The Thirst

This film had a fair amount of nudity in it (I have nothing against that :) ) and some very bizarre/bloody scenes. If you are rating this movie for plot, acting, special effects, etc, and overall entertainment value amongst mainstream movies, this film is a failure. If you are looking for weirdness, blood, and nudity (almost all female), then perhaps this movie is for you... but even from that perspective it isn't that great.

Plot: C-, Nothing new. There are not really any amazing twists to the story. It's vampires. Most people have seen a vampire movie or two, and this one is not overly unique in terms of plot.

Acting: D+, It's pretty terrible. I think the best acting performance is done by the main female character, and she was nothing that great. The main dude was a bad actor. He got better towards the end of the movie, but a 100% improvement wouldn't even be saying much. Most everyone else was bad. Some of the actors were even annoying. I am not sure if this was the role they were given or their acting skill.

Special effects: C-, The most prominent effect in this movie was obviously the blood. It seems like every 10 minutes it's a bloodbath. To say it looked fake gives a summary of the quality, but specifically, it looked like anytime someone was injured a pipe of red water just exploded and sprayed all over the place. Ridiculous. The other effects in the movie were pretty crappy too.

Character development: D+, There was clearly an attempt at this, as some characters do undergo radical change in this movie, and so one could argue that this movie aspect is better than what I'm indicating. I think the poor acting really killed it for me. A good movie conveys characters in such a way that you understand what they are all about, and you either identify with them or you have some strong opinion about them. In this movie, it's hard to really care.

*BEST aspect of this movie: The nudity, cause not much else was worthwhile.

*WORST aspect of this movie: You don't care about the characters. Their strangeness combined with the bad acting and some other factors prevent you from really identifying with or at least having a strong opinion of the characters.

*OVERALL: I really like vampire movies, and that's why I rented this one, but it was bad. It was annoying in many parts. The characters sucked. The effects were bad. Besides a few redeeming scenes and the aspect I marked as the best movie aspect, it had little to offer.

It's a total "Near Dark" rip-off and some of the elements suffer in comparison to the original and tonally it's kind of scatter-shot, uncontrolled, but very fun and interesting in its own way. One interesting thing is how it takes the drug-addiction metaphor angle-- familiar from "Near Dark" and Abel Ferarra's "The Addiction"-- and runs with it in a really enjoyable, over-the-top way.

It's also very well directed though you can see here and there where the speed and pressure of low budget production led to a few key scenes not being as executed as well as possible. But that's really kind of a quibble.

I recommend it.

I'm something of a connoisseur of vampire movies. Even the bad ones are usually fun to watch. But this one... it just fell flat. Firstly, it's got nothing in it that we haven't already seen in a hundred other vampire movies. Second of all, I found it difficult to identify with or care about either of the main characters at all. They're not particularly interesting, despite several formulaic attempts to give them "depth." The only characters who are even remotely interesting or fun are the so-called "bad guys"--the vampires. Adam Baldwin, playing pretty much the same character he played in Firefly and Serenity; Neil Jackson, with whom I was previously unfamiliar, but marginally impressed; and Jeremy Sisto, who is clearly having a blast in this film, switching back and forth seemingly at random between a Russian accent and a Southern one (which was possibly the best part of the movie). Far from the first movie to have its villains be more engaging than its heroes, of course. But the problem is that the lives and histories of these characters--teeming with potential--are only just barely mentioned or hinted at. This movie could have scored at least another point or two with me if they had told it from the vampires' point of view, rather than the couple.

Fans of Buffy and Angel might want to give this movie a look, as it has no less than three former cast members: Clare Kramer, Adam Baldwin, and Tom Lenk (the other bright spot of the movie--he's hilarious). But anyone who doesn't recognize the names I just mentioned would do best to stay away.

I have to admit that I watched The Thirst because I sort of stumbled up to it, and really like Jeremy Sisto. I think he's a great actor and highly charming. I love him when he gets all psycho, preferably in a realistic subtle but very dark way. Of course there is nothing realistic about vampires, but that doesn't really matter as a good vampire movie drags you in and makes you believe. Unfortunately, this movie just didn't do it for me.

Fair enough, the over-the-top sprays of blood were amusing and quite well done. The whole idea of a girl with cancer who's only way to 'survive' is to become a bloodsucking creature of the night, OK, I can deal with that too, as long as it is well worked out. But that is just the problem, the storyline was just too flat and much more could have been done with it. Then the dilemma of being a vampire but not wanting to kill, I have seen that all before but in a much better way. One of the finest American examples of such a movie is 'Interview with the Vampire', which goes far deeper into the suffering of the protagonist.

Overall, The Thirst had some fun moments but not enough to make me fall for it. Honestly, after about an hour I felt so bored that I even thought about just turning it off. For some people though it might be a good way to spend their evening, but not me. I consider it to be nothing more then a teenage film that bathes in blood. The acting was quite flat, the characters all far too shallow and at times really annoying, and even Jeremy Sisto couldn't lift it up. It's a pity to see such a charming actor in a far too shallow role.

My advice: If you are a teenager and like some over-the-top blood sprays and sexy bodies, and you want a popcorn night on the couch with some friends, then it might be the right movie for you. But if you like a real good vampire movie which goes much more in depth, watch for example 'Interview with the Vampire', 'Bakjwi' or 'Marebito'. The last one is one of the most intriguing vampire movies I have ever seen. And if you just want a lot of mindless fun with loads of blood, but all in a good and really attractive way, then 'From Dusk till Dawn' will definitely pleasure you a lot more then The Thirst.

Sorry to displease the fans, but I just can't give this one more then a 3,5 out of 10.

This film is really awful.

The acting is bad, ... the writing is bad, ... the directing is bad, ... even the cutting/editing is bad. And it does take a lot for a film to be so dismally bad that even as a layman you can literally witness each and every one of the bad editing decisions.

I like vampire films; and I do know that there are some films that can be good even though they are bad.

But this film here has absolutely no redeeming features.

It isn't trashy cult, ... it isn't unintentionally funny, ... nothing of the sort.

--> It is just plain bad.