Review of The Hunger (1983) by Morpheus O — 29 Jul 2011

This may very well be the strangest film that I have ever seen in my entire life. I don't remember when I first heard of this film; but, I first took notice of it just a few years ago while watching another film which has a name that now escapes me. Steve Buscemi was playing a character in that film & it was that character that was going on & on about "The Hunger", said to be a film about two lesbian vampire's who go on a killing spree amidst their lust, which is essentially what happens. That very idea, and description, has so much potential in it but, it doesn't even begin to describe this film & certainly does not at all do justice to the FAIL that this film ultimately succumbs to...

It wasn't a terrible piece of work but, being the character driven story that it is that in & of itself is almost impossible with so little character development to speak of. And with a story that has an amount of plot that is almost as tiny, the point for this movie get's lost amongst an array of music & constantly diverting camera shot's, both of which are arranged as if to express some deep metaphorical meaning's, and/or psychic character's, and/or something...

The one thing that perhaps left me irritated the most is why did the character "John" age so rapidly?! Perhaps it is bc he wasn't drinking blood, which is obvious; but, if he had been feasting on blood, as he never seemed to do, then he wouldn't have aged at all, presumably, & this likely would have had a different outcome. But, then this film might have made sense & we wouldn't want that, now would we...

It seems more likely that the character "Miriam" had some sense of intense control over her charges and when she tired of them she willed them to die, whether or not they were drinking blood. Unless of course they perhaps killed themselves or did such physical damage to themselves as to cancel out any possibility of recovery...

But, if that's the case then why allow John to live for so long, attacking at least two ppl & presumably killing at least one of them, an innocent child no less, that Miriam knew, apparently well, & had apparently no interest in harming, or allowing to come to harm, at all?? If Miriam had that kind of intense control then those attack's wouldn't have taken place but, then this film might have made sense & we wouldn't want that, now would we?!

It was interesting to see Dan Hedaya, the Lt., around the same time that he was playing "Nick" on "Cheer's". I thought that unibrow looked familiar... I wanted the Lt. to go upstairs at the end of the film and find the realtor cleaning up the mess with all of the various corpses. That's at least realistic & it would show a sense of common sense in that character. Which is something that all of the character's, as well as this movie as a whole, seems to lack. Tremendously.

The best thing about this film is the acting. It's actually quite good. Which explains how it is a character driven story but, ... with so little character development, at the risk of sounding redundant, it is just 'bang your head into a wall' ridiculous...

The ending make's sense. Sort of... (Nothing, however, including the ending & the acting, can save this train wreck of a film!).