The Hunger

"The Hunger" is a tour de force of passion and lust. Each tale, poetically introduced by Terrance Stamp in season one and David Bowie in season two, brings us into a world of unbridled, un-inhibited passion. The show preaches no self righteous moral, no great and uplifting message is hidden away and more often than not the ending is far from happy. "The Hunger" illustrates how lust is an essential part of our lives, that it need not be denied but is always dangerous.

Episodes range from the comedic ("Matter of Style"), to Gothic horror ("Necros") and to the perverse ("The Sloan Men"). Based on stores from such talents as horror maestro Graham Masterton ("Bridal Suite" etc…) and directed by a range of highly talented auteur. "The Hunger" is a master class in style from directorial legends and brothers Ridley and Tony Scott.

I have seen most of the episodes from the two seasons of "The Hunger" the audacious project in sex and horror of the Scott brothers. Most of the 30 minutes episodes are based on well known horror stories from such terrific sources like Graham Masterton, David Schow, Poppy Brite, Karl Edward Wagner, Brian Lumley, Kim Newman (to name only a few), while directors are often very famous, like Russel Mulcahy or Tony Scott. First season was hosted by Terence Stamp, while the second by David Bowie. Most of the stories have a strong sexual element and almost all of them (especially in the second season) have one or more sex scenes, nudity and very often also graphic violence. Several of stories are really disturbing and among them there also a few masterpieces, like "Wrath of God", "Sin Seer" and "Week Woman" from season two, "Anais", "Necros" and "Bridal Suite" from season one. Apart from a few real turkeys, most of the stories are at least enjoyable for the horror fan and several of them are worth repeated viewings

This horror/SF/fantasy/soft-porn series, produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, is a kind of Twilight Zone for adults. There were two seasons on Showtime, the first with Terence Stamp as the host, the second with David Bowie.

This show does emphasize style over substance and as with any anthology series there are a few clunkers in the bunch. Overall, the segments with the hosts (both Stamp and Bowie are superb) are reliably fascinating, at least visually. The stories vary from excellent to perplexing. As the series progresses the material becomes stronger and is frequently worthy of comparison to the revivals of Outer Limits and Twilight Zone, although there is more emphasis on horror...

...and there's plenty of rough-and-ready sex, which will be off-putting to some viewers. There are a few episodes in which the obligatory sex scene seems tacked on, but most of the time the sex has something to do with the story and is not gratuitous.

There are 11 DVDs with four episodes apiece, containing all 44 episodes. These discs are hard to find; I have never seen them for retail sale except on Amazon, although my local Hollywood video had some of the discs for rent. The first disc is so under-produced it doesn't even have a menu! I highly recommend tracking these down if you can. Even if you don't like the story, the host sequence is worth the price of admission... and the theme song is dynamite. I only wish I could find a soundtrack CD; I doubt that one exists for a series this obscure.

The Region 2 release features two season boxes, available on Amazon UK. If you're in Region 2 or have a Region 2 player, this is obviously the way to collect the series.

Not having cable, I recently discovered this series on DVD... the well-done horror based series is not easy to find, TALES FROM THE CRYPT being an exception, but this one seemed to deliver... some of the time. The DVD only featured four episodes from Terence Stamp's reign (David Bowie sounds like a promisingly good replacement, as at least he was in the original movie) and although not every segment packed a punch, a couple were pretty good... in particular, "Necros," directed by Russell Mulcahy. It was also interesting that the scenes involving passion were on the forceful side, as the typical Hollywood movie usually depicts such primal action as slow, tame, and loving.

I wish I could rate this cheesy piece of crap so that I could let the world know how pathetic it is. This is not horror, it isn't even camp. It's a hodgepodge of cheesey dialogue, cheap horror props and lots of T&A. If you are looking for T&A with a campy horror edge, try The Bare Wench Horror instead.