The Hunger: The Complete First Season
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DVD details
Actor: Daniel Craig, Jason Flemyng, Lena HeadeyBrand: Koch International
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 616 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-06-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: E1 Entertainment U.S.
Product features:
- HUNGER, THE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of The Hunger: The Complete First Season
DVD Review: "It's not what you eat. It's what's eating you."
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Hunger" is an erotic horror anthology series that aired for two seasons on Showtime in the late 90's. I decided to check this series' recent season 1 DVD release out based on the cover alone. If you ever read my reviews, and you look at said cover, this will not surprise you. The show was produced by brothers Tony and Ridley Scott and hosted by Terence Stamp (David Bowie took over for the second season) who adds his British witticisms and musings to the opening and closing segments of each episode. The series seems to be tagged with the "softcore" label often which I feel is largely unfair in spite of the fact that each episode features -if not revolves around- an explicit sex scene. But the scenes in question are artistically shot, brief, sensual, and feature genuine actors which puts them in an entirely different place from the embarrassing silicone-heavy eye-rolling phony sex scenes one associates with the softcore porn genre. "The Hunger" is a horror series first and foremost and while it nearly runs out of gas towards the end of the first season, it is still one of the few examples of erotic horror done right.
The first half dozen episodes or so really blew me away with their creepiness and outstanding casting. Seeing Lena Headey rape Daniel Craig was pretty damn shocking and stories featuring cannibalism, meta-fiction, and a female spirit in a motel room television who seduces and destroys unsuspecting men made for great material. Jason Scott Lee, Karen Black, and Margot Kidder are also among the established actors with major roles. The first half of this series is great and does a good job balancing the sexuality and looming tension. One episode forgoes the sex angle aspect almost altogether and simply tells the tale of a lone night security guard at a haunted construction site. If that's not the creepiest possible job, I don't know what is. Then there are episodes that mislead you to believe it's a straightforward tale and then flip the story on you in surprisingly effective twists. Great material garnered from many sources. One tale of a newborn vampire is actually rather sweet as the socially awkward nerd in life attempts to remake himself into a suave predator of the night, but tries too hard and fails comically. In the end it turns out that the woman who wants him is the only one he is ever himself around. It's an interesting change of pace from the usual grimness of the show if nothing else. Many other episodes deal with mental illness, false reality, and illusions which always make for interesting stories.
Early on, I planned on giving this an easy 5 stars, but the sheen definitely wore off as the season progressed. There are definitely a few clunkers among the tales of terror that border on the ridiculous. For example, a family of men who bend women to their will using power from a bunch of mushroom in a cave. What kind of nonsense is that? The site of the enslaved women enthusiastically assaulting the offending penis-shaped fungi for their freedom is just too silly to take seriously. Plus, the white fluid squirting around makes the whole thing look like bukake. Yeah, I said it. And an episode that plays as 100% erotica between a female hitchhiker and her ride -a trucker transporting sex toys, of all things- only got worse when they tried to shoehorn in a supernatural aspect at the end. Worst twist ever. Another featuring a man trailing a faceless woman whose lovers all commit suicide upon her leaving them wasn't bad, but the score was so full of awful saxophone playing that it seemed terrible. The season finale held a ton of promise as a female werewolf story, but took a turn for the worse when she ditched her sexy lesbian date to go for.... a male vegetarian who teaches her the virtues of the eggplant? The old bait-and-switch, eh? Well screw you too, then. I forgot that non-straight pairings on television were still a no-no back then. Yawn.
Even with the ubiquitous sex and nudity, this show comes off as a bit tame sometimes. A few extra shots of gore per episode would have done wonders. But considering the tiny budget and other limitations, "The Hunger" does a lot with what it has and delivers both naturally beautiful women and settings in abundance. Overall, it's about on par with similarly inconsistent Showtime successor Masters of Horror quality-wise, but features more explicit sex and less explicit violence. Definitely one of the better forgotten anthology series of years past and I'm glad it's out on DVD. Hopefully season 2 managed to gather a more consistent batch of stories, but 22 episodes is quite a lot when each has to be a complete self-contained story unto itself, I suppose so I'll cut some slack considering how hard it is to do something like this right. This should definitely be considered a series of interest to horror anthology fans who prefer sex to violence.
Description of The Hunger: The Complete First Season
Indulge your obsessions... 22 tales of the forbidden and bizarre as seen on ShowtimeTerence Stamp hosts the first season of this spine-tingling horror anthology series from Executive Producers Tony and Ridley Scott, which features a phenomenal cast of familiar faces (including Karen Black, Joanna Cassidy, Daniel Craig, Bruce Davison, Giancarlo Esposito, Colin Ferguson, Jason Flemyng, Balthazar Getty, Lena Headey, Margot Kidder, Sally Kirkland, Jason Scott Lee, Chad Lowe, Stephen McHattie and Timothy Spall) as you?ve never seen them before. Inspired by leading genre writers, each episode will draw you into a mesmerizing world of terrifying characters and erotic encounters, where demons feed on the weakness of men and temptation consumes reason.
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