
Season 1, released 1997
Contains spoilers
The Hunger was a supernatural TV series of short films produced by Tony and Ridley Scott. Despite the involvement of Tony Scott and the name of the series this was not related to the 1983 movie, though the series DVD insert claims it was inspired by said film. The subject matter of the episodes changed but what remained constant was an obligatory sex scene, some naked flesh and (often) flashes of lingerie. Season 1 was introduced, episode by episode, by Terence Stamp. The series itself is very good generally; however the quality can vary, from the pure horror (good) through to something like the Red Shoe Diaries with a murder/supernatural twist (poor).
This was a little bit of a departure for the series as it was a comedy episode, that is not too say that there has been no comedy in other episodes but the comedy you would expect would be black comedy whilst this plays to the concept of farce. The film opens with a man, we later discover to be Neville (Chad Lowe), walking into a bar, he elicits looks of shock and amusement as it is fairly clear that he is naked. It is also clear, as he approaches a woman to chat her up, that he is unaware of this – until the bartender (Eric Goulem) makes him very aware.
He rushes out of the bar in horror. For a second we think it will all be the standard naked in public dream but no, he ends up nude on the city street and it is clearly no dream. A red sports car pulls up and the driver, Carmilla (Isabelle Cyr), tells him to get in, which he eventually does. There is a derisive comment that on the first night they always forget their clothes. Then she explains that he is a vampire and she has been assigned to him to ensure that he survives his first nights as a member of the undead. Neville admits that being a vampire will take some getting used to and Carmilla reminds him that it is better than the alternative, which is of course being dead.

As they pull up Neville asks if he can turn into a bat. Carmilla tells him that only the very old



As he believes that it must be easy for Carmilla to pick up victims, given that she is beautiful, she suggests he hunts as a woman (in these scenes Neville is played by Claudia Besso). Despite not loosing the general clumsiness, (s)he manages to chat up a geek and then succeeds in scaring the geek off, the line asking whether he had ever done it in a coffin being the last straw for the potential victim.
Finally Neville goes to the bar and acts naturally. He rescues a girl from a sleaze-ball and they are getting on great. It is fairly obvious to the viewer that the girl is really Carmilla, but not to Neville. When he feeds he cuts the skin with a talon like nail rather than biting and it is worth noting here that we never see fang, neither in a bite nor a flash within a smile or sneer. When he realises, afterwards, who it is he is distraught but Carmilla has done it because she is actually attracted to him.

The comedy is fairly amusing in this but it is not hilariously funny. There is an obvious morality tale here, one of be yourself, but generally the film is a gently humorous little sideways look at the vampire, with the vampires conforming to the typical standards, with the exception of materialisation which seems like a damned useful trick. The name of the female vampire is an obvious reference to the story Carmilla - though there is nothing to say that the character in this is *the* Carmilla. The performances are passable, but none of the cast gave the impression that they are would-be comedy geniuses.
The cgi over the eyes is poor, seeming somewhat out of place, and there is a distinct lack of locations. That said the episode is generally entertaining enough, but seems a little pointless in comparison to other episode in the series as though it was almost a filler episode. 4 out of 10 reflects the fact that it isn’t too bad, with no really glaring problems that would force the mark down further, but it is, ultimately, forgettable.
The imd page is here.
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