A sexy gerontologist falls in with an Egyptian/French vampire and her thin white duke in this gothic–and we do mean gothic–erotic horror set in New York City.
Starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, and Cliff De Young. Written by Ian Davis and Michael Thomas from Whitley Strieber’s novel. Directed by Tony Scott.
Welcome to the Mary Versus the Movies newsletter! Personally, I’m feeling a bit puckish myself.
This week: 10/24/2024
EPISODE 163 – THE HUNGER (1983)
A sexy gerontologist falls in with an Egyptian/French vampire and her thin white duke in this gothic—and we do mean gothic—erotic horror set in New York City.
Tony Scott’s directorial debut is rooted in the style of MTV—billowy curtains, cold lighting, doves, and repurposed 1940s fashions draped on the great Catherine Deneuve, playing a four-thousand-year-old Egyptian vampire. Her latest partner of the last two hundred years is David Bowie, formerly a French stable-hand. By day, they’re wealthy music teachers, giving private lessons in their Manhattan townhouse; by night they hit the goth clubs of the New York area, bringing home victims. When he suddenly starts aging—showing her promise of immortal youth is a lie—he goes to a renowned scientist researching aging, playing by Susan Sarandon. Murder, jealousy, lust, lesbianism, vampirism, and some really severe shoulder pads ensue.
I wasn’t surprised when I found out the film was based on a Whitley Strieber novel; it has some of the same energy as Wolfen, which we covered back in episode 75. Both set in New York, both with a veneer of medical intrigue, half rationalizing, half embracing the supernatural; in Wolfen, they’re never quite werewolves; in The Hunger, they never utter the word “vampire”—but it’s still obvious that’s what’s intended.
I won’t say The Hunger is necessarily a classic, but it’s stylishly gothic in all senses of the word.
Starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, and Cliff De Young. Written by Ian Davis and Michael Thomas from Whitley Strieber’s novel. Directed by Tony Scott.
HOLLWOOD AVALON – MERLIN: THE DRAGON’S CALL (2008)
This month, we check out the pilot for the British t.v. show Merlin from 2008, which rewrites the Arthurian story in some pretty significant ways, some of which really rub us the wrong way. Why is Merlin so young? Why is Arthur living with Uther? And why does the dragon look so terrible?
We know a lot of people really enjoyed this show, and pilots of course are often uneven, but I really couldn’t quite get into this one. Maybe it’s my dislike of teen-oriented t.v. shows, maybe it’s the cheap mid-Aughts production, maybe it’s the way it plays too fast and loose with Arthurian lore in the service of making a show that looks too much like that heartthrob Robin Hood show or Torchwood, both from the same time period.
Well, anyway, everyone is mad at me for this one, and you’re all wrong.
Starring Colin Morgan, Bradley James, Angel Coulby, Anthony Head, Richard Wilson, and John Hurt. Written by Julian Jones. Directed by James Hawes.
What else are we up to this week?
Mary: We had tickets to see Joe Pera play a makeup-date for a show back in March, postponed due to him having covid. The first act was a musical group from Philly called Hour, playing what I guess might be considered modern chamber music—a four piece group, with guitar and cello, and two instrumentalists switching between keyboards, violin, and woodwinds. Really interesting, lovely music. The second was a funny stand-up with a pretty traditional format; I’m afraid his name escapes me.
Joe Pera Talks With You and his other projects are some of my favorite things made in the last ten years. It’s all kind of an odd duck because they’re very, very funny, but there’s something warm and earnest there. Maybe it’s his old-man delivery style, sure, but go back and rewatch the tv show—the only thing I can compare it to is if The Adventures of Pete and Petewas made by adults. It’s not cynical, there’s no eye-rolling Gen X irony here, but it’s not syrupy sweet, either. Its most famous episode is about discovering how great “Baba O’Reilly” is, even long after everyone already knows it and is used to it. It’s such a quiet show about life—grief, and love, and neighbors, and finding something weird and wonderful about the whole world, and wanting to just be in the world.
I think a lot about the character Sarah Conner, played by Jo Firestone. She’s a secret survivalist, anxious enough about the future that she’s built a bunker in her basement filled with canned goods and water and detailed plans on how to survive a nuclear apocalypse. (So, yeah, she’s basically my hero.) There’s a lot of humor mined from that, of course, because she’s taken her anxieties to an extreme (and frankly, preppers are always funny—I say that as someone with serious prepping tendencies). But she’s not a joke. Everyone on the show is a little weird, everyone has a slightly stilted delivery, but no one is really the butt of a joke.
Anyway, as far as the live show goes, Pera himself was exactly what I was hoping for. There was a mix of observational humor, oddball stuff (like lamb meatballs taped to the undersides of chairs as prizes—yes, I got one, no I didn’t eat it), a semi-improvised bit about the Philadelphia Zoo hot air balloon, and play with audience participation built around a shuttle driver, essentially an extended riff about Jim Jarmuch’s film Patterson. It’s probably the most I’ve laughed at a show in a long time—there’s just something about his sense of humor that really hits me. I can’t wait to see what his next project is.
Dennis:
NEXT EPISODE: Grab your masks, it’s time for Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
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