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Tony Scott month: The Hunger

We bring Tony Scott month to an end with a very deep cut for him. If you've been following along and watching the films as we go through the month, consider this your final exam. Strangely this is his first film and one of his strangest. This is the only horror film Scott made and one of the strangest films of the '80s.

The Hunger is basically about a very strange love triangle. Susan Sarandon plays Dr. Sarah Roberts, who is working with primates in an attempt to find a way to possibly reverse the aging process. She is approached by John Blaylock, played by the God himself David Bowie, who seems to age rapidly after Roberts denies his request for help. When she goes to find him, she is seduced by John's lover Miriam, played by the ravishing Catherine Deneuve.

The Hunger is part of the wave of vampire films that came out of the '80s. They were slicker than the likes of the dark violent ones that came from the '70s, such as the violent Hammer Dracula films. Films like The Lost Boys and Vamp added some major sexuality to the vampire myhtos. These aren't your Twilight vampires. These vampires are incredibly sexual and brutally violent. The perfect mix of the sexuality of Dracula and brutality of Count Orlock.

I rewatched this so I could properly cover it for Tony Scott month. I remembered that it didn't look like a lot of Tony Scott films but boy was I wrong. This film is so slick and Scott perfectly creates a dark but sexy world for these vampires to live in. Someone I haven't mentioned really at all during Tony Scott month is his brother Ridley, the director of just a couple of little films like Alien and Blade Runner. I am convinced these two collaborated on each other's films. Some scenes in The Hunger are straight out of Blade Runner. Ridley has a film called Black Rain, stay tuned for that to be covered one Friday, that also shares some similar aesthetic choices to The Hunger. There's no way these two weren't helping each other. Something has been missing from Ridley's films ever since Tony's death.

The Hunger is one you just need to go and watch. I don't want to spoil any beat of this film. Have some amount of tolerance for violence and nudity. We now reach the end of Tony Scott month. There's a few we didn't get to for one reason or another. One of his big films is being rolled over into next month but more on that later. But I'm glad we were able to highlight a majority of Tony Scott's filmography. This is one of my all time favorite directors and I hope some of you have a love for him now as well. He may be gone but we'll always have his films.


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