Rating: 
Summary: Vampire Classic FINALLY on DVD
Review: THE HUNGER is known for many things. Foremost is the love scene between vamp Miriam (Deneuve) and victim Sarah (Sarandon). But it offers more than one of the best photographed lesbian love scenes ever! Secondly it won the academy award for make-up - a disturbing sequence of Bowie aging is sublime! It is a modern horror classic that introduced Gothic elements and merged them with an over the top 80s sensibility. It is a film many argue has more style than substance, but it remains an affecting moving piece that has earned its cult status. The story is loosely based on the Whitley Strieber novel, and concerns a vampire (Miriam) who can take a lover and make them live for a couple hundred years with her as long as they feed weekly and get enough sleep. It begins with John (Bowie) entering a phase where he begins to age rapidly as his time passes - he can't eat or sleep. Miriam must find a new partner, and comes to fancy a doctor who is researching the effects of aging - Sarah. Tony Scott directed this film with style to spare -- live shots of Peter Murphy singing "Bela Lugosi's Dead", wicked outfits, smoke and mist, and a classical score that ehanced the timeless setting. Sometimes he bombards you with images that seem confusing at first, but this is a film about visceral pleasures so enjoy the ride. The cast is superior - Bowie, Deneuve, and Sarandon never looked better and they add tons of weight to the story. The score is amazing! The pacing is purposefully languid like a long slow seduction. The DVD seems to be a barebones affair without extras. On laser disc it only came with a trailer, so expect the same. Hopefully they may change this, but it is definitely a movie where sight and sound will help! So thank goodness for the DVD release. I haven't seen a good widescreen print since it was in theatres.
Rating:
Summary: Softly, brilliantly crafted, but certainly not for everyone
Review: This cult art film classic is the quintessential vampire film of the 1980s and is one of my favorite vampire fliks of all time. THE HUNGER is a very good film, even though, at times, it moves rather slowly. Deneuve plays Miriam, a stone-faced centuries-old vampire who has had a string of lovers of the many years of her life. As the film opens, she and her longtime bloodsucking paramour, John (played by Bowie), are coping with their own mortality. That's right, I said mortality. In THE HUNGER, vampires can die of old age. Bowie's appearence in the film is somewhat brief, but he makes the most of the time he has with a well-developed character. The makeup used to age him into a shriveled old man is complemented by Bowie's ability to play age well, both physically and emotionally. There is a quiet poignancy to the romance of between Miriam and John, but when scientist Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon) visits the Blaylock mansion one day, Miriam's real romance begins. As I mentioned, the movie can sometimes feel slow, but it's well worth sitting through as the film is not so much horror and gore (although when it's bloody, it's nicely bloody), but erotic and intellectual. Sarandon and Denueve are both excellently cast and create some rather arousing scenes together. Although there is little action, there are many themes and ideas to be explored in this story. As such, I would say THE HUNGER is definitely for fans of art films, rather than those who are attracted to Hollywood productions.
Rating:
Summary: Rich and elegant
Review: This film decisively breaks the mold set for "vampire movies." Catherine Deneuve brings elegance, David Bowie brings style, and Susan Sarandon brings skill and depth. The movie is very much about the people, it's about control and trust.
The storytelling is a bit vague at times, but that's OK. The movie carries itself in its imagery. The nightclub in the first scene, a bizarre transformation in a furnace, and of course the seduction - wonderful scenes, even if taken in isolation. Bowie and Deneuve, promising "forever," put an additional chill into the first scene of his coffin.
I find it hard to describe this movie - the action is subdued but meaningful. The visual styling has subtlety, something I appreciate more after seeing other movies that lack it.
I like this one. I have trouble saying just why, but it's one I'll come back to, again and again.
//wiredweird
Rating:
Summary: Vivid Erotica
Review: This film is strange because the storyline seems vague and weak but it's this cold detached vagueness that makes this film unique.It represents the decadent 80's like Helmut Newton,Andy Warhol,and Wall Street.Deneuve and Bowie are icons of style and that is the pulsating force of the film.So vapid and beautiful an impression.Probably the most erotic love scenes captured on film,sex as the hunger to connect with another on the most intimate level.In psychological terms, vampires represent the alienated whose need for love become a self-imposed prison.Vampires are a metaphor for lovers dying from social constraint.I remember the 80's as one long dark nightmare very similar to this film.
Rating: 
Summary: Vampire Vogue
Review: This is director Tony Scott's treatise on style. From the opening in a "new wave" club (featuring Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi Is Dead") to the closing shot on a balcony overlooking Manhattan, appearance is everything. This is an observation, not a complaint. The cast is uniformly good. Catherine Deneuve is hard and glamorous. Susan Sarandon is open and, um, hungry. David Bowie is, well I won't spoil it for you but the performance is fine. Music is deftly used throughout the film. The Bauhaus sets a tone of dread and anticipation. The Shubert piece is haunting and sorrowful and used so well it suggests more depth than the movie possesses. The "Flower Duet" from "Lakme" was used here before it became a cliche and it's used well--Deneuve uses it to seduce Sarandon in a scene that is probably the most erotic that I have ever seen (coming from a gay man that is quite a compliment). The themes of aging love and the quest for more life (Harold Bloom would be proud) still work. The cult of "Donnie Darko" would do well with this one. Also fans of both sitcom TV and performance art will enjoy the cameo from Ann Magnuson. Not quite a classic but well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Sensual Feast Not to be Missed
Review: This movie evokes sensuality, not just from the sexual scenes, in fact those are incidental to the haunting music, the flapping of dove's wings in the attic, the crumbling of aged bodies - all this behind the veil of the music. Then there is the poinancy of the lifestyle the characters are seduced into and the inevitability of that lifestyle. This is my favorite vampire movie of all time and on my top 10 movies of all time. Once you have seen the movie, you will understand my review.
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste....
Review: Wonderful actresses:Sarandon and Deneuve .Both in 1983 on Top of the World. And as result a sleazy ,poorly cut story, played mostly in the dark with curtains flowing? What a waste of celluloid .
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