People are voting emotionally.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The Hunger starts off as a bad '80s music video for post-punk band Bauhaus, who perform their song Bela Lugosi's Dead in a nightclub amidst lots of blue light and smoke, after which director Tony Scott settles for a soporific avant garde/art-house style to tell his dreary story of a vampire, Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve), whose lovers eventually succumb to rapid ageing and death, despite her promise of eternal youth. David Bowie plays John, the latest of Miriam's partners to grow old and die before her eyes, and Susan Sarandon is doctor Sarah Roberts, who finds herself with a hunger for blood after a lesbian fling with the vampire.Repetitive intercutting of scenes, lots of billowing curtains, people smoking cigarettes, more fluttering pigeons/doves than a John Woo film, and classical music: chic and stylish is what Scott is clearly aiming for; boring and pretentious is what he delivers.A pitiful 1/10, despite Deneuve and Sarandon's sexy scene, and some excellent old-age make-up by industry legend Dick Smith.

Still waiting to catch David Bowie in a good movie, as his list of screen credits is small but decent enough. I didn't care for "The Man Who Fell to Earth" or the Italian Western "Il Mio West", and now this one makes it three in a row. Actually, Bowie's not in this film all that long, his character John Blaylock ages into decrepitude rather quickly and ominously when he wears out his welcome with vampire supreme Miriam (Catherine Deneuve). The early premise of the story built around Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon) and her research team studying the effects of sleep on the aging process was kind of interesting. I would liked to have had that theme explored a bit more after the crazy monkey killed Betty and ate her. Swear to God, that's in the movie.The reviewers who graded this film highly actually have some good arguments regarding it's artistic merits but this one just didn't do it for me. The best I can point to is the stylized cinematography and rather cool opening 'Bela Lugosi is Dead' treatment, but after that the murky story gets a tad gruesome, even for mature audiences. Sad to say, even well accepted vampire lore gets thrown overboard more than once each time Miriam sees her own reflection in a mirror.

Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve) is an immortal vampire, who promises certain humans they will embrace eternal life if they become her lover. We see her current lover is John (David Bowie), a young and attractive cellist. The two comfortably live within their own means, sucking blood from unsuspecting people at the nightclubs they frequently venture and assimilate to New York life quite nicely. Feeding on young souls is what keeps Miriam and John eternally young and attractive, and presumably have an incorruptible youthfulness in terms of appearance and state-of-mind.It isn't until John begins to suffer from chronic insomnia that robs him of his youthful looks and makes him show his age, roughly over two-hundred-years-old, meaning that while he has inherited eternal life, he will never inherit eternal youth. John seeks the help and companionship of Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), a veteran gerontologist (age specialist) who has researched the aging effects in primates for many years. As John tries to decide whether to fight or come to terms with his aging, which has rendered him lethargic and hideous, Sarah tries to find comfort and answers with her sexuality and her own mortality. Her boyfriend Tom (Cliff De Young) notices her spending more time with Miriam, leading him to question her intentions as she becomes dangerously drawn to the lifestyle Miriam lives by.Tony Scott's directorial debut The Hunger is one of the damnedest films I've seen in quite sometime, and certainly one of the more interesting vampire films, and directorial debuts for that matter, I've seen, as well. It's a combination of an exercise in modern Gothic style and the elaboration on vampire life in a way that's serious and believable. The Hunger plays like a devilishly sleek and visual soap opera that never so much as scares, but entrances, as it moves with the grace and elegance of a femme fatale, but hulks and lingers like Nosferatu in terms of the presence it reveals.Simply put, this is an experience more-so than it is a film to find yourself attached to. I found myself rather alienated by the characters in the film, and more concerned with Scott's approach to style and filmmaking craft. The dichotomy of filmmaking brothers Ridley and Tony Scott always fascinates me because where Ridley lacks in craft and detail, Tony always seems to excel, even in his later action pictures like Unstoppable, which have now become grounds for "vulgar auteurism." Tony gets the details of The Hunger down to a tee, be them in an aesthetic perspective that allows the bright color of red to pulsate through the screen at various points in the film, or in a narrative perspective, which has Sarandon's Sarah the main subject of serious commentary on sexual awakening, particularly lesbianism and whether or not her story is a parable of coming to terms with one's own sexuality.The Hunger is less a film defined by the strength of its acting, but by the sheer presences and personalities its performers exist as, particularly Catherine Deneuve, who radiates enigma throughout the entire film. A beautiful soul in the film, yet undeniably troubled and weighed down by circumstance, Deneuve's Miriam manages to be one of the film's most fascinating characters, despite most of the crucial events of the film happening to David Bowie's John, largely because of her ominous presence throughout the course of the film.The Hunger's most prominent shortcoming comes in the regard of its editing, which juxtaposes the story of Dr. Roberts with Miriam and John's, causing a rather tumultuous and unpolished editing scheme that has Scott at a quandary in terms of maintaining narrative cohesion. Because of this, Scott can't focus on one particular character or situation and fully develop them, and instead, tries to balance out the playing field by throwing in another story when, in reality, bot need separate developments. It's a classic device many use on their directorial debut to try and prevent monotony and give the audiences a lot to digest, though it backfires here largely because of its strange and carefully plotted story.With that, the aura of The Hunger and the cast itself, are worth the price of admission. This is a vampire film as original and immersive as it is perplexing, and the style of the film mimics that of Gothic/Victorian-era decor without being too overbearing or reliant on setpieces. Scott and company have, in turn, crafted a vampire film not guaranteed to live forever, but one that will not die quickly thanks to all it lays out on the table.Starring: Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, and Cliff De Young. Directed by: Tony Scott.

The movie is bit unusual in that French, British, and American actors all share a starring role. The movie perhaps for that reason seems to be made to appeal to both American and European audiences. The tone of visuals are more like artsy European movies, but the plot that aging process is being scientifically investigated is kind of American science fiction-ish touch. The story is about vampirism, so there's erotic touch to the story. But the erotic touch is different from any other types of movie I've seen. It's gorgeous and seductive at the same time.All three leads, Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon looks fantastic in this movie. I've never seen any of them so beautiful before. It's really one of a kind movie performed by top notch actors at the height of their beauty, and is worth a watch7.5/10