The Thirst

I love all genres, but horror films have a special place in my darkened heart. I don't know why Starz didn't release this film in theaters, they should have. So many horror movies on the big screen haven't come close to the entertainment factor that THE THIRST provides.

Let me start by saying that anyone who rents or buys this movie expecting a deep thoughtful drama will surly be disappointed. You have to know what you're getting into and appreciate the film for what it is. THE THIRST is a 70's grind-house throwback with over-the-top gore and crazy characters that are much larger than life. Jeremy Sisto as Darius is the perfect example. The is not "Six Feet Under" nor should it be and his performance completely encapsulates the mood that this film is meant to express.

While many of the reviews I have read complain that the plot is thin, I amply disagree. This is a low budget horror movie people! The plot is great... a girl dying from cancer decides to save her life by becoming a vampire. Her boyfriend follows and they discover that "the cure is worse than the disease". Very simple, perfect for the genre. Too much more and we wouldn't be able to get to the fun stuff, which is what this movie is all about!

Clare Kramer is sexy from her first moment on screen. Her acting is superb.

Jeremy Sisto never disappoints and although I wasn't sure what he was doing with his accent, I found him to be funny and scary all at the same time.

My favorite performance was relative newcomer Neil Jackson. He plays the role of Duke and while I wish he had more screen time, his moments were some of the best!

For those of us who like to see body parts ripped off and blood spurting everywhere, this film doesn't disappoint! And the large amount of nudity was much appreciated and didn't feel too forced.

I laughed a lot during this film and even felt scared a few times (could have been more scares for my taste).

Overall, if you like the genre, I think you will like this movie! If you are one of those people who complain about too little character development in a movie that is 75% blood and guts, get over yourself and go rent "Sideways". But if you want a fun, blood-drenched good time, get 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.

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.

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.