Film review: The Hunger

The Hunger (1983) Directed by Tony Scott (Spoilers)

This erotic and stylish film based on the novel of the same name by Whitley Strieber, stars Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. Miriam (Deneuve) is a beautiful bisexual vampire who falls in love with her consorts and bestows them with the gift of immortal life. But unlike her, the lovers age and transform into wrinkled desiccated husks. She keeps them in her cellar as part of a gruesome collection of lovers where she occasionally whispers affectionately to them. Miriam and her lover John are not typical vampires, they are more like immortals who must feed on human blood. They do not possess fangs and do not mind the sunlight, all other 'vampire killing weapons' are useless against them. In order to feed they use sharp pointed ankh pendants to stab at their victim's neck and then they drain them, making sure to burn the bodies and leave no trace behind. A typical hunt for the couple is seen at the beginning where John and Miriam are in a nightclub with loud rock music and flashing lights, a very stylized scene that depicts the nightlife of the decade. They invite a couple back to their home where they feed and dispose of the bodies. The ankh pendant symbolizes eternal life in ancient Egypt and Miriam's background.

The next day John (Bowie) notices that he is aging, he approaches a brilliant doctor Sarah (Sarandon) for help. She is experimenting with blood diseases and aging. She ignores John who ages so rapidly that despite him begging Miriam to kill him, she puts him in the cellar with her other lovers. Sarah tries to find John but meets Miriam and the two fall in love, in a very erotic and beautiful scene with 'The Flower Duet' in the background, Miriam and Sarah make love. Without Sarah noticing, Miriam bites her arm and injects her own blood into Sarah's vein. Soon Sarah notices the changes to her body and tries to fight the urge to feed and tries to fight miriam who wants to make her into another lover.

This film is very stylized and quite exquisite, the actors are perfect in it, I love the chemistry between Bowie and Deneuve. I also found the love scene between Sarandon and Deneuve quite gorgeous. The costumes and the cinematography are also stunning. I do agree that some plot points are sketchy and audiences are left a bit puzzled, in the end this film should be seen as a work of cinematic art. It is a sexual techno thriller with vampires.

Film Review:The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys (1987) Directed by Joel Schumacher

The famous tagline of this film is: 'Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire.'

The vampire movies of the 1980s seriously needed some reinvention, in this movie the vampires are transformed into punks. They were no longer scary monsters or blood devouring old men or too sexy. Before The Lost Boys and Buffy, vampires were solitary and rarely travelled in packs. For the first time the vampires are a band of stylized, leather clad, thrill seeking bikers, this was quite unique at the time and heavily inspired other films and TV shows later on.

Although the typical vampire cliches remain in this film, they work well. The vampires are allergic to holy water, they burn in the sun, the cliche of garlic was funnily destroyed in the film as the vamps don't mind it.

The film has some interesting parallels with 'Peter Pan', the title first all refers to Peter Pan and his friends, the tagline 'never grow old' is similar to 'never grow up'. The character of Lucy Emerson, the mother of the two boys Michael and Sam is wooed by the 'alpha vampire' Max and  nearly forced to be a 'mother' to the 'lost boys', much like Wendy.

The style of the vampires are very attractive for the decade, leather coats, punk, bleached hair, piercing, bikes and the 'no fear' attitude of punks that audiences loved.

Kiefer Sutherland's character of David kick started a new age of Gothic sexiness. Without him Joss Whedon wouldn't have created the iconic character of Spike and without the success of this film he wouldn't have created the hit show Buffy.

This film is not scary, it is more of a horror comedy with still a few scares and violent moments. I enjoyed watching it and will watch it again.

                                          These vampires had a 'killer style'

                                                            Biker vampires

Film Review: Near Dark

Near Dark (1987) Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

(Warning: some spoilers below)

This film is unlike other vampire films, it's technically a Western with horror elements: vampires. It could be called a 'Vampire Western'.

Funnily enough, the word 'vampire' isn't uttered at all in the film, it's a bit like the 'Z-word' in zombie films.

The greatest thing about Near Dark is the concept of the dysfunctional family. In films today vampires aren't alone, they live in covens or families, ever since The Lost Boys. The family of bloodsuckers travels around, drinks blood and kill their victims in quite violent and gory ways. To them it's just like another family day out.

There's the tall skinny, sneering 'dad' figure of Jesse (a perfect Lance Henriksen), the 'mom' Diamondback played by Jenette Goldstein, the twisted sadistic Severen (an awesome Bill Paxton), the vamp boy-child Homer and the almost-angelic and innocent Mae. The boy-vamp is fascinating as well as creepy, he looks like an 11 year old boy but acts and speaks like a man.

These vamps are slightly different than other typical screen vamps, they don't have fangs, they can't fly, they can't transform and they aren't scared by crosses, garlic and stakes, they are however burned by the sun.

Blending romance with a plot involving an underclass of white trash nomads who are also vampires, Near Dark portrays in a weird sick sense, a world of misfits, how society sees them and how they treat others.

The misfits here being the vampires, they suck the life from all corners of straight society.

This pack is perhaps the nastiest mob of bloodsuckers on screen as they randomly pick fights, kill everybody in a bar and enjoy every moment of it. They leave a bloody mess everywhere they go, they thrive more on violence than on blood.

Their family life is somewhat disrupted when Mae falls in love with the human Caleb (Adrian Pasdar from Heroes), bites him and tries to initiate him into the family, unfortunately Caleb refuses to drink blood.

This film is really good, I enjoyed watching it. It has a sense of uniqueness, it is part Western and part psycho-sexual thriller with a touch of the decade's love for realistic splatter effects.

The film was the first one to include a 'cure' to vampirism, Caleb undergoes a blood transfusion and is human again, he has Mae undergo the same procedure so that they can be together. It's interesting because it's something other filmmakers, fans and writers never thought about, vampirism was like a terminal illness, it's irreversible, but not in this film.

Overall it is a good film from the 80s and still remains a cult classic today.

Film Review: Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) Directed by Neil Jordan (Spoilers)

This film was released nearly two decades after the publication of the novel by Anne Rice during a resurgent interest in the vampire genre was emerging. It became the highest grossing vampire film and it was the highest budgeted vampire film at the time. With a stellar cast of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater and Kirtsten Dunst it is an erotic, visually stunning film and still a cult classic.

The vampire Louis (Pitt) narrates his tale to the journalist (Slater) and the scene immediately changes to the exotic and gothic setting of Louisiana. Louis, a human who mourns the loss of his family, is attacked by the vampire Lestat (Cruise) In this scene, the vampire bites and they fly up into the rigging of a ship, the events become fantastic and the underscore Wagnerian.

The transformation scene of Louis is almost dreamlike, as the audience is able to see what Louis can see with  his 'vampire eyes'. The colors are different, statues seem to move.

Now in a complicated relationship with a companion Louis dislikes, he must feed on blood. Louis refuses to drink human blood and drinks from rats instead. Lestat tries his best to convince Louis to drink from humans but allows his friend to drink rats instead of letting him starve.

Lestat transforms the little Claudia (Dunst) into a vampire daughter for them, he did it so that Louis wouldn't leave. Claudia connects more with Louis and sleeps in his coffin: 'she slept in my coffin at first, curling her little fingers around my hair.' The scene shows them nestled together.

Lestat enjoys feeding and killing men, women and even children, Claudia shares the same hunger. She rejects her 'father' Lestat, she is so infuriated by her unending childhood that she kills him.

Claudia loves Louis like a father and also like a lover: 'Louis, my love, I was mortal till you gave me your immortal kiss'. She whispers this to Louis.

Louis and Claudia flee to Paris where they meet the Parisian coven of 'vampires pretending to be humans pretending to be vampires.' This coven owns a 'Grand Gignol' like theatre called Le Theatre des Vampires where they perform shows almost like a snuff movie today. Their leader is Armand (Banderas).

 Louis and Claudia watch a performance where a young helpless woman is tormented and attacked despite her pleading to an audience who think they are only actors. The woman is stripped, Armand appears on stage and in a comforting mesmerizing tone says 'No pain'. The woman surrenders and is somewhat 'devoured' by a horde of animalistic vampires. The scene is pitiful but clearly portrays the activities of the Parisian coven.

The rest of the film becomes more dramatic as Armand falls in love with Louis and Claudia senses it, she is ready to let her 'father/lover' go if he makes a 'mother' for her, the doll shop owner Madeleine. Unfortunately  They are abducted by the coven and in a very tragic scene, Claudia and Madeleine are executed, as they are burnt by the sun, they embrace like a mother and daughter. Louis who was locked in a coffin and freed by Armand, finds them as ash statues frozen in agony, as he touches them they crumble to the floor like dust. This scene is quite shocking and it's almost impossible to not feel the sorrow Louis feels.

The next scene is violent and gory as Louis burns down the Theatre and cuts off any attacking vampires with a scythe, ironically the scythe that the vampire actor Santiago was using in a previous performance while portraying the angel of death.

Time goes on and Louis travels back to America where he assimilates with 20th century life, seeing his first sunrise on a big screen in a cinema.

I have watched this film countless times and still love it, it's got gore, blood, violence and tragic moments. It is a a good adaptation of Anne Rice's novel. Jordan incorporates the ideal elements to a stunning Gothic film.

                            One happy vampire family

                                A 'performance' at the Theatre des Vampires in Paris