A gothic tale
On this occasion I will talk about a film that I was not able to see in its entirety at the time and I had to see it again many years later: The Hunger.
I had seen the film on television, but at that time the station often had problems with the signal. Sometimes the signal would go out and you would be left without a piece of the movie. That happened to me with this movie: I could see the beginning and the end, but I had to search for it years later to be able to see it in its entirety.
It is a 1983 British film, directed by Tony Scott and based on the novel of the same name by Whitley Strieber.
It was the first time that the Gothic scene was presented to the mass public. We can see an introduction with Peter Murphy singing his band’s great hit: “Bella Lugosi is dead”.
Reception
At first, the reception was not good: they considered it slow and heavy. But over time it became a cult film, especially in the gothic scene.
One of the seasons of American Horror Story (the Hotel Cortes arc) seems to pay homage to this film, with Lady Gaga playing a sophisticated vampire, very similar to the character in this film.
The Plot
Miriam Blayloc (Catherine Deneuve) is a modern and elegant vampire, who lives in a mansion in Manhattan, surrounded by antiques. Her origin seems to date back to ancient Egypt, which we notice, in part, because she wears a necklace with an Ankh-shaped pendant. This symbol, similar to a cross, represents life and, in the case of vampires, seems to also be a symbol of death. This Ankh hides a cutting weapon, which vampires use to open a wound on their victims (they do not have fangs).
She usually takes human lovers and turns them into vampires. But her offspring seem to suffer from an illness that does not affect her: shortly after turning, they begin to age rapidly. The same thing happens to her new toy: John (David Bowie) who decides to seek help.
At the same time, Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon) conducts experiments on monkeys to try to stop aging. The investigation is not going well: one of the monkeys ends up attacking another to death. In this scenario, John comes to her, but she leaves him waiting, only to find him even more aged than before, upon returning later the same day.
Looking for a solution
John returns to Miriam, now decrepit, and asks her to kiss him, but she is no longer attracted to him in that state. John then begs her to kill him, but she can’t. Since John can barely move anymore, she locks him in a coffin where he will remain conscious for the rest of eternity, along with Miriam’s other lovers, who suffered the same fate.
Dr. Roberts, now interested in John’s case, tries to look for him, but only finds Miriam. The vampire becomes interested in Sarah and begins to seduce her, partly with her natural charm and partly with magic.
While having sex, both women exchange their blood, turning Sarah into a vampire. Sarah returns to her boyfriend, but begins to suffer changes that she does not understand. Her colleagues discover that Sarah has two types of blood in her body and one is not human. Sarah returns to Miriam, who tries to explain what has happened. Sarah doesn’t believe her, but Miriam warns her that when she’s hungry she’ll come back.
The training
Indeed, Sarah feels so bad that she decides to return to Miriam, who decides to look for a new victim to teach Sarah how to feed. But things get complicated when Sarah’s boyfriend comes looking for her and finds her too hungry to resist temptation.
Sarah satisfies her hunger, but can’t handle the guilt of killing the man she loved. Miriam ignores these feelings and just says that, over time, Sarah will learn to love her as she loves her. Sarah does not accept this and commits suicide with Miriam’s Ankh. Unable to save her, Miriam tries to lock her in a coffin like the others.
But this time something changes: Miriam’s other lovers emerge from their coffins and rebel against her. What will result from this mass divorce? You’ll have to watch it to find out.
Here the trailer:
Bibliography
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_ansia_(pel%C3%ADcula)
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