WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: The Hunger 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:07.680 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.559 Lamb and today we are re airing our Valentine's Day 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.360 episode from last year. It is our discussion of the 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.720 nineteen eighty three Tony Scott film The Hunger. This one's 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:24.280 a lot of fun, so so stylish, So Gothy, let's 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:24.880 dive right in. 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.280 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:45.560 Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:48.720 here in today's episode. You know, I really wanted to 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.560 cover a paranormal love story of some sort for the holiday, 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.800 and I gave myself this task and probably spend a 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:58.800 little bit too much time looking at different films. I'm 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:00.640 trying to figure out what would be what felt like 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.720 the right fit. I looked at a few different, very 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.240 well regarded films that seemed to fit the mold, but 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:11.200 ended up being drawn into today's selection the highly stylish 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.600 nineteen eighty three erotic horror film The Hunger, a movie 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.880 that was really only on my radar for being a 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.399 film in which David Bowie plays a Vampire. But it's 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:25.440 actually so much more than just that. It's become a 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.280 cult favorite with many due to its heavy goth vibes. 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:33.600 It's LGBTQ themes, and it's absolutely bursting at the scenes 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:37.039 with visual and sonic pizazz. And I tell you, I 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.280 hope you like Venetian blinds because there are a lot 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:41.199 of them in this movie. 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.600 Yes, and doves, JJ was reminded. JJ also watched the 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.360 movie this week and we were talking about it off 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:52.760 Mike before we started this. JJ reminded me that there 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:54.840 are just doves in their house all the time. Is 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.720 full of birds. They have like an open air attic. 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.680 Is just birds coming and going all the time. Yes. 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.080 Yeah, I watched this one with my wife, and in fact, 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.040 it was partially her suggestion. I was just brainstorming all 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.200 these ideas and she pulled up some lists online of 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.000 paranormal horror films and she was like, how about The 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:14.320 Hunger And I was like, oh, well, you know, The 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.160 Hunger has been on my radar a little bit. We've 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:19.280 it's come up in passing on the show before when 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:21.880 we've discussed David Billie films, And so she watched it 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:23.560 with me she really enjoyed it. She loved all the 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.919 like the gothy eighty eighties vibe to it. But also 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:30.440 she pointed out, like this feels like a feature length 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.919 music video, and in many ways that is absolutely accurate 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:35.480 and one of its strengths. 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:39.079 Yeah, yeah, turn around Bright Eyes for ninety minutes or 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:42.600 a hundred or so. It's But don't let don't get 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.760 the wrong idea from that. I do think this is 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:48.520 actually a very strong film. I liked it a lot, 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.800 despite the fact that critics apparently largely did not appreciate 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.280 it when it came out. But I get the feeling 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.680 this one has has gotten a critical reappraisal, like a 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.840 lot more people like it than did when it first released. 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:04.960 Yeah, and I believe that the cult following for it 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:09.760 was really building up within the decade following its release, 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.840 so you know, kind of a slow build there, But 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.800 I think it achieved cult status by at least the nineties. 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:17.120 As we'll discuss now. 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:18.720 One thing I want to say close to the top 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.880 of this episode is despite the fact that The Hunger 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.240 is not especially plot driven, I'd say it's more of 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:29.880 a mood driven or character driven film. It does have 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.600 some major surprises in store, and we're going to have 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.440 to talk about those surprises in the episode, so please 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.360 be forewarned if you want to see The Hunger without 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:42.840 having anything spoiled, and I would recommend that a good 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:45.480 time to pause and go watch the movie would be Now. 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.560 That being said, this movie is so committed to style. 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:51.280 I feel like it's one of those where if you're 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.640 spoiled on it, you can still really enjoy it. 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.320 So rob like you. I had never seen The Hunger before, 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.320 but I found it very, as I said, surprise, but 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:05.960 also delightful, interesting, different. It felt fresh at its core. 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.520 I think you could call this kind of a tainted 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:14.800 love tale. It's a story primarily about romantic relationships, but 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.160 one in which it is not all, you know, steamy 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.960 arrows and desire and lust like a lot of vampire 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:27.320 love movies are. It's also not rom com energy. It's 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.599 not like all cute falling for you kind of moments. 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:32.760 And it's certainly not the case that this is full 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.919 of feel good morals about the eternal and all conquering 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:40.240 power of love. This movie, like other tainted love tales, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:45.600 is about the ambiguities and contradictions of romantic love, the 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.919 sort of vast gray space that defines a lot of 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.520 what love is. Where people might feel one way but 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:56.880 act another, where it's impossible to put your emotions into words, 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.200 you don't know how to talk about what you're feeling 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:06.039 or what your frustrations with your love. Are situations in 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.320 which people genuinely love one another but also cause each 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:13.040 other pain, where love just gets smashed into a million 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.600 pieces against the surface of problems that cannot be fixed. 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:21.640 And strangely, once I realized that was the kind of 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.880 movie this was, it helped resolve something curious I noticed 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:30.040 while watching The Hunger. Despite the fact that this movie 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:33.479 has a different writer, a different director, totally different plot, 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.919 and for much of its runtime a different star, I 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.440 really kept being reminded of the other big David Bowie 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.359 movie we have watched on the show, which was The 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:45.960 Man Who Fell to Earth from nineteen seventy six, directed 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.520 by Nicholas Rogue. That movie stars David Bowie as a 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.120 tragic alien agent on a mission to Earth to secure 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:57.000 water resources which could save his home planet. But of 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:01.080 course that ultimately is a story about failure, about distraction 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:05.000 and the inability to sort of stay on task and 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:09.240 getting led astray by television and alcohol and love and 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:13.279 all that and table tennis right exactly, yes, And so 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:15.320 I was thinking while I was watching it, why did 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.000 these movies feel so similar despite all the totally different 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.640 creative inputs. Could it just be that the power of 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.000 David Bowie is so strong that it paves over everything 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:27.719 that might be a little part of it. But I 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.840 really think there are some other truly strong similarities in 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:36.160 that both stories involve these tainted love themes. They're both 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.760 love stories that have genuine feeling and passion in them. 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.560 They're not just about people using each other for sex 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:46.640 or for power or whatever. They are love stories, but 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:50.800 they're also tragic love stories that cannot possibly have happy endings, 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.640 in part because of the sci fi or supernatural mechanics 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.440 that are operating in each story, and in part because 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:00.640 of the kinds of human failings and contradict that are 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:04.160 present in all relationships of mortal humans, not just aliens 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.200 and vampires. And I guess, since it's been a while, 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.280 just a refresher. The love story central in The Man 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.400 Who Fell to Earth is the one between David Bowie's 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.200 alien character and an earthling played by Candy Clark. That 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:22.160 story is at once both genuine and doomed, doomed by 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.160 Bowie's alien mission and then by the pressures of money 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:30.760 and betrayal and alcoholism. In The Hunger, I think one 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:35.600 of the central thematic tainted love questions is what if 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.840 you could only be with the person you love by 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.200 dooming them to a fate worse than death if you 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.200 choose to do it anyway, If you choose to be 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.160 with them knowing that your love is an unspeakable curse, 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:51.559 could it really be love? But at the same time, 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.120 could it really be love if you could stand not 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.640 to be with them in the first place. I guess 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.400 we'll have to answer those questions as we go on 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.760 throughout the up But another similarity I would say between 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.200 The Men Who Fell to Earth and The Hunger is 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:10.160 certain the presence of certain cinematography choices. Both of them 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.160 are very mood driven, and they both have a kind 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:17.680 of dreamy, elegic editing style with a lot of slow 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:22.920 motion and lingering on wistful and melancholy scenes featuring two 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:27.360 subjects who are suffering but who are unable to fix 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:28.960 what's wrong between them. 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.360 Yeah, it's worth noting. In the commentary track which I 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.920 listened to, part of the director Tony Scott does mention 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.920 Nicholas Rogue, the director of the Man Who Fell to Earth, 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.120 being one of his inspirations, though he singles out the 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.160 film performance more than anything. But of course The Man 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.400 Who Fell to Earth is still in the mix there somewhere, 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:49.119 I imagine. 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:51.960 On the other hand, I would say The Hunger does 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.920 not have like the comic elements that we got in 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.360 The Man Who Fell to Earth when he's watching all 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.640 the TVs and screaming, get out of my mind. 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:04.800 Yeah, there's not really much in the way of humor 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.120 in this picture, and I think that's one of the 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:08.840 things that the critics kind of picked up on. They 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:12.600 thought it was like too self serious, which I don't know. 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:14.840 I feel like, if you're dealing with, you know, with 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:16.760 a story like this, and you're dealing with, you know, 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.360 with these all these gothic vibes on top of it, like, 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:21.840 I don't know, I don't think I really was wanting 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:23.480 any comic relief in this picture. 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:28.000 I certainly was not hurting for want of comic relief. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.320 And no, this movie doesn't need that. It's just not 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.920 its style. It's not what it's about. Another surprising element 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.480 I found about The Hunger, at least a violation of 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:44.080 my expectations going in, was the relatively grounded science fiction subplot. 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.320 Did not think it would have that kind of thing happening. 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:51.640 So this will require some discussion of the plot, but 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:53.160 I guess it's good to lay out a bit of 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.240 the premise here at the top, because we can refer 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:57.200 back to that as we talk about the cast and 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.320 so forth. So two of the main characters of this 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:05.200 movie begin the story as vampires, as vampire lovers, and 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:10.240 they are faced with a unique consequence of their condition. 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:15.840 In the lore of this movie, the vampire's spawn enjoys 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:21.040 a long life of suspended youth and vitality for perhaps 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.880 hundreds of years, but at some point it all comes 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:29.240 crashing down as a kind of rapid degenerative aging disease, 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:34.760 where the vampire spawn suddenly grows old and withers into 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:40.040 a powerless but still conscious, crumbling husk over the course 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.880 of a few days or weeks. So in the movie, 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:48.440 Catherine Denov plays a sort of vampire queen of ancient 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:53.240 but otherwise uncertain origins named Miriam, who is in a 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:58.199 centuries long love affair with her vampire spawn, John played 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.800 by David Bowie. Originally a man, she turned into a 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.480 vampire sometime in Europe in the seventeen hundreds. There's like 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:09.880 a scene of them kissing in a barn in powdered wigs, 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.280 and so the situation is while they seem to have 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:17.760 been happy and ageless hunting for blood together for hundreds 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.760 of years, suddenly, in the modern day setting of the 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.920 film in New York in the nineteen eighties, John finds 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:28.560 himself rapidly aging, and he seems to know this was 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.320 something that could happen to him one day, but obviously 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:37.000 it leaves him greatly demoralized and distressed. So this brings 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.920 him into contact with another one of our major characters, 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:45.520 Sarah Roberts played by Susan Sarandon, who is a research scientist. 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:51.240 She's a gerontologist studying diseases that cause accelerated aging, and 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.760 her work provides some hope of a way to stop 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:58.959 the advance of the cellular clock and arrest the rapid 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:03.000 advance of agent to and so as John desperately seeks 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:07.080 her help, she becomes entangled in the lives of these vampires. 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.120 She doesn't initially know their vampires, of course, and she 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.800 becomes it becomes more than just the kind of mechanical 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:18.400 science fiction connection to the story, like she becomes romantically 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:21.000 involved as well. But it was so strange to me 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.640 that the movie ended up having so much having as 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.600 much science fiction as it did, and also the form 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.560 the science fiction took, because it was not the kind of, 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.440 you know, the kind of loose fantasy science fiction that 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.400 you get in The Man Who Fell to Earth. It's 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:39.120 instead a story about like research scientists in their lab 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.280 doing experiments on monkeys. And we can come back to 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:45.400 that later. But like some of the goorioesst and grossest 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.400 stuff in the movie is not from the horror premise. 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.040 It's from the sci fi premise. 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.000 Yeah, yeah, it's so as we'll get to in more 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.160 detail in a bed. This is based on a novel, 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.120 a nineteen eighty one novel by Whitley Streiber, And it's 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.080 my understanding that the original novel is essentially one of 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.960 these kind of like how would this work treatments of 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.920 vamporism with sci fi elements backing it up, And I'm 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.160 to understand that the script for the picture ended up 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:18.600 drifting somewhat away from that vision, and then Tony Scott's 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:22.600 direction and the work of all the other talented folks 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.920 involved in like the visual and sonic flare of the 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.240 picture are able to bring it into more of a 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.440 surreal territory. So, you know, it's kind of an interesting 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.920 trajectory to like maybe start in something that's a little 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.520 more grounded in the sci fi and ending up via 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.960 a curve, ending up with something more surreal and ambiguous, 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.800 but the sci fi roots are still present. 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:47.640 Yeah, totally. But it creates such an an unusual and 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:52.160 interesting millage of themes. It's just it doesn't really feel 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:53.720 like any other movie I can think of. 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.000 Yeah, it really does stand apart. And I think that's 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.319 one of the reasons that it just so instantly captivated me. 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.920 Because some of the other picture as I was checking out, 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:05.200 they felt more like a definite artifact of their time 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:10.480 and or they fit more clearly into genres that we're 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.960 already more familiar with on the show, and this one, Yeah, 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.079 it really stood out. It seemed to have a different 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:21.160 vision and exist in its own sonic and visual universe. 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.600 Now, another big surprise that this movie had for me 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.320 is that I really expected there to be more David 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.280 Bowie in this David Bowie movie. He almost gets the 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.360 treatment of Steven segall an executive decision. Maybe that's a 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:41.120 horrible comparison, maybe more like Drew Barrymore in Scream or 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:44.760 Samuel L. Jackson in Deep Blue Sea. Though, of course 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.200 all of those characters what happens is they die. The 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.320 fate of David Bowie's character in this movie is even 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.440 more tragic and horrifying than death. But I think it's 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.200 interesting that I don't know if there's a formal like 0:14:57.280 --> 0:14:59.360 showbiz term for this, but I would call it like 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.720 a meta shock. You know, it is a violation of 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:07.200 your expectations, which are established. Those expectations are established not 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.800 through the narrative of the movie itself, but through your 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:15.600 real world and knowledge of the movie's marketing context. So, 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.320 for example, it is a surprising move to kill off 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.720 the character played by the big star, the presence of 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.600 whom ostensibly brought people into the movie theaters in the 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:29.680 first place. So that's always a surprising move. It's a 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:33.040 bold and gutsy move usually, though I think it's a 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.240 lot less gimmicky in The Hunger than it is in 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:40.360 most of these metashock deaths you get in the film industry. 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.680 In this movie, it it feels less like a gimmicky 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:50.240 attempt at surprise, and instead it emphasizes the movie's kind 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:54.520 of shadow themes of unfairness and the injustice of love 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:55.520 and of real life. 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.400 Yeah. Absolutely, And I do want to stress for anyone 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:01.360 out there who who happens to be interested in The 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.400 Hunger primarily because of David Bowie, still valid reason to 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.440 be interested in this film. David Bowie will not disappoint you. 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:11.440 The role may have less screen time than you expected, 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.000 but he still makes the most of that screen time. 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:17.480 So definitely worth checking out for Bowie fans. 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.600 Though also for some of the screen time he does have, 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.160 he looks like Richard Lynch or he looks like he 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.600 Oh this is an unkind comparison, but he looks like 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.960 a better version of Guy Pierce and the old Man 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:31.400 makeup in Prometheus. 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.520 Yeah, that's a great observation. But you know, Prometheus didn't 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:40.280 have Dick Smith. As we'll be discussing special effects makeup master. 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:44.840 Dick Smith is largely responsible for the aging of David 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.480 Bowie in this picture. And I think it was Tony 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:52.760 Scott on the commentary track pointing out how or maybe 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:54.840 it was maybe with Susan's frand and somebody who's pointing 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:56.920 out how he's under so much makeup for parts of this. 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.040 But Bowie would just go to sleep in the chair 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:01.200 like he was like super, he's a going while they 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.280 were replying, you know, hours upon hours of makeup and yeah, 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:06.160 and nobody did it better than Dick Smith. 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.960 It is really great old man makeup, way better than 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:11.560 all the other examples I can think of. 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:13.720 All right, well, more on that in a bit, but 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.280 first let's go ahead and roll out the elevator pitch. 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.359 As the song will play a huge role in the 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:21.840 opening sequence of a picture. I'm just going to quote 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:24.600 a few lines from the nineteen eighty two goth rock 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.520 hit Bela Lugosi's Dead by bow House with one pronoun 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.879 change to make it fit better. The virginal brides file 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:36.320 past her tomb strewn with times, dead flowers, bereft in 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.640 Deathly Bloom, alone in a darkened room, the count. 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:47.200 Bell refed in Deathly Bloom, Yes exactly, Oh what a delivery. 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:48.879 Who's the singer of Bowhouse. 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.600 That's Peter Murphy and we'll sleep. We'll see Peter Murphy 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:53.560 in the opening sequence here. 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.400 Tremendous flat delivery there, very good. 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.159 Yeah, I mean it's a class, It's probably one of, 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.440 if not the better known, you know, goth tracks out there. 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:04.920 Like if you're going to do a goth dance night 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.560 at a club or something, they need to play Bella 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:10.600 Lugosi's dead at least for a little bit. Maybe not 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.119 the whole with like nine and a half minute runtime, 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:15.639 but even still, like, yeah, go ahead and do the 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.400 nine and a half minute runtime because the whole song's tremendous. 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:20.800 All Right, we'll come back to baw House in a bit, 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.160 but first let's go ahead and listen to a little 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.440 bit of trailer audio from The Hunger. 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:35.159 Sarah Roberts is in jeopardy. Hey lady, how about it 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:39.760 stay with her? Help her, for she has begun to 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:45.480 feel the awful horror of the hunger. John Blaylock, the 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:52.359 hunger has given him everlasting life until now. Pray for him. 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:53.400 Miriam Blaylock. 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:58.040 She feeds one day in seven on the unsuspecting, and 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.800 soon she will turn into something that you will never 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:02.320 be able to forget. 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.919 No matter how hard and how long you try fear her? 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:08.520 What have you done to me. 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:19.240 For my life? Signs terminate right here. 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:53.040 Haunting, mysterious, sensual, strange, perverse, riveting The Hunger. All right, well, 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.159 if you would like to watch The Hunger, well, luckily 0:19:56.160 --> 0:20:00.080 for you, it's widely available on digital formats as well 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.000 his home video formats. There's a Blu ray, and I 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:04.560 was gonna rent the Blu ray, but it was checked 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:06.200 out when I dropped by Video Drum, so I ended 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.520 up having to make do with the DVD version, which 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:10.800 was also solid. I believe both the Blue and the 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.800 DVD feature the same commentary track, which is a bit 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:21.120 dry but still informative, featuring both Tony Scott and Susan Sarandon, 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.280 though it sounds like maybe they weren't in the same room, 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.120 like they recorded them separately and kind of like splice 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.760 them in. So if you like a nice, boisterous commentary track, 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.240 then maybe this one isn't the one, but it's still 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:43.480 a lot of great info in it. All right, Well, 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:46.120 let's run through the people involved here, or at least 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.320 some of them. We can't touch on everybody as usual, 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:53.080 but the director is, of course Tony Scott. As previously mentioned, 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.360 he lived nineteen forty four through twenty twelve, the late 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.440 younger brother of Ridley Scott, who, like his brother, came 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:03.360 up through TV commercial production before branching out into films, 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.520 and this was his first feature theatrical film. And it 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.040 really throws everything at you from a stylistic standpoint. It's flashy, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:16.200 it's sexy, it's daring, it's somber, it's serious. It delivers 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:18.760 all the flare of a music video or a high 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:22.040 end commercial, and as we alluded to at the time 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.080 of its release, it was not a success. Critics panned it, 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.920 including Roger Ebert, who called it quote an agonizingly bad 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:33.800 vampire movie, circling around an exquisitely effective sex scene. Which 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.520 sex scene, I assume it has to be the big 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:43.800 love scene between Sarah and Miriam, which I mean it's 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.760 almost I think a disservice to call it a quote 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.760 unquote sex scene because it's so stylish. It is like 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:54.160 the like the bed is glowing. I think one point, 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.040 you know, it's like it's very surreal. It's not it's 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:01.280 not raw or explicit, but it is still you know, 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:06.280 highly erotic and just, and to Ebert's point, it is effective. 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:07.840 But I also don't feel like it comes off as 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:10.679 an oasis in a desert in this film or anything 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:11.520 to that extent. 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:14.440 No, I just would not agree with Ebert on this one. 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:18.439 I think the film overall has a lot more to offer. Sorry, 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:20.680 just now that we're on the subject of Tony Scott, 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:24.679 I was repeatedly thinking to myself while watching I can't 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:27.560 believe this is made by the same director as Top Gun. 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:30.600 I mean, it is crazy to think about this, right 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:34.320 because Top Gun, which was his follow up, what four 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:38.560 years later? That was the next time that the studios 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:41.040 gave him a shot at a film, like three years later. 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:45.840 We always say, well, what this one's eighty would have 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:47.560 been made in what an eighty two and either yeah, 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:49.840 three or four years, so he didn't have to wait 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.840 that long. But still he was kind of shut out 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:54.920 for a little bit there. But then he comes out 0:22:54.960 --> 0:22:57.400 of the gate with again with Top Gun, which of 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:00.960 course is a massive hit. It was the highest grossing 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:05.280 film domestic or otherwise for nineteen eighty six. That's a 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:08.520 film that cemented Cruise's ascension into long lasting fame and 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:14.159 established Scott as not a director of erotic horror, but 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:17.479 as an action and thriller director. You know, because when 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:19.399 you think about Tony Scott, those tend to be the 0:23:19.400 --> 0:23:21.440 films you think about. You think about things like eighty 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:25.479 seven's Beverly Hills Cop two, nineteen nineties Days of Thunder, 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:29.120 ninety three's True Romance, ninety fives, Crimson Tide ninety eight, 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.320 Enemy of the State, two thousand and four's Man on Fire, 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:36.880 or his final film twenty tens Unstoppable. But yeah, compare 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:41.119 this film to Top Gun and I'm yeah, like, what 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:45.399