The Hunger

I have a bit of a problem with vampire movies. When I watch a horror movie, I have this tendency to want the monsters in it to be scary and nasty, and yet the bulk of vampire movies tend to make them Anne Rice rejects that go around sexing it up and being all goth. There are, of course, some notable exceptions, such as the Nosferatu films, but for the most part vampire films spend way too much time trying to be sexy instead of being scary. Now, which of those two possibilities does this film fall under? Well, considering that it opens with a bunch of goths dancing to Bauhaus at a club, I think we can write off the scary aspect.

It’s rather curious to see such a great deal of talent being so misused in this film. I normally like Tony Scott’s movies, but this is the worst thing I’ve ever seen from him (granted, it was his first feature length film, so I guess he has a bit of an excuse). He fills the movie with an array of incredibly pretentious music and supposedly dreamlike imagery in a poor attempt to fill the film with a gravitas that it in no way has. It’s also an incredibly muddled film; close to halfway through the film, when Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon meet, the film completely forgets what it has been about up to this point in favor of setting up a lesbian angle between them (after what I’ve been watching this week, I am beginning to suspect that all women the world over are one step away from becoming full blown lesbians) that completely fails to work as, despite having Catherine Deneuve in it, it also has Susan Sarandon. The ending comes out of nowhere too, in a clumsy attempt to remember what was going on at the start of the film and trying to shoehorn it into the lesbian act. Just rubbish.

Also, I’m a big Bowie fan, but, while I did like his character in this (for what small a role he had), he’s not exactly known for appearing in good movies, and this one is no exception. Save your money.

Rating: *