The Hunger (1983, UK)

Director Tony Scott's feature-length directorial debut film was this visually-stylish, decadent and R-rated erotic horror film. Its most notable characters formed a love triangle threesome. Included in the film was a controversial, lengthy soft-focus lesbian-vampires sex scene in the sunlight of a late afternoon between two females with mutual attraction to each other.

Since its release, the film has become a goth cult film. It should be stated that the term "vampire" was never explicitly used in the film. Its tagline was a clever play on words: "Nothing Human Loves Forever."

• seductively-elegant Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve) and John Blaylock (David Bowie), Miriam's cellist companion, posed as a wealthy couple interested in tutoring students in classical music; they lived in an elegant NYC townhouse from which they prowled the streets for victims
• both were centuries-old, immortal vampire lovers, who first met in 18th-century France; each of them had many previous vampire lovers throughout time (all of them had grown old and died within a week)

Partner Swapping: Young Woman From Disco (Ann Magnuson) with John Blaylock (David Bowie)

• in the film's brief opening set in a NY discotheque nightclub (the rock band Bauhaus was performing the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead"), the predatory couple met another young man and woman (John Stephen Hill and Ann Magnuson) interested in sex, enflaming their passions; the couple returned with the Blaylocks to their home for drinks, exhibitionism, and swapping of partners, where their throats were slashed by Ankh pendants with hidden daggers; afterwards, the Blaylocks cleaned up the blood in their bathroom, and disposed of the black body bags in the flames of their building's basement furnace
• meanwhile, Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), a butchy, sleep and aging researcher/scientist (gerontologist) who was studying longevity, noticed the bloody remains of an experimental caged male monkey in her clinic's laboratory - the subject of her study on rapid aging in primates; the monkey had painfully and rapidly aged and degenerated, became manic, and lustfully fed upon its beloved mate Betty before expiring; [Note: This was a veiled but prophetic foreshadowing of the film's conclusion.]
• Miriam became concerned when her partner John began to rapidly age, decay and deteriorate, and she sought out Dr. Roberts for a cure; eventually, John's body had withered and weakened so much that he was ready to expire; desperate for blood, he had just cut the throat and murdered teenaged violinist Alice Cavender (Beth Ehlers), one of Miriam's students; Miriam took John's body up to the attic (where earlier 'deceased' lovers had also been encased and trapped in coffins to suffer an eternal "living death") and placed him into a casket
• Dr. Roberts became Miriam's new healthy blood candidate/recruit during a visit with Miriam in her townhouse - she was Miriam's latest lesbian courtship victim in a highly-sensual seduction scene; the doctor was offered a drink of sherry, while Miriam played The Flower Duet, "a love song...sung by two women" on the piano (she claimed it was Lakmé by Léo Delibes). Sarah suspiciously asked: Sarah: "Are you making a pass at me, Mrs. Blaylock?" Miriam: (correcting her) "Miriam." Sarah: (repeating) "Miriam." Miriam: "Not that I'm aware of, Sarah."
• after Sarah spilled a blood-red droplet of sherry on her white T-shirt (worn without a bra), she first daubed at it, and then was prompted to remove her top; Miriam gave her some soft Sapphic touches before a slow kiss and many other love-bites; in the very next scene, Sarah had removed all of her clothes except black panties, and was on a bed, where Miriam continued to kiss her and suck on her bare nipple

Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) and Dr. Roberts (Susan Sarandon): Sherry Spilled on Dr. Roberts' Shirt, Followed by The Sexual Exchange of Kisses - and Blood

[Note: This sequence reportedly ushered in more lesbian vampire chic, keeping up the trend from earlier 'queer-horror' 70s films The Vampire Lovers (1970, UK), Daughters of Darkness (1971) (aka Les Lèvres Rouges), Vampyros Lesbos (1971), and Vampyres (1974) (aka Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness).]

• during their sexual encounter, Sarah didn't realize that Miriam had bitten into the bend in her arm, causing a blood exchange and a bruised arm; Miriam took on and transformed her new lover (into a vampire with immortal life) by mingling with her blood; Sarah had been infused with "inhuman blood" and began to feel sick
• through tests, Sarah knew that she was infected, and contronted Miriam in her townhome: "What have you done to me? There's some alien strain consuming my blood...What is it, and why have you done it?" Miriam reassured her: "Put your faith in me...Give me time, trust me....I've given you something you never dared dream of...Everlasting life...The blood in your veins is mine"

Sarah to Miriam: "What have you done to me?"

Sarah Sickened by Miriam's Blood Transfusion

Sarah Kissed and Cared For By Miriam

• after a struggle that propelled Sarah to the floor, Miriam showed off her own arm bruise and explained that their blood was mixed together: ("I made a simpIe incision. I drew your bIood, and then you took mine"); she then made a momentous admission: "You belong to me. We belong to each other"
• as Sarah stormed out, Miriam explained the film's title: "You'll be back. When the Hunger hurts so much you've Iost reason, then you'II have to feed, and then you'II need me to show you how"; to fulfill her promise of feeding Sarah's 'hunger,' Miriam provided her with a bloody male prostitute (with a slashed throat), but Sarah did not partake; she was nauseous, sweating profusely, and in a fetal position
• as the film was concluding, Dr. Roberts' advanced vampiric state and ravenous need for blood caused her to murder (with her Ankh pendant) and drink the blood (mostly off-screen) of her own boyfriend Dr. Tom Haver (Cliff De Young) (who had come looking for her) in the townhouse's second floor bedroom; Miriam congratulated Sarah on her first kill: "It's not nearIy as difficuIt as you imagined, is it?", and foretold what would now happen to her: "You wiII sIeep six hours in every 24. You wiII feed one day in seven, and from this moment, you wiII never grow oId. Not a minute. You'II be young forever. You're part of me now, and I cannot Iet you go. We're damned to Iive forever, with no reIease, no end. And I need you to share it with me. After a IittIe whiIe, you wiII forget what you were, and you wiII begin to Iove me as I Iove you. (They kissed) Forever. Forever and ever. (They kissed again)
• then, guilt-ridden over the killing, Sarah suicidally slit her own throat with Miriam's Ankh pendant during a forced bloody kiss with Miriam; the influx of Sarah's blood into Miriam's mouth was transformative and Miriam also rapidly aged and lost her own eternal life

Suicidal Sarah - and The Blood Transfer Kiss with Miriam

• Miriam carried Sarah's deceased body up to the attic, where all of her dessicated lovers in their coffins were awakened as she cried out to them: "I love you all"; feeling betrayed by her, the cadavers rose up and surrounded her; she fell to her death down to the ground floor from the top of the stairwell when she crashed through the bannister; as she 'died' and began to age, the spell ended and all of their mummified bodies withered away, fell apart and crumbled into dust
• in the final moments of the film, the townhouse was suddenly deserted and up for sale; as explained by the real estate agent Arthur Jelinek (Shane Rimmer) handling the transaction: "It's an estate case. The whoIe thing was handIed by a Iaw firm. My understanding is that the owners are deceased, and whatever profits are Ieft over are going to some kind of research center or cIinic in town"
• there was a surprising reversal of roles - Sarah had become a vampire queen with several lovers in a luxury hi-rise in London, while Miriam suffered the fate of all of her previous lovers - she was imprisoned and suffering 'eternal death' in a coffin