The Hunger: The Complete First Season – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll May 29, 2009, 16:34 GMT

Oscar® nominee Terence Stamp hosts the complete season one of this groundbreaking horror anthology series (presented by legendary directors Tony and Ridley Scott), which features a phenomenal cast of familiar faces as you’ve never seen them before. Inspired by leading horror writers (including Brian Lumley and Robert Bloch), each episode will draw you into a mesmerizing world of horrific characters and erotic encounters, where demons feed on the weakness of ...more

The Showtime television horror anthology comes to DVD in a season set.  The previous releases were just compilations and featured highlighted episodes.  The first season is hosed by our suave, urbane “crypt keeper” Terence Stamp as the tales of hunger unfurl.  

Scott Free Productions helmed this 30 minute horror anthology series for Showtime in 1997.  Scott Free is the production company of directors/brothers Ridley and Tony Scott.  Sibling Tony would step behind the camera for the show several times but Ridley would just serve as a producer. 

The show has a similar bent to Tales from the Crypt and features similar themes as that aforementioned show.  The title is the same as 1983 vampire film The Hunger, also directed by Tony Scott.  However, this series isn’t exclusive to vampires though they would pop up now and again.  It’s more about the hunger for power, sex, life, money, or blood, as the opening credits remind us.

The cover of the DVD set makes it seem more like a vampire show, but it’s really about those “twist in the end” irony tales and also featured sex and violence.  Much more sex than the Twilight Zone could ever get away with since the series was produced for Showtime. 

Season Two would feature musician/actor David Bowie, who starred in Scott’s Hunger film, take over hosting duties.  However, it was Terence Stamp who introduced each of the tales in season one (1997-1998).  The stories would feature a bevy of celebrity appearances, including some who weren’t so famous at the time.

They include Balthazar Getty, Karen Black, Daniel Craig (long before Bond), Jason Scott Lee, Sally Kirkland, Margot Kidder, Bruce Davison, and Joanna Cassidy.  As with anthology shows, some episodes are better than others, but these short 30 minute trips will keep you shivering on a warm night.  

Disc One:

The Swords: When James Chandler arrives in London, a visit to a fetish club leads to a relationship with Muisdora, a woman who can survive being pierced with swords.

Menage a Trois: The young nurse of a wheelchair-bound woman learns that her employer has sexual desires that must be fulfilled.  Both she and Jerry, the handyman, are part of the plans.

Necros: When William Cobb arrives in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, he falls for a beautiful young woman who brings with her a strange old man as a companion.  A night of passion reveals their true nature.

The Secret Shih-Tan: The Shih-Tan is a secret book of forbidden recipes and when a master chef gets the opportunity to read it and prepare one dish, he cannot resist.

Bridal Suite: A newly-married couple decides to spend their honeymoon at an isolated guest house that is rumored to be cursed.  One night, the groom disappears, and the wife learns the truth.

Room 17: When a traveling salesman rents Room 17 of the Limbo Hotel and orders an adult channel on his cable television, he gets more than he ever imagined.  

Disc Two:

Anais: When an architect travels to Montreal on business, the drawings he makes to pass the time all feature a young woman, whom he names Anais.  One day, she enters his life for real.

No Radio: A couple indulges in fantasies involving role play.  But as their games become more and more daring, they put each other’s lives in danger.

But at my back I always hear: When a university professor rejects an attempted seduction by one of his students, he learns that her obsession with him does not necessarily end with death.

Red Light: A down-on-his-luck photographer is delighted when an ex-lover re-enters his life.  But when he tries to photograph her, she tells him not to, fearing his camera will steal her soul.

I’m Dangerous Tonight: A Parisian fashion designer creates a fabulous dress from a piece of red fabric, leaving everyone who sees it under its spell.  The dress, however, extracts a terrible price.  

The Sloan Men: When a young woman meets her fiancé’s family for the first time, her future mother-in-law has some disturbing and surprising news about the family she’s marrying into.  

Disc Three:

A Matter of Style: An experience older vampire finds that she must initiate a young male protégé and teach him how to seduce and kill.

Hidebound: When a woman takes a job as a security guard, she finds that the warehouse that she has to patrol is possessed by an evil spirit.

Fly by Night: When Sonia, a war veteran, is admitted to the hospital, she discovers that a fellow patient is a vampire and offers to help him.  

A River of Night’s Dreaming: A prison van crashes into a river and one of the convicts swims to freedom, finding shelter in an old mansion.  There, she is cared for by two mysterious women, but is she really free?

The Lighthouse: After having his heart broken, a man takes on the job of lighthouse keeper.  During a hurricane, a rose and the apparition of a beautiful woman bring back memories of his past affair.

The Face of Helene Bournouw: After three celebrities suffer personal tragedies, a journalist discovers they were obsessed with the same woman.  Will he too meet an untimely end?

Disc Four:

Plain Brown Envelope: A man picks up a female hitchhiker, but after his truck breaks down, they are forced to spend the night together.  The driver first claims to be a traveling sex-aid salesman, but appearances can be deceiving.  

The Other Woman: The jealous wife of a fashion designer tells her husband that should he ever commit adultery; her vengeance would know no limits.  But even after her warning, he can’t ignore the advances of his young assistant.  

Clarimonde: In 19th century Quebec, a young priest is plagued by visions of a beautiful mistress while preparing for his ordination.  As the visions become more and more vivid he finds his faith in peril.  

Footsteps: A woman with a voracious appetite for men travels the world in search of prey.  While in Paris she meets a stranger who tries to teach her to love and not devour.  

The Hunger is presented in fullscreen.  Disc four contains a 26 minute documentary on season two called “The Hunger Inside.”  It appears to have been produced to stir up interest in season two (1999-2000).  

The Hunger offers some titillation and some horror too.  What’s not to love?  I found myself watching and moving onto the next episode with anticipation.  I can’t wait for season two. 

I’d have preferred some more current special features (interviews with the Scotts or director’s commentaries), but the documentary only whetted the appetite for that second season.  

The Hunger: The Complete First Season is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.