THE HUNGER (1983) 1/2* At some point in the very formative stage this should have seemed like a good idea: make a mod-artsy vampire flick with Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon. From there almost everything went wrong. It can't decide if it wants to be hip and gross, or elegant and intellectual and romantic, so naturally fails at all but gross. Some of Michael Rubini and Denny Jaeger's incidental music is very nice and accompanies pleasantly tranquil city shots or Deneuve looking sophisticated, but none of that lasts long and Bowie's stuff is barely better than his horrid "Let's Dance" popcrap of the same period and interrupts rather than complements the story, making it a dubious reward. Ironically part of the plot, such as it is, revolves around the concept of accelerated interior timing, an effect that is reversed in that the mere 99 minutes of film seem to last several hours. The grotesque conclusion would seem to take at least that long itself, leading viewers to yearn for rather than fear that rapid passage of time. At one point Bowie ages about 60 years in a hospital waiting room, but I think we've all been there. If you're after a very badly made film with no sense to it but that somehow manages to evoke feelings of nausea far surpassing its own depth this is probably for you.