Review of The Hunger (1983) by Walt H — 26 Feb 2005

The opening scene with Bauhaus playing "Bela Lugosi is Dead". The 80's fashion style. Lesbian sex and mostly female nudity. "The Hunger" has all these things, but it gets most of its rating from the cool, almost smoky style of its sets and Deneuve's effortless blending into her role as the ageless vampire. She promises her human companions life without end, but always forgets to mention where they all wind up, living without end. But she cries and does it with feeling as she moves on to another companion after they're used up.

There isn't much of the usual vampire world; no crosses, wooden stakes, garlic, etc... They do prefer the dark but don't burn up in sunlight, and use their ankhs to draw blood. It isn't until later that you catch them with sucked blood drooling out of their mouths.

The end of the movie is puzzling. There must be additional vampire lore that only the filmmakers know about for it to turn out as it did. The Hunger is a bit chilly overall but it was visually very attractive to me.

The DVD looks fine but its too bad they didn't put any effort into spiffing up the audio track as it was almost harsh at times. Not many extras. The DVD gets a 7/10.