The Hunger Film Analysis
The Hunger is an erotic horror film starring CatherineDeneuve as Miriam, Susan Sarandon as Sarah Roberts, and David Bowieas John. The film is a British-American dramatic encounter and TonyScotts is the director. It was released on April 29, 1983, andRichard Shepherd is the producer. Primarily, the movie recounts theevents of a novel, which was written in 1981 by Whitley StrieberIvan Davis and Michael Thomas did the screenplay. The movie is not acomplicated plot, and Ivan and Michael’s screenplay dispenses thehistorical context of the novel. Miriam is the main character and adangerous vampire that possess bisexual traits. The film narrates ofa love triangle between a vampire, her cellist companion, and adoctor that specializes in sleep and aging research. This paper willcritically analyze the film.
Inessence, the movie revolves around Miriam, a deadly vampire who fallsin love with humans by promising them eternal life. The movierevolves around episodes recounted by Miriam’s ability to lureindividuals into relationships where she later turns them intovampires. As the movie starts, John, a cellist is Miriam`s spouse andthe events at a New York nightclub are the first to unfold. John andMiriam meet up a couple at the nightclub and bring them home only todevour on them by slashing their throats. They later dispose of theirbodies by an incinerator in the basement of their town house in NewYork where they masquerade as an affluent couple that teachesclassical music. Notably, the society is unaware of theexistence of vampires and it would not suspect the couple’s queerbehavior. Moreover, they neitheruse items applied by other vampires nor possess the attributes thatare common with other vampires rather they use an ankh, which is wornon their neck to pierce the victim’s neck. Profoundly, the movieprovides insights on other ways that vampires use to kill theirvictims.
The Hunger film also brings out thetheme of the fear of getting old, which acts as the motivating factorto the vampires who believe that by killing and devouring on thehuman they will remain youthful. Miriam had told John that killingand feeding on human victims would grant him eternal youth only torealize that it was not true after he began to age. Aging is anatural process that every individual encounters in his or her life.However, in the film, the aging process seems supernatural where itis recounted that John ages years in just two hours probably becauseof his vampiristic nature. He seeks the services of a genealogistwith the hopes that it might reverse the aging process but in vain.The vampires are portrayed as dangerous creatures that possesssupernatural attributes, for instance, John ages many years in ashort time, which is not naturally possible.
Miriam is a dangerous vampire thatportrays bisexual attributes. At the beginning of the play, hercompanion is John who she tricks that if he serially kills humans, hewould remain eternally youthful. After John ages, Miriam getsSarah-the sleep doctor as her next companion. Miriam manages to causeSarah forget her career as a doctor and a researcher and is caught upin her trap where she is transformed into a vampire after having asexual encounter with Miriam. Sarah later devours on Tom, his fiancéafter he followed her to Miriam`s house where she had gone to comforther over the loss of John. Sarah later pierces herself using Miriam`sankh knife as they kiss where she forces her to ingest her blood.Miriam used to place her dead lovers in coffins that were kept in thehouse. Apparently, the images of these lovers kept on haunting her,for instance, she keeps on screaming Sarah`s name while she wasdraped in a coffin in the storage room.
Despite possessing vampiristic characteristics, Miriam ages later onafter consuming Sarah’s blood. The events transpired as she triedto place Sarah with her other deceased lovers when their remainsemerge from the coffins. Eventually, Miriam is driven to the edge ofthe balcony where she ages rapidly. The remains of her previouslovers become dust releasing their souls. Miriam was a vampire bynature and transformed her lovers into vampires. Initially, she didnot age after killing people and consuming their blood. However, thischanges later when she ingests Sarah`s blood and her former deadlovers emerge from their coffin and their remains emerge. Miriam`svampiristic character was in a bid to remain young but she does notattain this objective in the end. The movie instills fear due to thesequence of events most of which end with death.
Principally, the film is a horror encounter that is surrounded byromantic events. The main themes in the film are selfishness, death,and romance. The entire film recounts about horrors of aging wherethe characters did what they thought was possible to avert the agingprocess. On the other hand, the film talks about relationships whereMiriam is seen to trap people into becoming her companion afterdevouring her previous one. Admittedly, she loses her sexual passiontowards John once she realizes he was starting to age. Scott uses aninnovative style through and an elaborate mixture of sequences.
In conclusion, vampires aredestructive and utilize their supernatural qualities to attain theirdesires in life. They conceal their identity and most people in asociety cannot suspect their agendas. Miriam was running a musicschool where some of her students became her victims.
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