Opening

78% Fast & Furious 6 May 24
—— The Hangover Part III May 23
—— Epic May 24
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—— We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks May 24
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—— A Green Story May 24
—— Alyce Kills May 24

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87% Star Trek Into Darkness $70.6M
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37% Peeples $2.2M
8% The Big Wedding $1.1M

Coming Soon

—— After Earth May 31
—— Now You See Me May 31
88% The East May 31
100% The Kings of Summer May 31

The Hunger (2005)

tomatometer

60

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 2

No consensus yet.

audience

65

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 12,234

My Rating

Movie Info

The exquisitely beautiful Catherine Deneuve plays Miriam, a centuries-old vampire capable of bestowing the gift of immortality on her lovers -- namely her current partner John (David Bowie). To sustain their sanguinary requirements, the pair cruises New York nightclubs in search of victims (as illustrated in a stunning opening sequence to the accompaniment of "Bela Lugosi's Dead" performed by seminal Goth band Bauhaus). When John awakens one morning to discover telltale signs of aging, it is

R,

Horror

Oct 5, 2004

MGM

Watch It Now

Cast

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All Critics (27) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (16) | DVD (13)

In his feature debut, director Tony Scott, brother of Ridley, exhibits the same penchant for eleborate art direction, minimal, humorless dialog and shooting in smoky rooms.

November 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Visual sensualities will have a feast, but you'll have to read Whitley Strieber's novel if you don't want to emerge with a badly scratched head.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Hunger is an agonizingly bad vampire movie, circling around an exquisitely effective sex scene. Sorry, but that's the way it is, and your reporter has to be honest.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie reeks with chic, but never, for one minute, takes itself too seriously, nor does it ever slop over into camp.

August 30, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The obsessive conjunction of lesbian sex and flowing blood suggests a deep-seated misogyny, but neither this nor any other theme is registered with enough clarity to offend.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Vampire movies were always cool, but it took The Hunger to make them modern.

May 14, 2013 Full Review Source: Mania.com
Mania.com

Bloody lesbian-vampire story is stylish, but no Twilight.

March 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (3)
Common Sense Media

The focus of Hunger is emphatically the death of Bobby Sands, specifically, what happens to his body, viewed from a tragic outside and, to an imaginative extent, a determined inside.

April 7, 2009 Full Review Source: PopMatters | Comment (1)
PopMatters

More style than substance, and perhaps simply an excuse to get Denueve and Susan Sarandon, Miriam's post-Bowie love, in bed together.

November 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle

A slick, largely empty visual exercise with vague thematic overtones about a clash between American and European culture.

November 18, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment (1)
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Deneuve and Sarandon are something else.

November 4, 2007
ColeSmithey.com

Nearly unwatchable lesbian vampire flick.

December 16, 2004

Strictly for perverts, dumb blondes, and camp enthusiasts.

October 12, 2004 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

In The Hunger, like in that ludicrous advertisement for Britney Spears's Curious perfume, sexual desire simply provokes postmodern psychotropic episodes.

October 12, 2004 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment (1)
Slant Magazine

Audience Reviews for The Hunger

1983, u ninnies! i watched this in honor of bowie's 65th b-day :D don't know how i missed it back in the day but in 2012 it's actually quite fun. it's very stylish and dark and kinda sleazy. denueve and bowie are a stunning couple; too bad he disappears halfway through, but then we get a denueve-sarandon makeout scene so it's all good. or at least way better than twilight. sure, it doesn't make a lot of sense and it's shot like an mtv video but the cast is great and highly watchable: bowie is always impressive imo and deneuve is an ice goddess. plus the aging effects here are magnificent. happy b-day david! u still look pretty damn good!
December 12, 2007
rubystevens
Stella Dallas

Super Reviewer

British vampire thriller from Tony Scott that really really does look like one of those old Cadbury's Flake adverts from the 80's. The constant swirling sweeping silky curtains fluttering in the breeze for no apparent reason, pale females with too much makeup, birds flapping n swooping romantically about the set in slow motion and lots of sexual slobbering haha.

Aside from that its not a bad vamp flick, extremely glossy and highly stylised but admittedly not much else. The plot and concept for the vampires is annoyingly confusing bringing up so many questions, why does only the lover/secondary vamp seem to age? why do they age when they are vamps? why do they age so quick? why does 'Miss Blaylock' age at the end? why does feeding on blood not save them etc...I could on.

Really this feels like an experiment in film making and imagery, its very glamorous and classy looking with a cast to match...Bowie, Sarandon and Deneuve, one could almost say its one long perfume advert or music video seeing as the plot ideas are so unexplained. I also find it rather odd that this sultry female vampire is somehow able to store loads of coffins with rotting mummies in her attic without them being noticed (the smell?), and why she also seems to have a pigeon infestation up there too lol!, she sure does like long flowing silky drapes though.

Definitely a cult and certainly worth seeing if you like vampire films, horror/thrillers or unusual one offs as films like this don't come along very often. Strongly advise seeing if you also have a Sarandon fetish hehe ;)
December 8, 2011
phubbs1

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • The Hunger (DE)
  • The Hunger (UK)
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