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In a few (borrowed) words: It's Horrible...I Love It...What Is It?

In a few more words: I've always wanted to re-watch this one. I saw it ages ago on TV, in fullscreen, and found it rather weird and a bit boring.

So many years later I felt like finding out if it was as great as some people say or as bas as... some other people say. I can't exactly say my conclusions differ much from my previous ones. Yes, on paper "The hunger" looks great. It has a perfect cast, an intringuing love triangle setup and gorgeous visuals that sit comfortably between the beautiful, the kitsch and the downright weird.

But then, it doesn't have much of a script. Stuff happens. Sometimes very, very slowly. Too slowly. And we don't get much of an explanation on how the whole issue of inmortality works, except that it gets very badly if your lover starts losing interest on you.

So the best and the worst thing that could ever happen to this film were to end in the hands of Tony Scott. He does create some striking visuals. The opening of the film, intercutting a Bauhaus performance with the presentation of the main characters is wonderful. But as the film progresses Scott seems more worried about giving the film a glossy look than anything else, and little by little his camerawork and trademark stylisms become suffocating and irritating.

So, is it a bad film? Not necessarily. As the review at Amazon suggests, "The hunger" is exactly what vampire films needed in the 80s. A film that portrayed them as exquisitely decadent, sexually adventurous (or just careless?) and, yes, vapid and superficial. And  Tony Scott was certainly the best man for the job. 

I went and saw this several times on the big screen when it first came out.  I liked the thought of Susan Sarandon and Catherine DeNuvre working together -- Seems I liked it a lot better than you did --

I found the "mummy's revenge!" business at the end to be really cool & liked how the polariod accidentally recorded the little girl's death.  Plus Bowie just makes an excellent vampire.  Did you catch him as Tesla in "The Prestige"?  He really needs to do more roles.

peter johnson/denny crane

I did like bits of it. A lot. But once Bowie is out of the equation the whole thing degenerates into a series of stills of Deneuve and Sarandon wrapped in silky curtains with period music as a soundtrack.

I still can appreciate how damn beautiful the film looks after all these years, specially in widescreen. You'd think Tony Scott's MTV sensibility would look silly after so many years, but it looks wonderfully decadent, and very fitting.

I agree in which Bowie sohuld act more, he's been terrific in everything I've seen him in.

I liked this film when I saw it in its initial theatre run.  It's this film that made me pay more attention to the VLADO PERLEMUTER Vox Box set of 3 LPs of MAURICE RAVEL piano works that I had acquired with a huge collection of Classical albums (it's Le Gibet CATHERINE DENEUVE plays on the piano while wooing SUSAN SARANDON).  THE HUNGER also inspired me to go out and buy a couple of BAUHAUS records: The Sky Gone Out and a 12 inch of "Bela Lugosi's Dead".

I saw this during its theatrical release.  Hated it and never had any desire to see it again.

I too saw it at the theater.I neither loved it nor hated it.Guess it was just a bit too artsyfartsy for my 12 year old mind.
I remember that during Sue and Kates love scene,the guy in front of me told his kid to turn around.His exact words,"Turn your head,Fred".I still say that to my older brother whenever we watch a movie together and there's a nude scene.

 I saw most of this film awhile back and never quite got around to finishing it...just out of curiosity, is it worth rewatching to finish? :bluesad:

I'd say "nope", but the rest of the posters seemed to enjoy it.