Review of The Hunger (1983) by Ed Fucking H — 25 Dec 2011

A vampire movie starring the lovely Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon? Why hadn't I heard of this before now? Movie opens up with Bauhaus playing 'Bela Lugosi's Dead.' Perfect song choice as this film throws away most of the cliches attached to the Vampire genre, while staying true to the most basic elements of the original Dracula novel by Bram Stoker.

Fascination with eternal life, doused with touches of eroticism. This was Tony Scotts feature film debut, and I am really surprised he had a film of this calibre in him. I always considered him more of a tactition, than a director with this much eye for style.

Great photography and editing for sure. Clearly he took a lot from his previous experience in commercials and music videos. Apprently Scott originally wanted to make this movie based on Interview With a Vampire.

Would have been interesting to see what he would have done with that story. Ah well, this one is very good too. Movie bombed in the box office and was universally hated by critics, and is criminally under known today as far as I'm concerned.

One of the most unqiue takes on the vampire genre I have seen, since I watched Guillermo Del Toro's brilliant Cronos, about a year ago, and this came out much earlier. Really doesn't feel like it's almost 30 years old.

Still feels relevent and modern and not dated in the least. Really can't think of anything critical to say about this one. Loved it. Highly recommended.