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.

This is a Canadian/British anthology series of erotic tales about every conceivable hunger. Terence Stamp hosts the first season and David Bowie does the second.

I only have the first season although the Jennifer Beals episode from the second season is on the web. Stamp really camps it up. There is a bit of fun from that. There is an inverse relationship between the requirement for nudity and the ability of the actresses. The series starts off well with a memorable sword lady. The second episode has Lena Headey and Daniel Craig filming in Britain. After that, the show declines with a few exceptions. Often, it is the non-acting B-actresses who are willing to strip. The stories lack a certain drive. This is a cheaper series of the late 90s cable softcore era.

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.

Thirty-minutes TV plays in the soft horror genre, elegant, witty and for the most delicate, with kinky, and, with to some degree creepy points.

The DVD publications (York entertainment)is not at all complete, and messy too, bad edited, with no menues or contents, printed or digital. One of the best stories, "The Sloan Men", are unfortunately not available on DVD, and so "Anais", with host Terence Stamp at his most impressive. I find Terence Stamp much more amusing and icely-ironic than mr. Bowie. Sartorio, Copenhagen

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.