So, this is barely a horror movie, and hardly a vampire movie. The first hour is a very slow build, and the end kicks into horror all at once. If I were a fan of style over substance, I'd love this - the lighting is amazing, and the camera work is fabulous - trouble is I'm not and I didn't. I was just bored.
The movie starts out like a Bauhaus music video, and by that, I mean Bauhaus is playing a song. Really. I had high expectations from there, figuring I was in for a fun, '80s, gothic vampire movie. Nothing of the sort. This almost reminds me of the eurotrash movies from Jean Rollin, and Jess Franco; the difference being, they knew how to add enough sleaze to make the ride enjoyable.
We get to see a young Willem Dafoe, in what may have been his first film role. It's bad when that was the only exciting moment for me.
Really good makeup effects here, but the story is almost nonexistent. _The Hunger_ has the feel of a movie adapted from a long book, but all the important parts were cut out for "art."
I could understand fans defending this tooth and nail, the same way I would defend _Begotten_ or _Naked Lunch_, but I thought this was a huge waste of time.

I have to admit that although I've had the DVD forever, simply based on the laurels of the beauty/acting accomplishments of David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, and that nothing I had ever watched by Tony Scott, with the exception of 'Crimson Tide', really gripped me as being cinephilically exceptional. And no, this really isn't either. But I threw it on anyway, and especially considering it was Scott's debut, this wasn't so bad as to make Bram Stoker roll over in his grave. In fact, although perhaps a tad on the paper-thin plot side, it was quite enjoyable, an elegant and sad elegy of the pros and cons of immortality. Yes, it was more style than substance, yet that doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Here, at least, it wasn't, and I for one simply adored the ending.