The Thirst

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.

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.

Plot is about a terminal ill woman's last ditched attempt to keep alive, thanks to a late night visit from a vampiric nurse, only set back being she didn't tell her boyfriend her plans, so when he finds her months later dancing in a seedy nightclub after being supposedly dead, he gets roped into joining her new found vampire family. Then they decide to try kick the vampire urge by going cold turkey.

The "Requiem For A Dream Meets Near Dark" tagline for this was always going to be hard for it to live upto. And sadly though pretty obviously this doesn't come close to either.

But that said its a very entertaining horror film once it picks up, has bucket loads of blood, heaps of throw away laughs and enough twisted off the wall madness to keep even the most hard to please horror fan happy.

Great to see Fireflys Jayne aka Adam Baldwin turn up in a horror movie but even he's outdone by the thin white duke English vampire played by Neil Jackson (Duke is also in The Thirst (2006) by Tom Shell).

Director Jeremy Kasten is slowly but surely rising to the top tier of new American horror genre directors, hopefully this is a sign of things to come specially as his next feature is a remake of HG Lewis's Wizard Of Gore. One I'm sure horrorheads don't want to see messed up.

The Thirst gets a very respectful 7/10 from me, leaving me thirsty for more of the same.

As an artist, I have a great deal of respect for the process of movie making. I realize that for some people involved, this hypothetical movie that I may be watching, even though it may not be to my tastes, may represent their life's work for some involved in the process. I can see how it is the work product of creative people, and I appreciate their efforts, even if not the end product. For this reason I almost never rate a movie lower than a "5".

Then we come to "The Thirst"...... This is a movie that, at the end, makes me want to stand and scream "I WANT MY 2 HOURS BACK!" For the first time (not that it should have been my first perhaps) I sat there as the credits rolled and thought to myself, "that person should be fired by the studio, and that person, and ....." It was brutal. The plot was weak, the camera work was really bad, and the acting was lousy too (in large part to the weak plot). Unless you are conduction a film study or in a class that requires you to see how bad a movie really can be, I would recommend you steer clear of this disaster.

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.