History Main / HorrorHunger

*** It's even worse for the Insatiable, who were created by the same process as Beasts but without the empowering nightmare having time to pass through the part of humanity's collective unconscious that reflects, well, humanity. Beasts need to sufficiently traumatize them in order to feed, but they don't need to ''kill'' them. The Insatiable don't have that option. However, since the unshaped nightmare's first meal is basically the luckless host's soul, it's fair to say the Insatiable don't really give a shit about this, beyond the practicalities of leaving a trail of bodies.

* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' and ''Beast Complex'' take place in a world of intelligent animals, with carnivorous animals living in an uneasy peace with herbivorous animals. Carnivorous animals suffer from a hunger for the flesh of herbivores, which in severe cases can cause insanity, even in carnivores who have never eaten meat. Eating meat is treated as both a metaphor for drug usage and [[ConsumingPassion sex]]. Many carnivores choose to indulge themselves by buying herbivore meat from the black market, which mostly, but not entirely, comes from herbivores who died of natural causes. Protagonist Legosi the wolf refuses to eat meat and has a lot of relationship difficulties with Haru the rabbit because he isn't entirely sure if his feelings for her are actually romantic or just confused instincts to eat her, which he almost did when he first met her. And even after he becomes certain that he really is in love with her, they still have a lot of difficulty with intimacy due to their instincts. To get rid of his meat cravings, he trains by exposing himself to meat without eating it. [[spoiler:And his cravings comes back when his friend Louis has him eat his foot to restore his strength during his fight with the predator who ate Tem.]]

* In RPG Maker horror game ''VideoGame/{{GU-L}}'', [[spoiler: Takaya’s constant, strangely unquenchable thirst]] turns out to be a desire for human blood. Because of this, he chooses to burn inside the mansion alongside his brother.

** Cloak from ''ComicBook/CloakAndDaggerMarvelComics'' has this for a vaguely defined kind of human LifeEnergy, represented as light. It's generally not an issue because his partner Dagger naturally generates an excess of the stuff, but on one occasion when she'd abandoned him, he came near to killing several innocent people.
** Since she actually cares about the lives of other lifeforms, Galactus' daughter Galacta considers the hunger for LifeEnergy that comes with being an embodiment of the Power Cosmic to be this. To ease her conscience, she limits herself to eating the alien microbes and bioweapons that appear with alarming frequency on Earth since they don't belong there anyway. However, this isn't nearly enough to satisfy her hunger pangs which are almost as strong as her father's (who has to eat ''entire planets'' to briefly satisfy his hunger). She spends every moment of every day on Earth searching for more alien food while resisting the temptation to gorge herself on the literal tons of food surrounding her. Then she discovers a "Tapeworm Cosmic" parasite inside her feeding off of her power and exacerbating her hunger. She gets so desperate she briefly considers creating a planet to eat from scratch using Wolverine's DNA as a template to give it a regeneration factor. Galacta doesn't go through with it; reasoning that it would be way too immoral to create an entire world just to use it as a buffet. In the end, she is driven to use the Ultimate Nullifier on herself in an attempt to destroy the Tapeworm, knowing and not caring in the least that this could destroy her as well (the Nullifier is one of the few things in existence that can kill beings like Galactus and Galacta). [[spoiler: Galactus saves both Galli and the Tapeworm because the "Tapeworm" isn't really a parasite: it's the larval form of beings such as Galactus and Galacta. In other words, ''it's Galli's unborn baby''. That's why she's so hungry -- she's eating for two!]]
** The zombie superheroes in ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' often refer to the Hunger as something that controls them. After initial infection and transformation, they are unable to resist the urge when the hunger fully takes them over, such as the Avengers who were first infected devouring nearby civilians or Spider-Man fighting off the virus until he returned to his flat and ate Mary Jane. Even worse, after they've eaten some of them go back to a degree of normal where they are horrified at what they have done, such as Bruce Banner being basically himself even if the Hulk is always hungry and Spider-Man feeling guilty while full, but they will all revert to type given time. On top of that, since the hunger is purely psychological (such as the Wasp asking to eat something even after being reduced to just a head so that she couldn't possibly derive any sustenance from it) [[spoiler:if the zombies "starve" themselves they can eventually reach a point where they ''stop'' being hungry]].
** The alien member of ''ComicBook/NewMutants'', Warlock, is a member of the alien Technarchy race who have to consume LifeEnergy to survive. Unlike most members of his species, he is morally averse to feeding on sentient beings, so he only feeds on non-sentient beings (like plants) -- on one occasion when he is forced to "eat" a villain to save his teammates, he actually throws up the consumed life energy on principle.

** In ''ComicBook/SpiderMan2099'', Miguel attempts to cure his sort-of-crush Tempest's cancer, using medicine from the future (since in his reality, they cured all that pesky nonsense by 2040). Then the cure reacts with something in Tempest's body, turning her into a wasp-spider monster with a hunger for spider-person flesh... like Miguel.

The human body is a remarkable machine, but it doesn't just run on [[PureEnergy energy]]. Ask any dietician: it requires vitamins, minerals, and a plethora of other substances in specific doses to run at [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower peak efficiency]]. So what, pray tell, does a supernatural or alien being require to operate at its normal, ''super''human efficiency? Why, [[ToServeMan humans]]!

These creatures don't just need to feed on humans to get their powers or [[YouAreWhoYouEat keep a human shape]], but very likely to survive. And to make matters worse, this [[ImAHumanitarian humanitarian diet]] comes with a relentless, insatiable, and ultimately irresistible hunger. This is the driving force behind [[TheVirus a lot]] of the evil in supernatural creatures. The Horror Hunger can only be sated by feeding on (parts of) other humans; (non-human) animals are rarely a viable substitute, and if they do work, they taste horrible. These are not your FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires.

* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' and ''Beast Complex'' take place in a world of intelligent animals, with carnivorous animals living in an uneasy peace with herbivorous animals. Carnivorous animals suffer from a hunger for the flesh of herbivores, which in severe cases can cause insanity, even in carnivores who have never eaten meat. Eating meat is treated as both a metaphor for drug usage and [[ConsumingPassion sex]]. Many carnivores choose to indulge themselves by buying herbivore meat from the blackmarket, which mostly, but not entirely, comes from herbivores who died of natural causes. Protagonist Legosi the wolf refuses to eat meat and has a lot of relationship difficulties with Haru the rabbit because he isn't entirely sure if his feelings for her are actually romantic or just confused instincts to eat her, which he almost did when he first met her. And even after he becomes certain that he really is in love with her, they still have a lot of difficulty with intimacy due to their instincts. To get rid of his meat cravings, he trains by exposing himself to meat without eating it. [[spoiler:And his cravings comes back when his friend Louis has him eat his foot to restore his strength during his fight with the predator who ate Tem.]]

* In ''Manga/CallOfTheNight'', while vampires do feel a constant thirst for human blood, [[DownplayedTrope they can keep it in check for the most part.]] However, the longer they go without feeding, the harder it becomes to supress their hunger, until all but [[ResistTheBeast the most strong-willed vampires]] end up becoming [[FeralVampires feral]]. [[spoiler:Yamori gets front row seats to seeing what that looks like when, while investigating his school's version of TheSevenMysteries with Akira and Mahiru, [[DiabolusExmachina they walk into a vampire]] who's been starving for ''ten years''. He lunges at Akira the ''second'' he lays eyes on her and desperately tries to bite her neck as Akira starts screaming and crying and Mahiru tries to make him stop, with Yamori [[ChairmanOfTheBrawl smashing a chair on his face]] only briefly restoring his lucidity as he begs the children to run before he loses control again. It's later stated that vampires will die if they can survive ten years without feeding, [[DeathSeeker which is exactly what the vampire who atacked Akira was aiming for]].]]
* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', Youma and Awakened being can only eat pure human entrails. The most powerful ones are also the most hungry.
* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', demons inherently eat people. Nezuko, Tanjiro's kid sister who was turned into a demon, has managed to retain most of her humanity... but she's struck by overwhelming sensations of hunger whenever she sees dead bodies, which reduce her to paralyzed crying. (It doesn't help that said corpses also remind her of when her entire family was slaughtered in the incident that led to her demonic state.)

** The main antagonist of Episode 26 "The Man Eating Mansion" is a Digitamamon who developed an addiction for eating humans. He tends to stay in a house where he amushes and eats the tenants, something that occurred for half a year and is notorious as an UrbanLegend. What makes this so awful is that he's also [[spoiler:''Angoramon's old friend'', and nobody is happy when Angoramon finds himself forced to kill him.]]
** Ruli gets hit by this in Episode 63 "Gluttony" when she accidentially swallowed a black-colored pellet (a Quartzmon clone) in a cake buffet. At first she feasted on increasingly large meals only to still have an empty belly, but it quickly degenerated into her mouth and limbs mutating to resemble the offending Digimon and going onto a rampage trying to eat Hiro, Gammamon and Kiyoshiro. She ends up collapsing on the floor after a short while due to malnourishment and is hospitalized with Mummymon. The group also later finds out she's not the only victim, and there are at least ''hundreds'' of infected people out there.

** Horrifically displayed in [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Part 1]] when a woman pleads to Dio to spare her child, and take her in its place. Dio swears on his honor that he will not harm the baby...and then ''he turns the mother into a zombie'', who then proceeds to devour her own child, with [[LoopholeAbuse Dio technically keeping his end of the bargain.]]

* ''Manga/MusukoGaKawaikuteShikataganaiMazokuNoHahaoya'': When child vampire Lizette has blood to drink, she is as much a CheerfulChild as one could expect from an eight year-old girl. When she ''doesn't'' have blood to drink, she can become mad from the starvation to the point of turning downright feral. She might well have been put down by humans before she turned six had Minami not realized this and made sure she could be provided with blood to drink. When Lizette accidentally runs out of blood packs, she finds Chiharu's scent almost irresistible and has to keep herself from attacking Chiharu. That chapter ends with Lizette going to pick up her blood rather than wait for it to be delivered and swearing to never run out like that again.

* In ''Manga/{{Sankarea}}'' a drug allows for dead bodies to be brought back to life as intelligent zombies, but rot and decay cause these zombies to slowly lose their humanity until they find the act of eating the people and things they love as the ultimate and most romantic pleasure. All of them eventually degrade until they reach a point where they become completely mindless and become a standard zombie, slow, mindless and rotting corpses that want nothing more than to eat flesh.

* In ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'', this is what happens to [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orcs]] under the effect of an Orc Lord's Unique Skill [Starvation]. They become perpetually hungry for ''anything'' they can get their hands on and tear apart with their teeth, [[CannibalismSuperpower along with the chance to gain the traits and abilities of what they eat]]. Interestingly, despite the hunger they can't actually ''die'' from starvation as long as the Orc Lord himself eats. [[spoiler:The current Orc Lord only became one and accepted this skill because otherwise the orc tribes would have perished to the last in a great famine]], and the orcs once freed of its effects are appropriately horrified by what they did to survive.

** In the comics featuring vampires, such as ''ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula'' and ''ComicBook/{{Blade}}'', their hunger controls them. Most don't have enough sense of morality or even former human personality to care, but those that do hang on to their former selves experience this trope in full.

** The zombie superheroes in ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' often refer to the Hunger as something that controls them. After initial infection and transformation they are unable to resist the urge when the hunger fully takes them over, such as the Avengers who were first infected devouring nearby civilians or Spider-Man fighting off the virus until he returned to his flat and ate Mary Jane. Even worse, after they've eaten some of them go back to a degree of normal where they are horrified at what they have done, such as Bruce Banner being basically himself even if the Hulk is always hungry and Spider-Man feeling guilty while full, but they will all revert to type given time. On top of that, since the hunger is purely psychological (such as the Wasp asking to eat something even after being reduced to just a head so that she couldn't possibly derive any sustenance from it) [[spoiler:if the zombies "starve" themselves they can eventually reach a point where they ''stop'' being hungry]].

** In the second ''ComicBook/TheUltimates2015'' series, the entity Logos corrupts Galactus, ramping his hunger for worlds to nightmarish extremes, so much so his mind is utterly lost. [[spoiler:The ultimate end goal is that Galactus' hunger will drive him to eat all existence, as part of the true villain's end-goal. Fortunately, Galactus is cured in quick order... albeit at the cost of his herald's life.]]

* ''Uetora'' ("Hungry Tiger") is a ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' {{doujinshi}} by Zounose, starring Toramaru Shou. Okay, hands up - who else thought that a [[AgainstMyReligion vegetarian]] [[HungryMenace tiger]] {{youkai}} sounded like a bit of a stretch? [[spoiler:Basically, Shou went feral one full moon and started eating Nazrin, and now Mamizou is standing in for Nazrin while the real one recovers from the savaging Shou gave her. The rest of the temple youkai are mixing recently-deceased babies into the soil in the garden to try to take the edge off Shou's hunger.]] Shou herself doesn't realize any of this; all she knows is that the vegetables have been especially tasty lately.

* This trope appears in a variety of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' DarkFic, such as [[https://phantomrose96.tumblr.com/post/45965726594/ghosts-must-dine Ghosts Must Dine]], which popularized this as a FandomSpecificPlot of sorts known as "ghost hunger". Ghost hunger is where for one reason or another, a ghostly character (often Danny himself) has to [[MonstrousCannibalism eat ghosts]], and generally deals with a lot of guilt from doing so. This is typically due to half ghosts dealing with odd biology of some sort which requires them to consume ectoplasm in order to sustain their ghost halves; synthetic ectoplasm may or may not be enough.
* ''Fanfic/KaijuRevolution'': Nearly all of the creatures native to the highly radioactive [[DeathWorld Skull]] [[LostWorld Island]] have adapted to partially metabolize the abundant nuclear energy but for some species, something went wrong when they tried to develop this ability. This resulted in an accelerated metabolism and turned them into what are known as hypervores (many of which are predatory) and they are in a constant state of starvation which results in them gaining heightened aggression to match. Many of them also breed quickly and they must be kept under control by some of the islands other inhabitants or they could potentially decimate the entire ecosystem.

* ''Film/AllCheerleadersDie'': The resurrected cheerleaders can only feed on human blood (and are implied to also be draining their souls) and it quickly becomes apart that they need a ''lot'' of it. Maddy, Martha and Hanna are pretty horrified about it, but Tracy doesn't really care.
* ''{{Film/Bit}}'': Laurel starts to suffer this after becoming a vampire, when she's unwilling to feed on humans (especially not kill them after, as Duke demands). While she tries to simply not feed, it's too much for her.

* ''Film/{{Gamera}}'': The Gyaos are all permanently hungry, and will eat anything in sight to satisfy their appetites. But mostly prefer human flesh above all things.

* ''Film/Lifeforce1985''. When a human was drained of LifeEnergy by a space vampire, it would awaken 2 hours later and have an overwhelming need to drain LifeEnergy from another human once every two hours thereafter. This also occurred with the humans drained by other humans, leading to an epidemic of LifeEnergy draining zombies wandering around.

* In the Japanese horror anthology film School Ghost Stories 3 in the segment "Shokki", a young boy named Shoda has a terrible ravenous appetite. He at first eats an unending supply of food in the school's cafeteria, and during math class, it is shown he has delusional pica. He chews on a pencil, and then a girl takes advantage of Shoda's psychological troubles for fun by showing him a picture of a watermelon slice, making Shoda hallucinate it is an actual watermelon slice. The teacher kicks him out of class and spotting a picture of a steak dinner from a wall display of the student's art drawings, Shoda rips it off to eat it but the picture's artist, Ayumi (played by Aki Maeda), the girl who has a crush on him, defends the drawing and sweetly pleads him to spare it but Shoda out of hunger tries to bite her arm, causing her to run away and get lost in frightening, confusing illusions. Ayumi then sees Shoda going through the garbage to look for food. At the end of the segment, Ayumi hands over a heart-shaped box filled with fresh cookies she baked at home and she dies by fading away. Shoda doesn't lament her death and only proceeds to dig into the cookies.
* ''Film/{{Slither}}'' has the parasite hosts (and the leader of the HiveMind) suffer from massive hunger for meat, to the point where they'll eat ANYTHING, be it dog, cat, horse, sheep, cow, human...

* ''Film/{{Swallow}}'' is centered around the disturbingly real-life mental illness Pica, which causes the protagonist to eat non-edible objects, such as thumb tacks. While pregnant. At one point she goes for an ultrasound, and the doctor's discovery of the objects inside her is played for complete horror.

** When Elfangor morphed a Taxxon in ''The Andalite Chronicles'' he got to experience this hunger firsthand. He then immediately understood why so many Taxxons were willing to give up their freedom to the Yeerks if it meant there was even a chance of alleviating that hunger. His fellow cadet Arbron also suffers this and gets it much worse since [[spoiler:he is forced to stay in Taxxon morph past the two hour limit, making him one ''permanently''.]] Sub-Visser Seven (the future Visser Three) outright refused to occupy a Taxxon host since he didn't want to live with that hunger.

** While pregnant, Io Preecher found herself craving and eating roadkill.

* In ''Literature/TheFolkKeeper'', Corinna has always been able to subsist on very little food, but when she moves to Marblehaugh Park she begins craving fish -- and she hungers for it not merely raw, but still-living. She initially is repulsed by this craving, but eventually learns to accept it along with her other supernatural aspects.
* An intriguing variation occurs in the Zenna Henderson short story "Food to All Flesh": a Catholic priest in a rural parish witnesses a landing spaceship which contains a single, utterly alien occupant which is quickly revealed to be both peaceful and extremely hungry. When the priest deduces that the alien is in the process of giving birth and desperately needs to feed its young, he endeavors to find something the creature can eat, but nothing is palatable. [[spoiler:Until one of the newborn aliens takes a bite out of his arm... and contentedly swallows. The priest says a prayer, closes his eyes and offers himself to the alien, but it in turn packs up its babies, returns to its ship and flies away, presumably to inevitable starvation.]]

* ''Literature/InCryptid'': After [[spoiler:Sarah shoves the cosmic equation into their minds]], the cuckoos' [[MySkullRunnethOver minds are blanked]] and only their body's drive to feed and survive is left.

** When vampires show up in the series, this is the reason they're so rare. Becoming a vampire is the result of an eldritch parasite locking on to your brain due to spellcasting via the performance of complex algorithms; feeding on a human effectively opens them up to this parasite, and the human will die of a neurodegenerative disease in the space of a month. Most vampires meet the sunrise when they realize this. The ones attached to the Laundry are freaked out when they learn the truth, and the only reason they're kept around is because having immortal beings with an affinity for sorcery and necromancy who are resistant to the brain-eating effects of these practices outweighs the moral difficulties, especially with [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN]] approaching.

* In ''Literature/PresidentsVampire'', Cade thirsts for blood and while he can usually sustain on animal's, he always feels the need to drink humans'. It's so strong that at one point he actually runs away from the pool of spilled blood, despite the spiller being the person he was supposed to kill, from fear that he would lose control.

-->'''The Master:''' ''(After scarfing down a burger [[spoiler: and the two people who cooked the burger for him]])'' Want more... Cheese and chips, and meat and gravy, cream and beer, pork and beef and fat, great big chunks of hot ''wet red.''
-->''(After going on this rant, The Master scares the shit out of two homeless men by going on a rant about being stuck looking like the former Prime Minister, and how The Doctor can smell him.)''
-->'''The Master:''' Because it's funny! Don't you see?! ''LOOK AT ME.'' I'M SPLITTING MY SIDES! ''(begins shifting from his human form and [[NightmareFace some blue see-through thing with a VERY visible skeleton]])'' I AM ''HILARIOUS!'' I AM THE FUNNIEST THING IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!
-->''(The two homeless men run to the burger cart to see that the workers there have been '''[[IAmAHumanitarian stripped down to the bone.]]''')''
-->'''The Master:''' '''''[[PreMortemOneLiner DINNERTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!!!!]]'''''

* Juliette experiences this in ''Series/FirstKill''. As a legacy vampire, she must kill someone shortly after her sixteenth birthday as that's when the hunger become strong enough to take over. Juliette is terrified of taking someone's life, but her sister and family as a whole remind her that if she doesn't do it on her terms she'll eventually be forced to feed on the nearest human whether she wants to or not. In the show it's represented by the lights around her turning red and all noises other than nearby pulses fading away. [[spoiler: When Cal begins bleeding from a zombie attack later, Juliette struggles to control herself despite her insistence that she'd never feed on her earlier in the episode.]]

** Two episodes before that, we had a guy who received heat draining powers, with a strong craving for body heat. A ''much'' less sympathetic blend of this trope and a WalkingWasteland -- it's revealed that while he ''can'' use things like fire and artificial sources for his cold condition, he prefers humans, even though the process kills them.

** The Crocotta, Wraiths, Rhakshasa and probably others are monsters who eat humans or part of them (like their soul).

** [[spoiler:Famine can push people's desires to extremes (a couple eats one another alive, a recovering alcoholic drinks himself to death, a cook puts his upper body in a deep fat fryer, etc.) and he himself eat souls]].

* In ''Series/TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth'', an alien species demand that they be given human children. [[spoiler:They use them as drugs.]]

* "The Thousand And Tenth Day Of The Human Totempole" by Music/CaptainBeefheart from his album ''Music/IceCreamForCrow'' depicts a human totempole who is starving to death.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'': Every other monster has a Horror Hunger, which even led to eventual [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]]: "Oh, and it has a taste for human flesh. But what doesn't these days?" Harrowed have a drawback unique to them, Unnatural Appetite, that afflicts them with this in varying severities. At first level, it's gross but harmless; stuff like rotten food and mold. At fifth level, you need stuff like raw human organs (either [[PickyPeopleEater one specific kind]] or in general). Harrowed also need to eat raw meat (human or animal) on a fairly regular basis anyway, to be able to heal themselves.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': An oracle afflicted by the curse of hunger gains no benefit from magic effects that provide sustenance, gains a secondary bite natural attack that deals decent damage and suffers a painful hunger attack at the beginning of every encounter that gives the sickened condition and lasts until the oracle deals damage with their bite attack (ideally to an enemy).

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus sufferers, depending on their strain, need to either constantly drain living metahumans of [[LifeEnergy Essence]] (which counts in-game as an addiction) or eat metahuman flesh for sustenance (which doesn't, beyond how we're all addicted to having to eat). Either way, it usually leads to this, though in theory it's possible for the second type to survive without harming anyone (by eating medical waste and raiding cemeteries). Most sufferers aren't that lucky, however. One group of ghouls in Chicago discovered that, while they tasted disgusting, Insect Spirits were apparently close enough to humans that they could survive by eating them and went into the extermination business.

** The Skaven suffer from the Black Hunger, a ravenous hunger that strikes them after a period of exertion due to their extremely fast metabolism. This causes Skaven to go mad with hunger and try to devour whatever food they can find. It's not uncommon for them to immediately began gorging themselves on the battlefield dead after a fight. Being that food is often scarce in the Under-Empire, this means cannibalism is simply a matter of course, and many slaves meet their end to satiate their betters. It also defines their entire worldview and culture, since the very first thing a Skaven feels upon being born is the gnawing pangs of the Black Hunger, and they will do ''anything'' to stave it off. Unsurprisingly, Skaven pups are very quick to start eating their littermates. In fact, being the sole survivor of a litter because you ''ate all your siblings'' is seen as a sign of future greatness among the ratmen. The Skaven character Throt the Unclean suffers from a particularly extreme version of this, and if he fails a leadership test in play he will uncontrollably snatch the closest unit to himself -- whether a foe, a fellow Skaven, or a colossal war beast -- and completely devour it.

** Blood Angels [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Space Marines]] and their Successor Chapters are [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] compelled by a gene-curse to drink the blood of sapient beings. Resisting the Red Thirst too long results in raging madness until the Thirst is sated by the blood of whoever unfortunate enough to be nearby. Dante, Lord Regent of Imperium Nihilus and Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, swore an oath to abstain from drinking blood after he accidentally killed a group of civilians trying to help him. He has not been entirely successful; among his victims are several of his own battle-brothers and his previous servant.
** Dark Eldar are cursed to have their soul slowly drained by the Chaos God Slaanesh, and must replenish it by feeding on pain and suffering. Doing so rejuvenates them, so a Dark Eldar could theoretically live forever, provided they have access to a steady supply of victims. However, the hunger grows with age, so the oldest Dark Eldar Archons have thousands of slaves sacrificed for them every day, and even that isn't enough to rejuvenate them, but merely keep them alive. This is largely a product of their own lifestyle. Dark Eldar adopting the way of life of their Craftworlder or Exodite cousins (which involves denying themselves of excessive emotion through a strict and regimentalized way of life) don't suffer from the Thirst, while Craftworld outcasts that adopt the Dark Eldar way of life eventually develop it. This makes sense: when trying to avoid the grip of a soul-devouring god of hedonism, [[TooDumbToLive the worst thing you can do is to act like a hedonist]].

** ''TabletopGame/BeastThePrimordial'': The Beasts take this trope to a literal extreme, in that they have a HorrorHunger ''for'' Horror. Beasts are sapient nightmares made mortal, and as such, they have a physical and mental need to feed on fear and despair. The precise flavor of fear they hunger for is one of their defining aspects, whilst the kind of fear they embody is the other. If a Beast doesn't feed often enough, whether due to lack of opportunity or moral compunctions (some Hungers require things like stealing or even killing) their Soul rebels and starts giving the neighbors horrific nightmares so it feeds anyways. Unfortunately, that method has a higher than normal chance of creating Heroes obsessed with slaying Beasts.

** The Ideal Masters are immortal beings who [[WasOnceAMan were once powerful mortal sorcerers]] during the Merethic Era. After finding their mortal forms to be too weak and limiting, they entered Oblivion as [[EnergyBeing beings of pure energy]] and settled an area of "chaotic creatia", forming the [[SpiritWorld Soul Cairn]]. The Ideal Masters are most infamous for their [[YourSoulIsMine trafficking in souls]], especially "Black" sapient souls. All souls trapped in soul gems end up in the Soul Cairn and are considered property of the Ideal Masters. They are desperate to fill the Soul Cairn up with more souls, often [[DealWithTheDevil making deals]] with mortals to give them more. While the Ideal Masters tend not to take physical forms, they can giant soul gem forms within the Soul Cairn, in which they can drain the souls from any mortals who get too close.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has, like its predecessors, a perk called "Cannibal" which allows you to regain health by eating corpses. Normally that's the end of it, but if you are playing on survival mode, where you require regular food and water, you can substitute a corpse for prepared or raw food. This makes finding food much easier while in a dungeon, but there is a catch: Eating a corpse will give the player the "Dark Craving" debuff, which means that rather then passing through increasing stages of hunger you will immediately drop to "very hungry" and normal food ''no longer provides any hunger reduction.'' Dark craving has a chillingly simple description: "Food no longer satisfies".

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter3Tri'' brings in Deviljho and (in ''3 Ultimate'') its Savage variant, whose hunger is so great that if you cut off their tail, they'll start ''eating it''. Their quick time escape event has them eating the hunter and doing the most damage of any similar event. Even other monsters will flee areas where a Deviljho appears because it will kill and eat ''everything'' it can find, depopulating entire ecosystems if not stopped.

* [[InconsistentSpelling Vampyres]] in VideoGame/RuneScape are constantly starving for blood. When they go for too long without feeding they turn [[FeralVampires feral]] and are cast out from vampyric society, with no sign that regaining lucidity is even possible. When it becomes clear that vampyres have become too numerous to feed everyone and that a food crisis is looming on the horizon, Vanescula Drakan usurps her brother as [[VampireMonarch ruler]] of [[{{Uberwald}} Morytania]] and makes plans to invade the neighboring human kingdom of Misthalin, [[NecessarilyEvil seeing it as the lesser evil.]] Her plans are brought to a halt when [[SpannerInTheWorks the player]] is able to create a cure that not only turns human-born vyres back into humans, but also diminishes the true-born vyres' dependency on blood. Though not entirely happy with the results, Vanescula switches gears and agrees to form a truce with Misthalin while ensuring that the true-borns take the cure, willingly or not.
* It's easy to forget in the semi-SugarBowl that is ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' that most of its cast are, in fact, man-eating [[{{youkai}} monsters]]... Really, really {{Cute Monster Girl}}s wearing {{Pimped Out Dress}}es, sure, but man-eating monsters nonetheless. It's a DownplayedTrope since there's an agreement between the youkai and humans of [[FantasyKitchenSink Gensoukyou]] not to kill each other but, guess what? Humans from the outside world that happen to stumble into Gensoukyou ''are fair game''. It's even more-or-less outright stated that people who go "missing" in the outside world are actually abducted by [[RealityWarper Yukari]] [[TheChessmaster Yakumo]] in order for her to feed the inhuman inhabitants of Gensoukyou.

* As noted above under the literature folder, higher vampires in ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' games don't need blood, but the taste is intoxicating and they can become addicted. Amusingly enough, one contract in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' involves hunting a katakan who has developed a taste for ''alcoholic'' human blood, and drawing it out requires Geralt getting drunk. The player can also take advantage of vampires' need to feed with the Black Blood potion, which turns witcher blood into a deadly toxin that will poison any vampire that tries to feed mid-combat.

* The eponymous character of ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate'' can turn into a ravenous monster at the sight of blood. It cost him a girlfriend, and almost caused him to eat his only [[BadassNormal "normal"]] friend's grandmother.

* Sun from ''Webcomic/{{Nebula}}'' has a gradually worsening hunger for the rest of his [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits coworkers/employees/friends]]. It's implied that this is why he's gained a HairTriggerTemper... Though he CannotSpitItOut when he tries to tell Mercury why he thinks he's ill. Given how freaked out everyone his by [[NotHimself his behavior]], it's hard to say whether the explanation would be at all reassuring.

* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'': Noelle, a member of the Travellers, develops an increasingly monstrous appetite for animal flesh after receiving superpowers, her cravings gradually grow as she starts sprouting body parts of various animals. [[spoiler:It is later revealed that Noelle suffered from an eating disorder before receiving her powers. When she tries to starve herself, she loses control to the animal body parts that have sprouted in place of her lower body and ends up eating 40 people. Her power allows her to clone things she touches; when her last hope of a cure is destroyed, she eats people and then regurgitates them regularly in order to avoid digesting them and thus continue cloning them. Her power forcing her to eat massive amounts of animal flesh and regurgitating people, when she was already suffering from an eating disorder, is a sort of wicked irony common with many powers.]]

* Glendale from ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'' is a Kleptomaniac who stores the things she steals a portal she can open on her abdomen. She frequently even steals whole people. This is portrayed similarly to a horror hunger in several episodes. A flashback shows that her compulsion to put things in her tummy hole resulted in her being isolated as a child.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Changelings need to steal love from others to survive. Since they've been on the losing side of their war against Equestria for a very long time, they are all perpetually starving. This doesn't help their attempts to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting infiltrate pony society]], as they hiss and attack whenever they find a food source. [[spoiler:Turns out that they do NOT, in fact, need to steal love to survive. They were being mislead by their queen, Chrysalis, who was convinced stealing love was the only way to feed. When Thorax discovers that he can defeat the hunger by sharing the love as friends instead of stealing it, all the other changelings follow suit, and Chrysalis is forced to flee as she cannot bring herself to abandon her old ways]].

* Cannibalism outside of survival situations or cultural rituals is widely believed to be addictive for a number of overlapping reasons, most of which are connected to psychosis, psychopathy, or [[ConsumingPassion sexual fantasies involving the consumption of human flesh]]. In the last case, at least, acting out these fantasies causes a flood of dopamine in the brain, leading the subject to repeat this behavior to get the rush again. In the former, the transgression of a deeply-held taboo grants a feeling of power over it, leading to cannibalism as a sort of dominance ritual over society.

-->''(After going on this rant, The Master scares the shit out of two homeless men by going on a rant about being stuck looking like the former Prime Minister, and how The Doctor can smell him.)

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]]: The Master's resurrection is sabotaged, forcing him to consume anything from greasy food to PEOPLE in order to keep himself going. ''"Dinnertime!"''

* In "WesternAnimation/MonsterFamily'': Emma's transformation to a vampire makes her hunger for human blood. Twice she comes dangerously close to biting an innocent person, with Dracula interfering just in time by easing her hunger with one of his [[FoodPills blood pills]]. Dracula even warns her that, if given time, her hunger for blood will get so big she will even try to feed on her own family. When Emma betrays him, he uses another pill to make her hungry again and she indeed comes close to biting Frank, but her love for him eventually wins and they kiss instead.

The hunger isn't always for humans ''per se''. At times, it can be for {{Phlebotinum}}, especially if it [[PoweredByAForsakenChild has to be harvested from humans]], like with LiquidAssets or LifeEnergy. Even if it's a hunger for something that doesn't harm humans directly, it can still be extremely dangerous. Perhaps feeding somehow damages [[TheLifestream the environment]], the addictive elements and danger of death are still present, and/or it likely causes WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity.The PhlebotinumMuncher and PsychoSerum addict likely suffer from Horror Hunger regarding their choice substance. If feeding makes them more and more dangerous, they will likely become a SnowballingThreat as their cravings escalate.

* In ''Manga/CallOfTheNight'', while vampires do feel a constant thirst for human blood, [[DownplayedTrope they can keep it in check for the most part.]] However, the longer they go without feeding, the harder it becomes to supress their hunger, until all but [[ResistTheBeast the most strong-willed vampires]] end up becoming [[FeralVampires feral]]. If they can last ten years without feeding, however, they will die.

** An early ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' story features a "famine demon" who causes people to develop an insane hunger -- not just for food and drugs but things they desire like ''clothing and jewelry''. One memorable moment has a bodybuilder suddenly sink his teeth into the biceps he was just admiring; another features an affected priest about to bite into a crucifix. The source of the demon is eventually discovered to be [[spoiler:one of John's old bandmates, who is a drug addict. In order to contain the demon, John and Papa Midnite have to seal him into a wall -- ''alive'']].

-->'''Ax:''' <''I think we are in trouble, Prince Jake.''>
-->'''Jake:''' <''Is it dead?''>
-->'''Ax:''' <''In a matter of speaking. One half of it is consuming the other half.''>

* ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'': While vampires can't starve to death, they ''need'' blood to stay healthy, and going too long without feeding is debilitating. After being chipped, Spike, unable to feed, starts getting sick and is desperate enough for blood that he turns to the Scooby Gang for help, and when Connor traps Angel at the bottom of the ocean, Angel ends up [[SanitySlippage going mad with hunger]] and is suffering from bad dreams and {{hallucinations}} by the time Wesley finally fishes him out. In the present day, Angel's mostly overcome the issue of WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere by drinking animal blood, but flashbacks to his early attempts at living around people show it wasn't always so easy for him to resist humans, and if he's severely weakened or starved, he's liable to grab and start drinking from someone before he even realizes what he's doing.
-->'''Spike:''' You know what happens to vampires who don't get to feed? Living skeletons, mate. Like famine pictures from those dusty countries, only not half as funny.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': The Skaven suffer from the Black Hunger, a ravenous hunger that strikes them after a period of exertion due to their extremely fast metabolism. This causes Skaven to go mad with hunger and try to devour whatever food they can find. It's not uncommon for them to immediately began gorging themselves on the battlefield dead after a fight. Being that food is often scarce in the Under-Empire, this means cannibalism is simply a matter of course, and many slaves meet their end to satiate their betters. It also defines their entire worldview and culture, since the very first thing a Skaven feels upon being born is the gnawing pangs of the Black Hunger, and they will do ''anything'' to stave it off. Unsurprisingly, Skaven pups are very quick to start eating their littermates. In fact, being the sole survivor of a litter because you ''ate all your siblings'' is seen as a sign of future greatness among the ratmen. The Skaven character Throt the Unclean suffers from a particularly extreme version of this, and if he fails a leadership test in play he will uncontrollably snatch the closest unit to himself -- whether a foe, a fellow Skaven, or a colossal war beast -- and completely devour it.

** Blood Angels [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Space Marines]] and their Successor Chapters are [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] compelled by a gene-curse to drink the blood of sapient beings. Resisting the Red Thirst too long results in raging madness until the Thirst is sated by the blood of whoever unfortunate enough to be nearby.
*** Dante, Lord Regent of Imperium Nihilus and Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, swore an oath to abstain from drinking blood after he accidentally killed a group of civilians trying to help him. He has not been entirely successful; among his victims are several of his own battle-brothers and his previous servant.

* Zombies in ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' only have their muscles and mid-brain reactivated by [[TheVirus T-virus]]. The Midbrain governs motor control and the need to breathe, pump blood, and eat. Being that they're also viral carriers, T itself might have something to do with why they're such [[PersonalSpaceInvader personal space invaders]].

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', hunter pets once had a Happiness status relating to hunger. You could make pets ''Happy'' by feeding them, if you didn't feed them they got ''Unhappy'', etc. (This feature was removed in one of the expansion packs.) This was played with in the web original [[InteractiveFiction fanfic/ parody Text Adventure Game]] [[http://www.thelittlestmurloc.com You Awaken In Razor Hill]], in which the protagonist hunter tames an [[MixAndMatchCritters Amphibious Shark]], whose happiness status is described as ''A Pit Of Endless Ravening''. The shark's hunger is so intense that his happiness goes down rapidly and constantly unless he is eating at all times, and even if his happiness is raised to 100% he is still described as ''A Pit Of Endless Ravening''.

* [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Vampyres]] in VideoGame/RuneScape are constantly starving for blood. When they go for too long without feeding they turn [[FeralVampires feral]] and are cast out from vampyric society, with no sign that regaining lucidity is even possible. When it becomes clear that vampyres have become too numerous to feed everyone and that a food crisis is looming on the horizon, Vanescula Drakan usurps her brother as [[VampireMonarch ruler]] of [[{{Uberwald}} Morytania]] and makes plans to invade the neighboring human kingdom of Misthalin, [[NecessarilyEvil seeing it as the lesser evil.]] Her plans are brought to a halt when [[SpannerInTheWorks the player]] is able to create a cure that not only turns human-born vyres back into humans, but also diminishes the true-born vyres' dependency on blood. Though not entirely happy with the results, Vanescula switches gears and agrees to form a truce with Misthalin while ensuring that the true-borns take the cure, willingly or not.

The hunger isn't always for humans or humans ''per se''. At times, it can be for {{Phlebotinum}}, especially if it [[PoweredByAForsakenChild has to be harvested from humans]], like with LiquidAssets or LifeEnergy. Even if it's a hunger for something that doesn't harm humans directly, it can still be extremely dangerous. Perhaps feeding somehow damages [[TheLifestream the environment]], the addictive elements and danger of death are still present, and/or it likely causes WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity.The PhlebotinumMuncher and PsychoSerum addict likely suffer from Horror Hunger regarding their choice substance. If feeding makes them more and more dangerous, they will likely become a SnowballingThreat as their cravings escalate.

The hunger isn't always for humans or humans ''per se''. At times, it can be for {{Phlebotinum}}, especially if it [[PoweredByAForsakenChild has to be harvested from humans]], like with LiquidAssets or LifeEnergy. Even if it's a hunger for something that doesn't harm humans directly, it can still be extremely dangerous. Perhaps feeding somehow damages [[TheLifestream the environment]], the addictive elements and danger of death are still present, and/or it likely causes WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity. The PhlebotinumMuncher and PsychoSerum addict likely suffer from Horror Hunger regarding their choice substance.

-->'''Entry 8:''' "Two weeks. Two weeks have passed since Luktuv locked me in my quarters. Try as I might, I cannot free myself. I cannot breach the doors! If I don't feed soon, I feel I will go mad."\\

** In [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Part 3]], a resurrected Dio resurfaces 100 years later, now having taken Jonathan's body as his own. However, the fusion is imperfect, and he seeks out Joestar blood to attain his full power. Sure enough, after [[spoiler: seemingly]] killing [[spoiler: Joseph]] and drinking his blood, [[PowerHigh he becomes much more powerful and far more unhinged]], ''jabbing his finger right into his own skull'' while laughing maniacally, cackling how ''[[LargeHam Joestar blood is the greatest HIGH!]]''

** In [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Part 3]], a resurrected Dio resurfaces 100 years later, now having taken Jonathan's body as his own. However, the fusion is imperfect, and he seeks out Joestar blood to attain his full power. Sure enough, after [[spoiler: seemingly]] killing [[spoiler: Joseph]] and drinking his blood, he becomes much more powerful and far more unhinged, ''jabbing his finger right into his own skull'' while laughing maniacally, cackling how ''[[PowerHigh Joestar blood is the greatest HIGH!]]''

** In [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Part 3]], a resurrected Dio resurfaces 100 years later, now having taken Jonathan's body as his own. However, the fusion is imperfect, and he seeks out Joestar blood to attain his full power. Sure enough, after [[spoiler: seemingly]] killing [[spoiler: Joseph]] and drinking his blood, he becomes much more powerful and far more unhinged, ''jabbing his finger right into his own skull'' while laughing maniacally, cackling how ''Joestar blood is the greatest HIGH!''

** The various [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent lycanthropes]], [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf]] or otherwise, are magically cursed to hunt down man or mer monthly, if not nightly, or be at the edge of death when the transformation ends in the morning. For some, such as the Circle within the Companions in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', this becomes a [[CannibalismSuperpower Cannibalistic Superpower]]. Consuming humanoid beings they've slain (or at least eating their hearts) allows were-creatures to recover lost health. This particular form of Horror Hunger is due to the lycanthropy being a "gift" provided by the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] Hircine, whose sphere is the hunt.