The Hunger: The Complete First Season (1997) Review

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(More customer reviews)This was a Showtime series back in the late 90's. It was produced by brothers Ridley and Tony Scott. The show is basically Tales From The Crypt without the in-your-face black humor and less interested in the scares and more interested in the eroticism of its stories. It's a spin off of the Tony Scott directed film of the same name starring David Bowie(who would go on to host the second season's episodes). The whole show is on the same level as that film. It's filmed in the similar smokey style, the sex is explicit and integral, and it involves the supernatural world on some level or another.
Most of the episodes are really entertaining, all only running about 25 minutes, and all are introduced by a very cheeky Terrence Stamp. Tony Scott even takes the directorial reins on the first episode of this season and the next. Some familar faces show up as well like Lena Headey(300, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles), Karen Black(Trilogy of Terror, Five Easy Pieces), Daniel Craig(what, you live under a rock? He's the new Bond!), Curtis Armstrong(Revenge of the Nerds, Risky Business), and some others. Actually, this may only be interesting to me, but this is the only time you'll ever see Curtis "Booger" Armstrong involved in a sex scene. Whether that's good or simply interesting is up for you to decide.
The transfer for this first season DVD set is pristine. It's fullframe, though. Not sure if it was filmed that way like Tales From The Crypt, but it seems to have been framed with the intention of fullframe. The sound and colors all shine. There are no really good special features to brag about. On the fourth disc you get a 20 minute featurette that goes beind the scenes of the second season and gives you a preview of it as well. There are interviews with the show's creators and producers including Ridley and Tony Scott, but nothing too deep or insightful. You get some tid bits in regard to what their intentions with this show were. It's worth checking out and it does wet your appetite for season two, which I believe was the last season this fine show had.
They better release the second season and not pull an Outer Limits, the other really good anthology show that aired on Showtime. I mean this show is only two seasons long so I would hoep that it's not a problem. We'll see. This is more like the old HBO series The Hitch Hiker then it is The Outer Limits or Tales From The Crypt. So, keep that in mind and remember this show is about dark and supernatural eroticism, so if you're offended by all the boobies and girating man-parts just skip it all together. The sexuality plays a major role in the character development and almost all the themes of every episode. CHECK IT OUT!

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Indulge your obsessions... 22 tales of the forbidden and bizarre as seen on Showtime
Terence Stamp hosts the first season of this spine-tingling horror anthology series from Executive Producers Tony and Ridley Scott, which features a phenomenal cast of familiar faces (including Karen Black, Joanna Cassidy, Daniel Craig, Bruce Davison, Giancarlo Esposito, Colin Ferguson, Jason Flemyng, Balthazar Getty, Lena Headey, Margot Kidder, Sally Kirkland, Jason Scott Lee, Chad Lowe, Stephen McHattie and Timothy Spall) as you've never seen them before. Inspired by leading genre writers, each episode will draw you into a mesmerizing world of terrifying characters and erotic encounters, where demons feed on the weakness of men and temptation consumes reason.

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Creepshow (Snap Case) (1982) Review

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(More customer reviews)Being a fan of both Stephen King and George Romero, "Creepshow" has always been among my favorite horror flicks. Campy at times perhaps, but that's the whole point - to bring a comic book feel to film. And it offers a perfect balance of silly comic horror and genuine horror, making for a very enjoyable viewing experience if one remembers not to take it too seriously.
What you get is 5 mini stories, some of them better than others but all offering plenty of shocks and chills. It opens with "Father's Day," where a deceased victim of murder rises from the grave for a nice little Father's Day surprise. One of the better ones. "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" follows, where Stephen King takes on the lead role as a hillbilly who finds a meteor with a nasty habit of making green hair grow on, well, everything. This one is more funny than scary but still good. King does a great job as the clumsy and unintelligent-but-likeable Jordy Verrill. Next up is "Something to Tide You Over," where a vengeful man (Leslie Nielsen) gets even on his cheating wife and her lover (Ted Danson) by burying them both in the sand and letting the tide take care of the rest. This is my second favorite of the bunch. It's cool to see Nielsen take on the role of the "bad guy" for a change. Goes to show his versatility as an actor. Ted Danson is great too. What follows is "The Crate," in my opinion the best one. It's also the longest one. Hal Holbrook plays a loser whose nasty wife gets what she deserves when he finds a mysterious blood-thirsty creature locked away in an old crate. This is the darkest and creepiest of the stories. Pure fun, with top-notch acting from everyone. The final story, "They're Creeping Up On You," is the only one I've never liked. An eccentric millionare with a roach phobia just can't seem to get rid of his little crawling friends no matter what he does. Anyone who doesn't like roaches is advised to skip this one. The final scene will take away your appetite for at least a few days.
Now that I've talked about the movie itself (easily 5 stars), I have to comment on this sorry excuse for a DVD (0 stars). This has to be THE worst transfer ever put on DVD. I used to think it couldn't get any worse than the first edition single-disc transfer of "Scarface," but I was wrong. "Creepshow" was put on DVD just for the sake of putting it on DVD. NO CARE whatsoever was put into presentation. As another reviewer has mentioned, the movie literally "jumps" throughout the entire time. Grain and those annoying "hairs" appear on the screen almost every second. The VHS offers better picture quality; that says a lot. The only bonus feature of this DVD is the trailer, which I suppose is cool, but let's get real. Another slap in the face is the scene selections. The inside of the DVD case advertises 41 scene selections in the "Scene Index" card, but that's misleading, as the movie only has 21 actual scene selections. So if you want to watch one specific scene, 9 times out of 10 you will need to select the *closest* scene to the one you want and end up scanning forwards or backwards to get to the one you really want. Yet another example of a poorly thought-out DVD.
Bottom line: "Creepshow" is a great cult flick that deserves a MUCH better DVD. If you have the VHS stick with that. Only get this DVD if you no longer own a VCR or absolutely must own all of your movies on the DVD format. "Creepshow 2" recently got a new DVD edition that does it justice, so maybe there's some hope that "Creepshow" will eventually get the same treatment someday. Until then, we must settle for this lackluster DVD.

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Two macabre masters - writer Stephen King and director George A. Romero - conjure up five shocking yarns, each a virtuoso exercise in the ghouls-and-gags style of classic '50s horror comics. A murdered man emerges from the grave for Father's Day cake. A meteor's ooze makes everything ... grow. A professor selects his wife as a snack for a crated creature. A scheming husband plants two lovers up to their necks in terror. A malevolent millionaire with an insect phobia becomes the prey of a cockroach army. Add the spirited performances of a fine cast (Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Leslie Nielsen, Ted Danson, E.G. Marshall and King himself) and the ghoulish makeup wizardry of Tom Savini. Let the Creepshow begin.DVD Features:Interactive MenusScene AccessTheatrical Trailer

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