The Hunger (2005)
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 15
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
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
Apr 29, 1983 Wide
Oct 5, 2004
MGM
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Catherine Deneuve
Miriam -
David Bowie
John -
Susan Sarandon
Sarah Roberts -
Cliff De Young
Tom Haver -
Beth Ehlers
Alice Cavender -
Dan Hedaya
Lt. Allegrezza -
Rufus Collins
Charlie Humphries -
Suzanne Bertish
Phyllis -
James Aubrey
Ron -
Bauhaus
Disco Group -
Willem Dafoe
Phone Booth Youths -
Lise Hilboldt
Waiting Room Nurse -
Douglas Lambert
TV Host -
Bessie Love
Lilybelle -
Ann Magnuson
Young Woman from Disco -
John Pankow
1st Phone Booth Youth -
Shane Rimmer
Jelinek -
Philip Sayer
London House Couple -
Sophie Ward
Girl in London House -
Ed Wiley
Intern -
Allan Richards
Cadaver -
Michael Howe
1st Intern
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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.
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.
Top CriticThe 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.
The movie reeks with chic, but never, for one minute, takes itself too seriously, nor does it ever slop over into camp.
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.
Vampire movies were always cool, but it took The Hunger to make them modern.
Bloody lesbian-vampire story is stylish, but no Twilight.
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.
More style than substance, and perhaps simply an excuse to get Denueve and Susan Sarandon, Miriam's post-Bowie love, in bed together.
A slick, largely empty visual exercise with vague thematic overtones about a clash between American and European culture.
Deneuve and Sarandon are something else.
Nearly unwatchable lesbian vampire flick.
Strictly for perverts, dumb blondes, and camp enthusiasts.
In The Hunger, like in that ludicrous advertisement for Britney Spears's Curious perfume, sexual desire simply provokes postmodern psychotropic episodes.
Audience Reviews for The Hunger
Super Reviewer
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 ;)
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- The Hunger (DE)
- The Hunger (UK)
