe Awards.
Louis Whitley Strieber is an American writer best known for his horror novels The Wolfen and The Hunger and for Communion, a non-fiction account of his alleged experiences with non-human entities. He has maintained a dual career of author of fiction and advocate of paranormal concepts through his best-selling non-fiction books, his Unknown Country web site, and his podcast, Dreamland.
Dracula is a 1958 British gothic horror film directed by Terence Fisher and written by Jimmy Sangster based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the same name. The first in the series of Hammer Horror films starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, the film also features Peter Cushing as Doctor Van Helsing, along with Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, and John Van Eyssen. In the United States, the film was retitled Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion with the U.S. original by Universal Pictures, 1931's Dracula.
The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck is a 1967 comedy horror film directed by Roman Polanski, written by Gérard Brach and Polanski, produced by Gene Gutowski and starring Polanski with his future wife Sharon Tate, along with Jack MacGowran and Alfie Bass, and featuring Ferdy Mayne.
Scars of Dracula is a 1970 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker for Hammer Films. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, along with Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Patrick Troughton, and Michael Gwynn.
Innocent Blood is a 1992 American black comedy horror film directed by John Landis and written by Michael Wolk. The film stars Anne Parillaud as a beautiful French vampire who finds herself pitted against a gang of mobsters led by Salvatore Macelli who eventually becomes a vampire and schemes to build a criminal syndicate of vampires.
A Return to Salem's Lot is a 1987 American vampire film co-written and directed by Larry Cohen and starring Michael Moriarty, Andrew Duggan, Samuel Fuller, Evelyn Keyes, and June Havoc. A theatrical sequel to the 1979 miniseries Salem's Lot, the film follows an anthropologist and his son who encounter supernatural incidents and vampirism in the small town of Jerusalem's Lot.
Interview with the Vampire is a 1994 American gothic horror film directed by Neil Jordan, based on Anne Rice's 1976 novel of the same name, and starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. It focuses on Lestat (Cruise) and Louis (Pitt), beginning with Louis's transformation into a vampire by Lestat in 1791. The film chronicles their time together, and their turning of young Claudia into a vampire. The narrative is framed by a present-day interview, in which Louis tells his story to a San Francisco reporter. The supporting cast features Antonio Banderas and Stephen Rea.
Taste the Blood of Dracula is a 1970 British supernatural horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Peter Sasdy from a script by Anthony Hinds, it is the fifth installment in Hammer's Dracula series, and the fourth to star Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, the titular vampire. The film also features Geoffrey Keen and Gwen Watford.
Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on November 30, 1963, and stars Bugs Bunny.
Hunger is a prolonged condition in which insufficient amounts of food are available.
Vampyres is a 1974 British horror film directed by José Ramón Larraz and starring Anulka Dziubinska, Marianne Morris, and Murray Brown. Its plot follows two female lovers who, having been resurrected as vampires, lure unsuspecting travelers to their dilapidated estate to feed on their blood.
The Hunger (1981) is a novel by Whitley Strieber. The plot involves a beautiful and wealthy vampire named Miriam Blaylock who takes human lovers and transforms them into vampire-human hybrids.
Queen of the Damned is a 2002 vampire film directed by Michael Rymer from a screenplay by Scott Abbott and Michael Petroni, and based on the 1988 novel The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice, the third novel of the book series The Vampire Chronicles, although the film contains many plot elements from the novel's 1985 predecessor, The Vampire Lestat. A stand-alone sequel to Interview with the Vampire (1994), the film stars Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah in her final film, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Pérez and Lena Olin. Townsend and Matthew Newton replaced Tom Cruise and Antonio Banderas in the roles of Lestat and Armand, respectively.
Lost Boys: The Tribe is a 2008 American black comedy horror film directed by P. J. Pesce, which serves as a sequel to the 1987 film, The Lost Boys. The film stars Tad Hilgenbrink, Angus Sutherland, Autumn Reeser and Corey Feldman.
Dark Shadows is a 2012 gothic dark fantasy film based on the gothic television soap opera of the same name. Directed by Tim Burton, the film stars Johnny Depp alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloë Grace Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter, and Bella Heathcote in a dual role. Christopher Lee has a small role in the film, marking his 200th film appearance and his fifth and final collaboration with Burton. Jonathan Frid, star of the original Dark Shadows series, makes a cameo appearance. He died shortly before the film was released. One of the film's producers, Richard D. Zanuck, died two months after its release.
Philip Sayer was a British actor. He worked for stage, film and television; and was probably best known for his role as Sam Phillips in the science-fiction horror film Xtro (1983).
The Iron Mistress is a 1952 American Western film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Alan Ladd and Virginia Mayo. It ends with Bowie's marriage to Ursula de Veramendi and does not deal with his death at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
'Salem's Lot is a 2024 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Gary Dauberman, based on the 1975 novel by Stephen King. The film stars Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Alfre Woodard, John Benjamin Hickey, Bill Camp, Jordan Preston Carter, Nicholas Crovetti, Spencer Treat Clark, William Sadler, and Pilou Asbæk. It is the first feature film adaptation of the book, preceded by miniseries versions from 1979 and 2004. The plot centers on a writer who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem's Lot in search of inspiration, only to discover the presence of a vampire.
↑ Showalter, Elaine (1995). Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle. Virago Press. p.184.
↑ The quote continues; "It loses its way about there, but it's still an interesting movie." David Bowie: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations, By David Bowie
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