Ok, since Miriam has a bunch of her lovers in a coffin upstairs in the attic or somewhere around the house, how come John was never aware of the bodies of the dead lovers (well, half dead) in the coffins?? With that kind of realization, he would've known that Miriam was lying to him all along about him living forever, when she knew (which he didn't knew) that he was going to die eventually.
share[deleted]
-Why did Miriam put John and her other lovers in coffins upstairs instead of burning them?
The above poster is right. They literally cannot die. They can't live either, though, they just decay & suffer the feeling of the Hunger forever.
Another reason Miriam keeps them is, in her own twisted way, she does love them.
Its a selfish, needy, possessive love. They are her lovers, but also her property.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
And what is Mirian supposed to be?
shareShe's a vampire.
But she is completely different from her lovers. Her lovers were once human.
Miriam was NEVER human, so the rules for her death are different.
I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus.
Didn't he discover America?
Penfold, shush.
So, Sarah is going to get old like the other lovers, right?
And how does she recovers at the end, but Miriam didn't?
Sarah will eventually grow old and it will happen very quickly when she loses the ability to "SLEEP" to refresh. According to the book, Sarah's created lovers continue to grow weaker and last less-and-less. Her first lover lived for several hundred years, her last (Daivd Bowie's) character barely lasted a century. Presumably, Sarah's immortality will last even less.
Of course, Miriam's death at the end of the movie was admittedly cool but really implausible.
In the book, Miriam is horrified that Sarah's attempt at suicide was the absolutely worst move she could make since she would not truly die "on her own" and Miriam would never cremate her body to let her die. She keeps all her former lovers boxed up, decomposing, yet persisting in eternal Hunger. All Sarah did was "skip" the decades of youth and jump tight to the horrific, tragic twilight.
But Miriam learned her lesson, she decided that her future lovers would be beautiful, strong, but shallow-minded and easily dominated. Sarah was too independent and willful.
This is something I've thought about a lot too. I think it's something Miriam had to have told John at some point, because he seems to already know that it's happened before. He asks Miriam about her former lover Lalia and says "How long did she take?" Not to mention the fact that Miriam has a bunch of coffins in the attic, so he would have had to have known. Also, I think after a couple decades had gone by, John would have gotten curious why Miriam was alone if she's an eternal being and she makes other eternal, too. My guess is that she doesn't tell them until after she's already transfused them with her blood. She didn't even give Sarah a choice, she just did it without even warning her.
The thing I found most amusing was that Miriam attempted to do the same thing to Sarah--even though Sarah actually *saw* what happens to Miriam's lovers, when John came to her clinic. Sarah wasn't dumb, she would have put two and two together immediately.
groovydoom.blogspot.com
John is hopelessly addicted to The Hunger and Miriam. She controls, loves, and OWNS him body and soul. He's (not quite) eternally young, fit, handsome, and wealthy. He just enjoys the decadence of it all. And if he got excessively "uppity", Miriam would know instantly and simply steer him back to enjoying his super-human existence, which would not be hard. In the book she dreads his realization of what was happening. Of course, outise of being helpless when she sleeps, she is FAR stronger, faster, smarter, and ruthless than he could ever be.
shareThat's right, in the book he escapes the coffin and tries (unsuccessfully) to kill her!
groovydoom.blogspot.com
Does the book explain why the upstairs vampires dont go out at night and rejuvenate?
shareIt has been 30+ years since I read the book but the lovers lost all strength when they aged and she kept them behind a locked door. The turmoil she saw when looking at them was her own despair because once they lost control each "rejuvenation" would be even more short-lived and the aging more accelerated until they were no more than fragmented shells of their former self.
The movie seemed to take a slightly different approach but in the book I recall none of them necessarily had to decline as long as they could control their hunger which was unfortunately nearly impossible to maintain. Eventually each one would give in and each time it would crush her. In modern times her frustration grew keener because it became more difficult to find a test to help her choose a strong lover with enough will to survive compared to ancient days where she would find the land littered with mass scenes of torture, beating, and death in which she could sift through acres of bodies to find that one heart that refused to stop beating to make her champion, each time repeating the hopeless thought that maybe this will be the one with the strength to spend eternity with her.
Good insights. Miriam was constantly on the prowl for a lover (she always alternates between a man and a woman): (1) with an incredible will to live; (2) who is physically in their prime AND beautiful (she would never select a physically ugly person); (3) is a fundamentally interesting person, ideally sophisticated and artistic; and (4) loves and obeys her completely. Even with Miriam being an incredibly skilled and experienced manipulator, lover, and possessing super-human, amped-up sexuality and physical beauty, it is a tall order to fill.
And over the centuries, with no real explanation, with less and less success. Her lovers are able to feed and SLEEP for shorter and shorter periods of time. From many centuries to not even two.
As for these 4 "requirements", she realized the problem with Sarah was that Miriam was so engrossed with her that she failed to realize that Sarah was too intelligent, educated, and independent to be completely controllable.
At the end of the book, she vows not to make that mistake again, and presumably sticks with more shallow and controllable lovers.
Yes, John knows about the former lovers but Miriam does own and can control him completely. (She also loves him and broods over him and all of her former lovers.) Since he stayed "young and sexy" for well over 100 years and perpetually lives in the moment with Miriam, it is probably very easy for him to not dwell on the coffins and what awaits him.
But when it does start going south quickly, he feels (and is) utterly betrayed by Miriam. And he had his chance to kill her, As I recall, he got to her while sleeping (and helpless), but waited to kill her right as she awoke so she would suffer and he could revel in the vengeance. But of course, he blows it as she's FAR more powerful and quick and by the time he tries, he's already an elderly man.
She was absolutely mortified that she was helpless and he could have killed her at anytime.
over thinking. john was her creature. she could control his thinking.
she probably mind-melded a thought like: if you ever go upstairs, i'm going to beat the living crap out of you.
he was, after all, a dainty boy. a love slave.
one more thing: its all nonsense anyway - like the kids who used to write into DC comics kvetching about the physics violations.
that said, i loved this film, consider it one of the truer horror films ever made in the genre. yeah, the locked up in a box thing. gets me every time.
He was undoubtedly aware of them. They even talked about her past lovers and how soon it happened to them since he realized time was catching up with him. It makes little sense why she would keep them that way, in some sort of purgatory. It makes even less sense how they came 'alive' at the end and ganged up on her.
It's a film with a great first half, and with an interesting premise, devolving into pure style (I would say far too much) and little substance. It's slow, often beautifully shot but confusing and quickly becomes a mess.