Kinky trash

DIRECTOR Tony Scott's 1983 horror movie The Hunger (World, 9.30pm) is a disastrous attempt to update Dracula with lashings of sex, rock music and flashy photography. The film critic for the British newspaper The Observer called it ''one of the most incoherent and foolish pictures of recent months''.

Catherine Deneuve (Indochine) is the ageless, possibly final survivor of an ancient immortal race dependent on humans for both sustenance and companionship. Her superior blood allows her lovers a triple lifetime until they inevitably succumb to a speedy decline.

Much of this is not apparent in the film because style is king at the expense of a lucid story. But some of that style is glorious, if wholly unnecessary: a bloody sun sinking over a gothic Manhattan skyline.

There is some humour, notably when Deneuve and Bowie manhunt in a disco as Bauhaus sing Bela Lugosi's Dead. Eventually Bowie rots away in 20 minutes which become a century of ageing. This scene is the film's highlight. Much of what precedes it is kinky trash, but watch out for Willem Dafoe in a small role. And if you want to find out what The Hunger means, read Whitley Strieber's novel, on which it was based.

THE best scene in The Pope of Greenwich Village (Pearl, 9.30pm) also comes towards the end and sees Bedbug Eddie (played by Burt Young) threaten to remove Mickey Rourke's right hand. It's a chilling moment, but one which the rest of the film cannot match.

The Pope of Greenwich Village is a re-run of Martin Scorcese's Mean Streets idea, with Rourke in good form dipping in and out of the New York Italian underworld. His wild young cousin and protege (Eric Roberts, in a performance miles over the top) persuades him to take part in a heist. They relieve a safe of its contents, US$150,000 in cash, and Rourke finally believes he can fulfil his modest dream of opening a restaurant in New England.

Dream on, Mickey. The cash belonged to Bedbug. On top of which an accident during the robbery has left a policeman dead.