The Hunger (1983)

The Hunger is a 1983 horror film directed by Tony Scott, who killed himself this year. It stars Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Cliff DeYoung (who has a ST:DS9 connection), Bessie Love (whose 1st film was in 1915, in her last film), Willem Dafoe (in his 2nd credited film role) and Bauhaus (yes, the band).

This is a bizarre little piece, beautiful to watch. The score is integral to the scenes and to the film as a whole rather than being used as background music and to predict coming action. This is much more my "style" of movie, with violence being mostly off-screen and without the kind of extended scenes of pain shown in films like Audition. I find this style much easier to watch and more enjoyable than films that glory in the gory.

Moria gives it 4 out of 5 stars, describes it as "such a relentlessly revisionist vampire film that we never see any fangs, crucifixes or even hear the word vampire mentioned anywhere throughout" and says,

More than anything, what the film embodies is a fear of death and aging. Rarely has the sense of the creeping obscenity of age eating away beauty and the sense of powerlessness it brings been conveyed than during the first half of the film

Classic-Horror.com says

The Hunger is much more than just a retread of the Hammer vampire lesbian story. It is a multi-layered visual and thematic onslaught with nuances often overlooked.

Slant Magazine calls it "ludicrous". Roger Ebert calls it "an agonizingly bad vampire movie, circling around an exquisitely effective sex scene."