Hungry Like the Wolf the door in America for the New Romantic/synth rock crossover." Stewart Mason, also from Allmusic, called "Hungry Like the Wolf" a "spectacular pop single", and "the finest song Duran Duran ever wrote", adding that it was a "much more kinetic and exciting song than earlier flop singles like 'Planet Earth'." In 1982, music video director Russell Mulcahy, who had directed the band's first video "Planet Earth," was brought back to make the music video for "Hungry Like the Wolf" and two other songs for the band's 1983 video album. The band had a vision of jungles and exotic women, and
Hungry Like the Wolf murderer Diane Downs, noted that Downs had been playing the song in her car before she shot her three children. Downs, who maintains that her children were shot by a "bushy-haired stranger" on the road, sang the song's chorus in court while recalling her version of events. This scenario, with the soundtrack was reenacted in the 1989 made-for-TV movie "Small Sacrifices" based on the book of the same name written by Ann Rule. Diane Downs was played by Farrah Fawcett. Rule, who witnessed the court proceedings, says that "Hungry Like the Wolf" gives her "chills" to this day. Three-time BDO