MovieChat Forums > The Hunger (1983) Discussion > Ending is unnecessarily confusing

Ending is unnecessarily confusing

posted 8 years ago by Tin_ear
6 replies | jump to latest

This is one of those films like The Exoricist that is great and terrible for the same reason: the film never outlines any rules or logic. Now a film can work with no exposition, and this one does work about 95% of the runtime. But without any idea of how vampirism works the plot unravels at the end, looking very arbitrary and thrown together.

Vampires can't die, they just grow too weak to move and become immobile husks. Got it. So then why do they all come alive at the end? Why did Miriam freak out looking at Sarah's jugular wound? Did she not realize that vampires are immortal? Why did she suddenly age so rapidly? If the fall has no effect why did it appear to "kill" (rapidly age) her? And if if vampires can die like humans (as the monkies died in the lab), why didn't Sarah die from massive blood loss and why didn't Miriam die like the male monkey?

Does the book explain any of this?

[–] tbonesays 8 years ago

Well those are different types of logic. The film can lay out the rules and then you see the plot abide by them. Or you can look at the plot and infer what the rules are.

Did the monkey get an injection of vampire blood? I can't remember.

[–] Outstandingness 8 years ago

yeah I'm all for the style they were going for: some ambiguity, lots of shadows, mystery etc. However just a little information for the audience would help a lot. They didn't need to beat us over the head, but it was almost like an unfinished work print with key scenes missing. Did Sarandon free her older lovers?

There were some great ideas in the movie, but they needed to figure out a way (even visually if necessary) to tell more of a story.

[–] cpmorr 8 years ago

The book's ending differed from the movie. Originally Sarah does pierce her jugular, but is relegated to the world of the undead like Miriam's other lovers. Miriam simply moves on.

[–] WillJ22 8 years ago

I enjoyed the film and thought it was really good probably the best Tony Scott film I have seen but I agree that the ending was a bit confusing and I didn't fully understand exactly what had taken place which was disappointing as the rest of the film was so good.

[–] chuggliams 7 years ago

If you look at the Trivia section, the ending was tacked on by the studio bosses because they were hoping for a sequel- Susan Sarandon said that originally, she died rather than be a murderer and addict, John died and Miriam just kept on rocking.
There was none of the other lovers coming back to life, no death of Miriam and that none of the actors understood why the studio trashed the original film...

[–] iluvnyc 7 years ago

I know, right? As a minor salve, the tacked on ending is gorgeous eye candy... soft focus muted light windy colors and forms. By that point, I didn't really care anymore, I just wanted to buy the space myself and live in it for eternity 😁