The Thirst
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) is a Catholic priest who volunteers at the hospital, providing ministry to the patients. He is well respected for his unwavering faith and dedicated service, but he secretly suffers from feelings of doubt and sadness. Sang-hyun volunteers to participate in an experiment to find a vaccine for the deadly Emmanuel Virus (EV). Although the experiment fails, and Sang-hyun is infected with the seemingly fatal disease, he makes a complete and rapid recovery after receiving a blood transfusion.
News of his marvelous recovery quickly spreads among the devout parishioners of Sang-hyun’s congregation, and they begin to believe that he has a miraculous gift for healing. Soon, thousands more flock to Sang-Hyun’s services. Among the new churchgoers are Kang-woo (Shin Ha-kyun), Sang-hyun’s childhood friend, and his family. Kang-woo invites his old friend to join the weekly mahjong night at his house, and there, Sang-hyun finds himself attracted to Kang-woo’s wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin). Sang-hyun later relapses into his illness and wakes in dire need of shelter from the sunlight, having become a vampire.
At first, Sang-hyun feels a new-found vigor but soon he is aghast to find himself drinking blood from a comatose patient. After attempting to kill himself, Sang-hyun finds himself irresistibly drawn to human blood. To make matters worse, the symptoms of EV return and only seem to go away when he has drunk blood. Desperately trying to avoid committing a murder, Sang-hyun resorts to stealing blood transfusion packs from the hospital.
Tae-ju, who lives with her ill husband and overprotective mother-in-law, Lady Ra (Kim Hae-sook), leads a dreary life. She is drawn to Sang-hyun and his odd new physicality, including his inability to resist his desires. The two begin an affair, but when Tae-ju discovers the truth about Sang-hyun, she retreats in fear. When Sang-hyun pleads with her to run away with him, she turns him down, suggesting that they kill her husband instead.
When Sang-hyun's superior at the monastery requests some vampire blood so that his eyes may heal and he may see the world before dying, Sang-hyun flees his position at the monastery. He moves into Lady Ra's house so that he may secretly be with Tae-ju. Sang-hyun notices bruises on Tae-ju and assumes her husband is the cause, a suspicion she sheepishly confirms. Sang-hyun decides to kill Kang-woo during a fishing trip with the couple. He pulls Kang-woo into the water and claims that he placed the body inside a cabinet in a house at the bottom of the lake, putting a rock on the body to keep it from floating to the surface.
A police investigation ensues. Lady Ra drinks herself into shock after her son's death, sinking into a completely paralyzed state. In the meantime, Sang-hyun and Tae-ju are haunted by terrifying visions of Kang-woo's bloated corpse. When Tae-ju lets slip that Kang-woo never abused her, Sang-hyun is enraged because he only killed Kang-woo to protect her. Teary-eyed, she asks Sang-hyun to kill her and let her return to her husband. He obliges by snapping her neck, but after feeding on her blood, decides he does not want to be alone forever and feeds her corpse his own blood. She awakens as a vampire. Lady Ra, knocked to the floor by a seizure, witnesses everything.
Tae-ju quickly shows herself to be a remorseless monster, killing indiscriminately to feed, while Sang-hyun acts more conservatively, not killing unless he has to. Their conflicting ethics result in a chase across the rooftops and a short battle. Some time later, Lady Ra manages to communicate to Kang-woo's friends that Sang-hyun and Tae-ju killed her son. Tae-ju quickly disposes of two of the friends, and Sang-hyun appears to eliminate the third. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Sang-hyun tells Tae-ju that they must flee or be caught. Before leaving with her, he makes a visit to the camp of worshipers who consider him the miracle EV survivor. He makes it seem like he tried to rape a girl, leading the campers to chase him away, no longer idolizing him.
Sang-hyun then places Lady Ra in his car, and with Tae-ju, drives into the night. Back at the house, the third friend (having apparently been hidden by Sang-hyun) escapes. Upon waking from a nap in the car, Tae-ju realizes that Sang-hyun has driven to a desolate field with no cover from the imminent dawn. Realizing his plan to have them both burn when dawn breaks, Tae-ju tries to hide but Sang-hyun foils her every attempt. Resigning herself to her fate, she joins him on the car hood, and both are burnt to ash by the sun, as Lady Ra watches from the backseat of the car.

Review: But her boyfriend soon discovers her at a goth club where she has joined a cult of vampires led by Jeremy Sisto.
On top of this all, the case claims it's "Requiem For a Dream" meets "Near Dark" and we should always be aware these sorts of comparisons are never accurate (except with "The Hunt" -- see separate review).In all fairness, this film did have some elements of "Requiem", though I wouldn't say it was quite on that level.
Without being over the top like "Kill Bill", this film has more blood spray than you'll ever see in a movie.
I'd like to spotlight Tom Lenk (another "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" veteran), whose part was much too small in this film -- though he had enough time to make a gay reference about himself, which seems to be a running theme with Lenk.Who picked out the soundtrack?
I now own the DVD, but would gladly purchase the soundtrack so I could listen to this film in my car and be reminded of the great dance club scenes and blood-spraying massacres.Despite hundreds of vampire films flooding the market every year (okay, a slight exaggeration) this one is not derivative but actually offers a good story.
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.
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!.
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.
If you are rating this movie for plot, acting, special effects, etc, and overall entertainment value amongst mainstream movies, this film is a failure.
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.
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.
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.
I have to admit that I watched The Thirst because I sort of stumbled up to it, and really like Jeremy Sisto.
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'.
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..
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.
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.
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).
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).
Wardrobe sucked (although the clothing seemed to magically shed the huge amount of blood that is was constantly being soaked with).If I were a 15 year old Goth-obsessed boy or girl with a confused sense of sexual self, and thought about hurting myself or others, I might have liked this movie.
Director Jeremy Kasten makes a ''pause'' on his normal work as documentaries' editor to bring us The Thirst,his third film,which is a very fun vampire film which has interesting ideas,good performances and a lot of blood.The publicity for this film says ''a mixture between Requiem for a Dream and Near Dark''.The Thirst is not as good as that brilliant films but it has the same themes that films have(addiction and contemporary vampires,respectively).The themes of vampires and addiction appeared on a lot of films(like in The Addiction,directed by the great Abel Ferrara).But The Thirst adds some innovative and ingenious things to the story.The performances are very good from Matt Keeslar to Adam Baldwin without forgetting Jeremy Sisto.Also,the film is pretty gory and I always appreciate that on a horror film.The Thirst is a pretty fun movie which does not only shows blood,but also some interesting ideas..
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, ...
The main character in the film is the blood, but the effects were obviously done as a 10th grade drama class project.
A lot of Vampiric fun with moderate to juicy blood flow and a neat moral in the end.
She is totally hot and turns in a great performance.Eventually, her boyfriend Maxx (Matt Keeslar from "The Middleman") joins her.
First though I had before the movie started, since I knew that it was a vampire film, was: "I hope that this movie is not a remake of the excellent "Thirst"".
The amazing prologue makes it clears that the only link with "Thirst" is that they both are great vampire films and that by the end of the movie I will be covered with blood.
With "The thirst" I found a movie that played with my expectations as much as the filmmakers wanted and surprised me scene after scene.
After that, a death in the family, and after that, enters Jeremy Sisto, and oh man, the movie doesn't give you any rest until the end.
After that, the movie continues playing with your expectations in my favorite scene of the film (spoilers!)Darius (Sisto's character) wants to talk with Max because he thinks that Max is becoming too independent from the family, he starts to become more and more threatening until Max, the newcomer replies him and even scared him in a change of papers unexpected in this kind of movie.
I also want to point your attention to the excellent Neil Jackson, when you first see him it reminds to you like a poor man's version of Paul Bettany but wait until the movie ends he is as good if not better than Bettany.
Thats just some of the luck our lead character is having in the vampire film "The Thirst".This movie tells the tale of a guy who loses his girl to cancer only for her to be reborn as a vampire thanks to some last minute sucking by a female vampire who "admired" his girlfriends dancing.
From there the movie plays out A lot like Near Dark as we meet "The Family" and watch as the main character is taken on a hunt to prove his worth.
The bad thing is it does not reach anywhere near the caliber of film that Near Dark was and for a climax we get an ending similar to Return of the Living Dead 3.There are some good things here, very attractive woman all over the place, geysers of blood and some decent moments here and there but the movie as a whole really tries to be a little too much of everything and not a straight forward horror or horror comedy.
When movies cannot decide what they want to be that tends to get on my bad side as knowing it is to be one or the other you can get yourself in that mindset whereas with movies of this kind it really tends to make for an uneven ride.In the end "The Thirst" is a marginal movie with good ideas at times and others seemingly taken from other movies of its like to make for a ho hum experience.
This movie is what we got after a group of marginally talented people sat around and decided that what the world needed more than anything else was a cheap, dumb and low brow knock off of the cult classic vampire flick "Near Dark".
But at least it appears to understand what it is and doesn't skimp on any of its trashy appeal.Max and Lisa (Matt Keeslar and Claire Kramer) are two ex-junkies who fall in with a coven of dirty and degenerate vampires.
Lisa, even though she's the one who rips out Max's throat to make him a bloodsucker and has no problem having a plasma-drenched threesome with the "mommy" and "daddy" of her vampire family, is fighting the urge to kill to satisfy her thirst.
That leads to a bunch of poorly staged fight scenes and the script forgetting what the term "undead" really means.This isn't a good film.
Jeremy Sisto as head vampire Darius turns his role into an acting exercise, where he sees how many different accents he can use in the course of the film.
The nicest thing I can say about his work is that I hope he was going for a "so bad, it's good" vibe for most of the film.
What I believe is that he just sucks.The soundtrack of The Thirst is aggressively horrible, particularly the first half hour of the movie where it seems like every 6 minutes a different yet equally awful song rises up during some poorly conceived montage.
It just blindly cribs from other gory vampire films without any effort to bring even one new or interesting notion to the mix.If all you want is boobs and blood, there's enough of both in this movie to leave you vaguely satisfied.
the hose like spurts of the pale unrealistic blood only made this movie harder to watch.
The blood spurting wasn't even coming out in double spurts as it would when arteries are severed...Jeremy Sisto's idea to use multiple accents to demonstrate the longevity of his character was just confusing.
I love vampires.Unfortunately Clare Kramer, Jeremy Sisto, Adam Baldwin, and Tom Lenk with all their talents together can't save this Titanic disaster from plunging to the bottom of the ocean of blood used in this gornfest.So save your time.
The Thirst starts as exotic dancer Lisa (Clare Kramer) is taken to hospital after falling ill on stage, she has terminal cancer but hasn't told her boyfriend Maxx (Matt Keesler) although it's not long before he finds out & is slightly annoyed that she didn't tell him.
Lisa manages to convince the head Vampire guy Darius (Jeremy Sisto) to spare Maxx & let him become one of them which he does, however being a bloodsucking Vampire isn't as fun as it sounds...Co-written & directed by Jeremy Kasten this Vampire flick has a fair amount of blood & gore but little else by which to recommend it.
The plot feels pretty bad & unoriginal, it's not any fun to watch apart from some over-the-top gore scenes & it neither interested me or drew me in to the action.
There is also a fair amount of nudity & naked female breasts if that sort of thing interests you although none of the actresses are anything special in the looks department.With a supposed budget of about $2,000,000 The Thirst had a bigger budget than I was expecting & personally I'd have liked to have seen a bit more on screen action for that sort of cash.
The acting isn't anything to write home about & the cast aren't that good looking either.The Thirst is a below average Vampire horror flick, it's OK on a basic level but there's nothing memorable here beside some gory Vampire bite wounds.
Eventually Maxx becomes one of them and the story becomes one of a bizarre metaphor for addiction.The film had plenty of blood.
"The Thirst" is a fairly solid and enjoyable vampire effort.**SPOILERS**After continuously passing out, Lisa Raynerd, (Clare Kramer) finally agrees to tell boyfriend Maxx, (Matt Keesler) that she has cancer instead of a drug problem, and when she succumbs to it, friends Jason, (Erik Palladino) and Macy, (Charlotte Ayana) decide to cheer him up.
As they try to get him acclimated to their lifestyle, he adjusts nicely but she reveals that has disapproved of the trappings of the family and the disease, forcing them on the run to stop them from starting a blood-splattered campaign of violence to feed their addition and end the curse once and for all.The Good News: This had a lot of good stuff going for it that really made it quite enjoyable.
One of the main pluses is the film's large amount of action scenes, which are quite fun.
The last part is where the majority of it comes into play, from the vampires fighting in the living room that soon turns into a fire-starting set-piece is really good and makes for a good time.
The last flaw to the film is the entirely ridiculous-looking blood, which is so fake it's impossible to call it realistic, is way too red and liquid-like, making the liberal use of it all-the-more distracting.
These are the film's flaws.The Final Verdict: With some really good stuff to it mixed in with some flaws, this one manages to become a lot more entertaining than expected and is pretty enjoyable.
After her death, Maxx grows incredibly depressed and his friends attempt to show him a good time, taking him to a goth bar with industrial music, called Dante's Inferno, where he believes to have seen Lisa.
This, of course, will not be the case, as Lisa decides that being a part of a pack planning to attack a group of Christian children when they arrive isn't exactly the right thing to do, convincing Maxx that this whole vampire business is for the birds..they're so devious, the family would feast on a hemophiliac girl in a wheelchair!One thing's for sure, if you are a horror fan looking for plenty of blood-letting, Jeremy Kasten's The Thirst delivers, because gallons are shed in this joker.
The Thirst kind of reminded me of Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark, the idea of a family of ravenous vampires, who travel from city to city, town to town, slaughtering human targets like wolves to sheep.
Maxx (Matt Keeslar) is in love with Lisa (Clare Kramer) but she dies of cancer.
In short time he finds out she's a vampire...and belongs to a "family" who want him too.You've seen all these plots in hundreds of other vampire movies and this adds absolutely nothing new to it.
Good acting by Jeremy Sisto (going WAY over the top) and Kramer can't save this.