Every so often a scene gets paired with a song that, for better or worse, ends up making it that much more memorable, and since it’s Halloween, we’re taking a look at the winning combination of an 80s erotic horror and an early goth-rock classic.
In 1979, English art rock band Bauhaus would launch their debut single inspired by the horror icon and his portrayal of infamous blood-sucking baddie, Dracula, “Bela Lugosi is Dead.” The song would forever be known as “a masterclass in experimental post-punk” and pave the way for the genre of music and culture we knee today as goth.
Ann Magnuson Nude in The Hunger
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Four years later, the band and the song would be tapped to open Tony Scott’s directorial debut The Hunger, a sexy thriller about a love triangle between a vampire couple (Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie) and a doctor (Susan Sarandon) trying to reverse rapid aging. Bauhaus appears as a band at the nightclub where Deneuve and Bowie pick up a leather-clad Ann Magnuson and John Stephen Hill for a swinging’ good time. The song cuts in and out as they head back to their vampire townhouse, and in between shots of caged lead singer Peter Murphy (and an also-caged and very angry primate), we get some up close looks at Ann’s amazing breasts before vampire Bowie bleeds her dry.
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We may say vampire a lot as if the audience had been introduced to the phenomenal fanged couple before this, but the truth is that’s kind of why the song is there in the first place. With Peter repeatedly singing “undead” in between cuts of Deneuve and Bowie’s sultry, shaded stares, how can one not figure it out? Bauhaus’s dark and cavernous sound doesn’t just set the mood, it’s an obvious clue to what the audience is about to be in for.
The mix of boobs, blood, and Bauhaus is simply a match made in heaven… or in this case, in the infernal underworld of 80s New York.
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Here’s the full opening:
